Hawaii 2026 - Diamond Head

Happy Father’s Day!  Wide awake at 4:45 AM.  We gave up on sleep.  Breakfast was a fun mix of papaya, coffee, muffins, and mochi.  The mochi was the star of the meal.  Hans bought some made-in-Hawaii melon and mango mochi at Don Quixote last night and quite honestly they ruined mochi for me because I fear that I won’t be able to find any of the same quality and flavor ever again. Prove me wrong!

This may be the most chaotic breakfast ever - guava muffins, fresh papaya, and melon and mango mochi

Hans went to the nearby Asian grocery store and brought back some SPAM musubi to eat. This was the perfect pre-hike snack.

I hailed a ride-share car and we went to Diamond Head State Monument for the 0.8-mile (one-way) crater hike.  Even though the difficulty level of this 500-foot elevation gain hike could be rated as easy to moderate, the heat and sun exposure factor could bring it up to a strenuous rating for some.  The views are totally worth it!

Mid-day was spent relaxing in the room or by the pool.

It begins!  At late-morning it was getting pretty toasty inside of the crater.

Mid-way up view to the north

The trail takes hikers into one of the old look-out bunkers and down a very tight metal spiral staircase



It was uncomfortably crowded most of the time

At the end of the hike we cooled off in the shade near the water fountains 
and Hans took photos of native birds

Okonomiyaki fries, POG mimosa, and a meaaaaan mai tai

The hotel is a relatively new refurbished Brutalist-era hotel three blocks off of the beach in Waikiki

Unfortunately, I was one cocktail and appetizer too many by the time we went to Maui Brewing for dinner, so I was not feeling well in the evening.  Hans got their Kalua-style pork sandwich with guava BBQ sauce, an enormous and delicious meal.  My seared ahi salad was very fresh and came with interesting other ingredients like goat cheese that had sesame seeds and nori flakes mixed in.  My favorite beer sample was the pineapple wheat ale.

Hawaii 2026 - Hanauma Bay State Park

 

Why bother with setting a wake-up alarm when your body is wide awake at 4:30 am?

This South African iris was in someone's downtown garden.  The plants here are truly beautiful.

Our 7 AM shuttle picked us up in front of the nearby Ross Dress for Less and we were on the beach at Hanauma Bay 90 minutes later.  We were very grateful for the umbrella rentals so that we could have some relief during breaks from the water.

Hanauma Bay State Park is a protected coral reef beach inside of an old volcanic crater.  This site has been famous for it's snorkeling and swimming - too famous - for many decades.  Leading up to the year 2020 the park was becoming known for overcrowding and overuse of the natural landscape.  The Pandemic shutdown allowed for Hawaii to re-evaluate the park's management and today it is restricted to 1,000 non-resident visitors a day.  This means that non-residents have to reserve a spot in advance and watch a mandatory wildlife rules/awareness video before being allowed into the park.  The wildlife even get a "weekend" in that the park is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays!

This was the best snorkeling experience I’ve ever had in my life!  The water was extremely comfortable and the natural coral wave breaks meant that the water was crystal clear and calm. A lot of the fish were quite curious and bold – one even bit me when I tried to stand on the sandy bottom!  Once your eyes began to really look at the coral you could see that there were sea urchins tucked inside the little hollow areas everywhere.  As long as you didn’t stick your hand down in one you were safe from stings.

A monk seal decided to grace everyone with its presence later in the morning.  The lifeguards cordoned off the sleeping beastie with orange cones to keep people at a respectful distance, however a few people still had to be verbally reprimanded for trying to get too close.

At the bottom of this post are a buncha photos from this excursion.  There's also a video compilation on YouTube:

When it was time to pack up for our return shuttle we hiked up to a nice viewpoint in the park and then took a break in the shade under some very large trees.  The resident red-crested cardinals and zebra doves were really begging for some of my Maui onion potato chips.

Back at the hotel, showers felt really great.  For the rest of the afternoon we did some wandering and shopping.  Hans wanted to check out the Kahala store, where we had a really fun conversation with one of the employees.  We left with some new duds and O’ahu north shore restaurant recommendations.

