Photo Tour & Diamond Head

Mom and I took a photo tour of the island from 5:40 a.m. until almost noon. It was too long. We did get a ton of cool shots, though.

Waiting on the sun to come up

Mom waiting on her shot

There it is!

It was MacKenzie's birthday and there was an abandoned
 tennis ball on the beach. It was too perfect.

A Monk Seal!!!

Rabbit Island 

Some bay.

Rabbit Island again

A deserted beach 

It was a gorgeous place. 

A mountain wall 

Rainforest. Not pictured? Mosquitos.

A neat tree

A small waterfall

We finally finished up the tour and I met up with Jackson. We went standup paddle boarding on Waikiki Beach. I forgot to GoPro but to picture how it went imagine me standing and Jackson falling off. Got it? Ok, repeat for an hour and you're all set. We did get to see a sea turtle swimming and all kinds of fish, too. It was an awesome place to paddle/fall. Let the record show that I did not fall a single time. I did wear the option life vest, though, just in case! :)

From there we got changed and headed out to climb the Diamond Head Crater. We wanted to save a couple of dollars so we parked near the bottom and walked in. That's $3 saved the easy hard way!

The view as you climb the 506 feet to the top

Ahhh Hawaii

I got 99 problems and these stairs are all of 'em ;)

Oh cool, more stairs

Lighthouse down below

Looks like we made it!

A shot down to where we paddle boarded an hour ago

Successful Petefish

The view was just so ugly

A shot of downtown

Only a few people live around here ;) 

Jackson in the tunnel
(it was dark that my flash nearly blinded us both) 

Diamond Head is a whacky hike with a paved walkway to start, rocks and mud in the middle, STAIRS and tunnels. We made it, though. And enjoyed ourselves. We got up it very quickly so we were pleased. We did marvel at the many Japanese women in dresses, hats and high heels who had also summited. We don't understand that ankle breaking part of their culture. 

Once we got cleaned up we met the whole family for dinner at a Mongolian BBQ venue outside of out hotel. It was SO good. Expensive, but SO good. 

Our dinner being cooked

We got to see Aunt Fe, my cousins Holly & Kimberly, Holly's two sons, Blaise and Hunter, and Kimberly's daughter, Kylie. We also got to meet Kimberly's boyfriend, Kyle. It was a family affair! There were a ton of us! After dinner the hotel next-door put on a fireworks show that was random and awesome. We sat on the beach to enjoy it.

Fireworks over the water? Awesome!

My Mother decided to use a form of child abuse known as "force you to take a photo with your gorgeous cousins." It was mean, but whatever. 

I mean really. They're gorgeous girls! 

Shortly after fireworks we were ready to pass out. It was not even 9 p.m. local time. We just cannot quite adjust to normal hours here. We're not sure what Saturday will bring so stay tuned.