We were up at 4am to hike to a good sunrise location (still being on California time makes it easy because with a three-hour time difference, that's around when we'd normally wake up), but there was still some traffic on the highways.
Bright stars.
We parked in the lot for the Halona Blowhole and then walked west along the highway a bit. We tried to walk on the side of the railing opposite traffic, but there were a few points where we had to cross over.
A cruise ship that my camera wouldn't focus on.
A little lizard.
Who needs headlamps when you have a cell phone with a built in flashlight?
A bit of color starting to creep in.
A box. Oh, I bet it's a geocache.
Sure looks like it inside.
After a short, fairly easy hike, we made it to Koko Crater Arch. It's very steep to get on top of the arch, so there is this rope you can climb up.
You can't really get lost because you just hike along the spine of the rock.
However, we wanted to go down inside of the arch, and that was the hardest part; we couldn't figure out exactly how to get off of this ledge. It didn't help that it was still pretty dark out. Eventually we found a spot and crawled down.
And there is the arch.
To get a good picture, though, your camera has to be farther away. It's quite obvious this little path leads to the best location.
Except it's a steep drop off on the other side, and it was really windy, so my selfie-stick tripod kept getting blown over. I tied my hoodie onto it and hung my hoodie over this edge of the rock to prevent it from falling the other way.
And we got a great picture of us in the arch right as the sun came up.
A flower and Ogii.
The sun behind some clouds.
A couple of other people coming up.
Kiss under the arch.
Ogii inside.
It was a bit steep going back to the upper level, and all of the loose gravel didn't help.
Although it wasn't too steep for the most part.
This area was much easier to climb up and down than the area we found, but now we had the advantage of sunlight to see everything.
Other people on top.
Before we begin the hike down...
... I need to reserve our spots for tomorrow. Hanamuma Bay is like Yosemite; the slots open up at 7am and are gone by 7:01am, so had to grab them right then.
A banana peel in a depression used as a foothold. We threw it over the edge so nobody would slip.
Me headed down.
It's a pretty straight line.
A few plants living in the rocky soil.
Lots of seeds inside of these leaves.
It's quite flat here.
A rock inside another rock.
Lava rock.
A little flower.
Me looking through a hole in the rock.
Below was a little Buddha shrine.
Two of them, in fact.
And we're almost back to the highway. A few cars could actually fit in little parking area.
With another shrine.
Back at the blowhole parking. You could only get an OK view of the blowhole from the top, so we hiked down to the beach.
Which was small but nice.
The water flying out of the blowhole.
The little inlet.
A photographer and model down there, too.
At the top left you can see where the parking lot is and where most people watch the blowhole from.
More lava rock.
Climbing back up.
A big cloud; there's always a chance of light rain or even massive showers for a few minutes.
That also means lots of rainbows.
Great mural.
Back at the hotel for breakfast.
Regular and mini waffles.
Ogii bought us these "7 Years" shirts for our anniversary.
The ceiling of the elevator.
Big tree.
We met Ogii's old coworker from LA at a Buddhist temple.
Ogii praying.
A huge koi pond.
A shrine.
A little pool.
Their newsletter. It was a really nice place.
Then we drove up to the Nu‘uanu Pali Lookout; there were clouds in the mountains.
Most parking is free, and when you do have to pay for it, it's still very cheap compared to California. This lot was on the expensive side at $7.
A red-headed bird.
Great view.
Tree with long roots.
Another big tree.
Some banyan trees in the park.
Expensive car dealership.
Cool highrise.
And some others.
And another.
We parked at the Hilton.
A surfboard memorial.
The Hilton is easy to spot from the ocean with this colorful wall.
We wanted to eat mostly authentic, local food, but we were in a tourist area and didn't have much time, so we got stuck with Dairy Queen.
They were out of almost all the food options.
The Hilton lagoon.
Kahanamoku Beach. We were heading for the little pier with the boat.
Very clear water.
The Hilton.
Us.
Throwing up some shaka signs.
We were taking a boat to a submarine. We were supposed to watch this safety video.
But everyone was watching the sea turtles instead.
Looking back towards land.
Another sea turtle.
Here comes the submarine.
And it's up.
Now we just have to get down to it.
Ogii headed down.
The captain. Sure, hang loose, but if you're late for the boat, you miss the submarine, and you can't really get into it once it's underwater.
We picked a time that was more empty.
So we weren't packed in.
Some fish above a structure.
A moray eel peeking out of its hole.
We maxed out around 100 feet down.
A plane.
There are almost no fish in the open ocean; they almost all huddle around structures like this.
A sea turtle.
Monica, who told us to go on the submarine, said it was cold and to bring a hoodie. Well, it wasn't cold overall, but our feet were cold; the air conditioning was really blowing down there.
A sunken ship.
More fish.
A ray.
The thickness of the windows.
On the boat back in to land, we saw some whales.
A duck and her babies at the Hilton.
Another great mural.
And another.
And another.
And another.
A Princess cruise ship.
Cool building.
Huge balconies.
Another mural / wall art.
Very tall mural.
Lots of prior renters had connected their phones to the car.
I hope they all got the floor as sandy as we did.
A rainbow over a tree.
We heard about the Taste of Oahu Night Market at Aloha Stadium just listening to the radio, so we decided to stop by. There were a lot of craft and food vendors.
Texas BBQ.
Big chunks of meat.
Bouncy houses for the kids.
An artist who made hats from palm fronds.
Working on a new one.
Us in our new hats with a rainbow.
Lots of food.
I like the pineapples used as bowls.
Kebabs.
We settled on this sliced meat, and it was delicous.
You never know when a huge gust of wind will come up.
Unfortunately one knocked over all of the headphones at the silent disco.
Most vendors had heavy weights to hold down their canopies.
Some were funny.
Hand-carved bone jewelry.
The artist.
I bought a turtle necklace.
Ogii with a drink.
The we sat and listened to the band for a while.
They played mostly 70s and 80s hits.
A lot of people started to filter in as it got later.
Ogii by another rainbow.
Various demonstrations at this table.
We wandered over to the Aloha Stadium.
Making a heart out of our hands.
I spent nearly $300 on the hand-carved bone necklace. Back at the store in the hotel, there were coco bracelets for $1. Although they don't look quite as nice.
A video of our second day.