Trying to kill time before dinner, we took an Uber to the Don Quixote store and got lost in all of the Japanese fun that is a Don Quixote.  By this point we were within walking distance of the Ala Moana mall so I purchased a lilikoi/coconut fragrance from a local beauty products store.

We were quite far away from the hotel and suffering from tired feet.  Luckily the W bus showed up as soon as we left the mall and so the air-conditioned chariot got us back to Waikiki quickly.

Our 7:45 dinner reservation could not come soon enough, as we hadn’t eaten lunch and our morning had consisted of many hours of swimming.

Tiki’s Grill and Bar was very busy and very loud.  It was too bad because the service and food were both excellent.  The drinks were...okay...but we left (each) with a fun souvenir tiki mug.  Once I had filled up with delicious pasta, coconut shrimp, and alcohol, I was truly dead on my feet.  This had been a very fun day but the half-mile walk back to the hotel was dreadful.  Crashed, hard, into bed.

 

On the left is a Reef Triggerfish, on the right is a Lei Triggerfish.
It's easy to get them confused, but only the Reef Triggerfish is Hawaii's official state fish, 
also known as "humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa"

  

 

Back at the hotel we had a round of happy hour passionfruit/lime rum slushies

Hawaii 2026 - Day One in Waikiki

Awake at 4 AM.  Haha.  At sunrise we walked down to the beautiful beach and over to the Sunrise Shack (appropriate), where we had the most delicious papaya breakfast bowls with banana, blueberries, peanut butter, honey, goji berries, homemade granola, and coconut flakes.  Oh my God.  Plus some mini ube flavored donuts – they were awesome!

We stopped at a few convenience stores for supplies and then I hung out at the hotel pool while Hans ran a few errands.

I spent many hours down here with a book and a drink

The rest of the day was a bit of here, there, and everywhere in Waikiki.  A city bus took us a couple of miles northeast to a neighborhood with shops and restaurants.  We had an excellent lunch of udon noodles at a small place (Udon Gama-Dashi) that made us feel like were right back in Japan (in terms of quality and price).  Our next stop was at the well-known Leonard’s Bakery, for their famous malasadas, a Portuguese filled doughnut.  We tried their macadamia nut and guava filled ones and they were incredible!  Hans spied some house-made guava muffins and we purchased a couple to have the next morning.  After a sad stop at Safeway (I was very disappointed in their cut fruit selection) we walked to Snorkel Bob’s swim shop.

Tomorrow we are going to a premier snorkeling location and it’s far cheaper to rent equipment here in town rather than on-site at Hanauma Bay.  We found out that renting here was actually really helpful for Hans because Snorkel Bob’s also has prescription lens inserts for their snorkel masks.  The employee at the shop was so kind and helpful for getting Hans situated with a good mask and appropriate lenses.

Diamond Head - I was blown away by how clear the skies were from downtown

When we were done with these errands we took the bus back to Waikiki and dropped our stuff at the hotel.  For the rest of the afternoon Hans relaxed in the room while watching some World Cup matches while I enjoyed the pool area, but not the “pool party”.  The hotel staff were serving passed appetizers and a DJ was providing the atmosphere.  As the afternoon wore on it felt like the musical selections were being chosen for the express purpose of driving everyone away, aggressively.

Maybe I’m just getting old.

For dinner we walked quite a way to Maguro Brothers Poke, which was good but underwhelming to me.  I did not realize that their style is very much Japanese, which is very very fresh seafood but it is prepared in a very simple manner.  I’m looking forward to some Hawaiian-style poke with a bit more panache.

I was pretty exhausted by the time we were finished eating but I requested a stop at Waikiki Beach since the sun was setting.  The sky was absolutely beautiful and it made me understand why so many people come here for their “paradise” experience.

At dark it became apparent that the Hilton Hotel was for some reason not doing their usual 8 pm Friday fireworks show.  The shoreline began to empty but if you observed the southern horizon you could easily see Alpha Centauri and the Southern Cross despite the urban light pollution.  I’m quite the star nerd these days.  It was another exhausted return to bed later.