Our Last Day in Oahu

Our last day in Oahu we spent

"on a little hike"

(yeah, right...)

OK...let me start off by saying,

I am not athletic...at all.

We, however, were traveling with 3 marathon runners...

and my best friend who told me this was the worst hike of her life...

EVER!

But we took on the challenge anyway...

Here'a a quick shot of the entire travel group...

from left to right...

Scott, Jackson, Leisa, Me, Joy, Michele, Kerri, Tami,

Bobby, Joan, Rick and Austin.

We snapped a quick picture with the crater of death behind us...

and we were off...

So, everything we had read about Diamond Head made it sound like

no big deal.  There were a few blurbs about a set of pretty steep steps

but other than that, it didn't sound that bad...

And then I saw this sign...which used words like

"Strenuous and Challenging"

and

"Not a CASUAL STROLL"

Say what?

Joy, who suffers from a pinched nerve in her back and had

already been told by her doctor to NOT do some of the activities we 

had planned, decided early on that she would not make the climb.

The little path that you were sharing with others who were coming 

off the mountain was uneven and oh yeah...dirt and uneven rock!

Austin woke up that morning not feeling very well either,

so he stayed back and kept Joy company while we hiked up to the top.

On one of the little stopping points, on the way up, I snapped

this picture...wondering why on earth I had agreed to do this.

Almost to the top!  We had just finished one flight of death in the 

form of stairs and were taking a breather.  You can kind of see the outline of the crater.

The building down below is where Joy and Austin are waiting for us...

(wishing I was there, wishing I was there)

We skipped the second flight of STRAIGHT UP death stairs for

the little bit longer but not as steep set of stairs.

You can see Jackson and his little orange shorts running up to the top.

He was a trooper!!  He pretty much climbed the entire way without asking to

be carried.  He would start to whine and Tammy would say,

"Come on, let's go..."

and he was on his way!

Kerri had run on ahead of us...literally...stinkin' marathon runners...

and was waiting  for us to finally get ourselves to the top.

You can also see that Jackson finally sweet talked Tami into a quick piggy back

ride...which she is used to...another marathon runner...and she has also 

hiked 13 miles down into the Grand Canyon carrying a 40 pound back pack...

yeah, whatever!

Once we got to the top, the views were amazing and 

all of the wind-sucking that was done on the way up,

went away and it was nice to take it all in.

The view of Honolulu and Waikiki Beach.

A quick snap of us all on the top!

We made it!

And now, we have to go back down...the same way we came up...

which was not very easy.

Remember...small path...uneven, rocky...

but we were going down!

In case you have not noticed... Tami was Jackson's favorite 

on this day.  He wanted to be right by her side, every step of the way

and when she would offer a fun Piggy Back ride...

he was all in!

We made it back down and we were all starving.

We kept thinking that it must be time for lunch, but it was only about 

9:30am.  We had left out early that morning to try and avoid hiking in the heat of

the day.  So, we decided to try and find a good place for breakfast.

There are not a lot of "chain" fast food restaurants in Hawaii,

 so we all pulled out our handy dandy little smart phones

 and tried to find a great "local" pancake house 

and boy did we find it!

This place was GREAT!

We all got such a wide range of things to eat as well.

I had a great Omelet and Kerri had some amazing Banana pancakes

and let me tell you about the syrup...

OH MY!

There was regular syrup...

and there was Coconut syrup...

but the Orange Syrup was

TO DIE FOR!!!

Sooooo yummy!

Some of the group ordered home made burgers

and Austin said that it was the best burger he has ever had!

So, in the end...we didn't die from the hike and ended the morning 

with a great meal...

Time to get packed up,

we've got another island to hop to!