DATE: Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Today has had a “I just kinda want to go home now” vibe to it. It has for me anyway. I think that 2 weeks on a vacation might just be a bit too long. This morning, as has been my ritual, I went down to the 6th floor outdoor area, at the condominium building we’re staying at, to watch the sun rise. It was… meh. I invited everyone down to join me if they were up. Most of them slept in, but Eli joined me.

We left the AirBnB and headed to the airport to have them store some of our luggage instead of using up valuable passenger space in our vehicle during our last bit of traveling around the island.

Today was the Diamondhead hike! I’d been simultaneously excited about and dreading this hike. If you’ve ever done it, you know what I mean. The hike is up the inside of the basin wall of the volcano known as Lē’ahi to the Hawaiians. The crest of the hike has a number of pillbox structures, which I believe were used as lookouts and the island’s defense during WW2. To reach this pentacle, it’s literally an uphill climb, starting on a sidewalk, then a set up switchbacks, then a series of stairs. I’m sure this isn’t an official count, but I counted 213 stairs in all. (Due to the difficulty of this hike, Sonya stayed behind with Vivian who would have never made it.) In the end, it’s very worth the effort to see the panoramic view of Honolulu, Waikiki, and the southern part of the island.

The Diamondhead hike didn’t take as long as we thought it would, which left us with quite a bit of time before we had to head to the airport. We decided to take a drive west toward Waianae and Ka’ena Point. We hadn’t seen this part of the island yet. From Honolulu, we take interstate H1 west to where it ends into Farrington Highway and continue west. This takes you along the south shore, which is an absolutely beautiful drive!

For no particular reason at all, we chose to eat at A&G Bar & Grill in Nānākuli. Sonya, Savannah, and I had more kalua pork, thinking about how delicious it was at the luau. Our waitress told us to be patient with them as her 82 year old grandmother was at the grill today. Wow!

After lunch, we were all a little sleepy. We continued our drive west and eventually ended up at Keawaula Beach at the end of Farrington Highway. We spread out some blankets and relaxed a bit. I reminisced about when we would take our mountain bikes up to the satellite tracking station (formerly owned by the Air Force and now owned by the Space Force), ride down trails and switchbacks on the north face of the mountain and ride around the point to where we’d parked.

The afternoon was an entertaining one. After the Diamondhead hike, those of us who went on the hike were kinda sweaty. Although we’d cooled down in the vehicle, we still had some funk we’d like to get off before flying back tonight. So we spotted what we thought was a shower house at one of the Waianae area beaches. So we headed there in hopes of showering and keep moving. It turned out not being a shower house.

Now what? Head back to the AirBnB in Honolulu? There were showers on the 6th floor outdoor area. We’d already checked out, so hopefully, that wouldn’t be a problem. Long drive. Lots of rush hour traffic. But okay, we had time. Sonya dropped those who wanted to shower off, and we went in. Turned out that the showers on the 6th floor were outdoor showers. Um, nope.

At that point we realized that the possibility of taking a shower was slim. So we just changed into our clean clothes and hoped for the best on the flight. Car return was smooth. Check in was smooth. TSA was smooth, no dings. Our flight tonight is at 10:47, the red-eye to LAX.