Monday, April 05, 2010

I need more exercise..

We were bored yesterday (collective we), so we all headed up Diamond Head.


Check our..er...lush Hawaiian flora??


The view off the first lookout...looking Windward, aka, toward the Windward side, aka, East.



After the first lookout, we walk a little further, up a set of stairs, through a small tunnel, and then have a small heart attack when we come out of it, huffing and puffing, and realize THIS is the REAL set of stairs.



When I reached the top of the stairs, I had to snap proof of the torture. :p



Cautionary note for the claustrophobes thinking they might like this hike: this blurry shot is half way through the 580 foot tunnel, before the bend, and that shadow at the end is a lady having a panic attack at the thought of having to walk through the mountain to continue the hike. I think she was on the verge of barfing.



After the tunnel, we are inside a bunker system, squeezing up this spiral staircase one by one (keep in mind, Diamond Head used to be a major defense fort, with cannons and all!)



Of course, this makes it worth the trouble...what a view, huh? You can even see the horizon curving by now.



And it's even better when there are four whales down there, breaching, tail slapping, blowing, etc..if you squint, and peer at my flashy star, you can see one flipper sticking out. :p Those other white smears of whitewash are from a couple of the other ones, but they weren't being quite as crazily active as the one I managed to snap.



Finally making it all the way to the lookout at the top..if you look leeward, to the right, to the West, you can see the famous Waikiki beach. Which the tourists love. And any right thinking local avoids like the plague. It's also what it looks like when it is RAINING. Which it kept doing, and ruining my shots of Beautiful, Sunny Hawaii. Though it sure was a relief over having burning afternoon sun, I tell ya.



What the tourbooks don't usually show in that view is the military bunkers just over a little, a remnant from Pearl Harbor. This Island has a lot of reminders scattered around like that. Slightly creepy, imo.



After we practically ran down the mountain again, we were going to go swimming on the beach. It wasn't very nice, though (okay, maybe we are spoiled, with the awesome beaches we are used to), so we headed off and got some cold treats, instead. :p The pic came out nice, though.

We are busy plotting our next adventure. I am hoping it's far off enough to get in a little better shape. Cause I was PUFFED!! :p

(Love the new Blogger option of burning through my pic allowance faster and reach paying status sooner, with X-Large pics!! :D )

(Update: Dangit, my template isn't even WIDE enough to handle the big pics. If you are really interested, you can click to see them in their proper size and shape, without random cropping. And don't be surprised if my blog is gone or a jumbled mess tomorrow..I am off to play with template settings..always a bad idea. :p )

(Update 2: Whoop! I did it! I think! Let me know if everything looks truly bizarre! :D )

10 comments:

Liesl said...

I am hyperventilating just thinking about that tunnel. Beautiful views and pictures though!

Little Miss Flossy said...

Great photos! Lovin the chance to 'visit' with you at your place. Beautiful despite the weather :-)

Jodie said...

oooh that tunnel....

But the view is so beautiful and the colours of the water are gorgeous.

elenor said...

Beautiful pictures!
I enjoyed studying your nice tutorials and learning a lot from them. Thank you for sharing.
Greetings from Austria!

Jill Ison said...

oh man that looks like my kind of fun! the pic with the sun glintingoff the water and the sailboat in the distance... ahh perfection. We didn't visit Waikiki beach when we were there. but we did drive through that area briefly to find some bakery we heard was awesome. anyway if you want a wider blog you dont have to change templates. I can send you a link that will take you step by step on how to do it if you want. also i just noticed there was a pic allowance on blogger but i also noticed that its what ever you upload using their uploader because it goes into a picasa album and well I always upload to photobucket then upload it through direct link. dont mark my words but i dont think it counts against me. ( all those pics dont show up in my picasa album) or cant you resize you images so they arent so huge? i dunno. i hate paying for things is all. just trying to help.

baby cribs said...

Me, too! I think I need some exercising to do. I feel I am getting heavy!

M Plamondon said...

Wow wow wow!! So spoiled!! I could definitely use that beach right now.

Liz said...

I'm tired just reading! I agree with you that the whales would have made it so worth the climb.

corine said...

It is my dream to see a whale. I don;t know it hasn't happened yet. In Hawaii or LA i keep staring at the horizon, but I'm too afraid to take a boat and get close.

I love seeing your pictures. I want to be where you are.

Anonymous said...

Whoa, those really are fantastic views.

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