Where the sand is soft and warm and hangs upon your golden arm...

Jesse Harris - The Secret Sun

Okay, so Hawaii was great, but D is still not convinced that we should move there. I'm not really surprised, as there were quite a few problems on the island that I had not suspected; guess I should have joined D in watching Dog, The Bounty Hunter a few times.
I finally decided to do another post about our trip as requested. It's a bit delayed, because I actually got jetlag for the first time plus I seemed to pick up a head cold on the flights home. And, well, I've been lazy.

Sunday we drove up the East side of the island and the views were amazing. We started out at Diamond Head and hiked up to the top of the crater. That was really cool, but very crowded. We took a ton of pictures, but the memory card for that camera later failed (we've been able to recover some of the pics, but the quality stinks.) It was pretty exhausting, but I would still recommend it to anyone headed out there.
Next we drove along the Kalanianaole HWY to Hanauma Bay. Somehow, in my research for the trip Hanauma Bay had fallen off my radar, so I was really surprised when we looked out over it how beautiful it was. I could've stayed all day there, but didn't want to miss out on the other things we wanted to see that day.
We then continued to drive along the coast and saw a whale at a lookout just past Hanuama Bay. This was definitely a first for me. Unfortunately, this area was right next to a firing range, so the pleasantness was a little diminished by the sound of constant gunfire.
Next we went to Makapu'u Beach, and again we were greeted by by breathtaking beauty (and some intense wind.) The beach looks out over several small islands. The water is very blue. I took a ton of pictures and annoyed D.
We actually had spent so much time at the different areas, that we only made short stops the rest of the way up the East side of the island and decided to come back on other days.
We arrived at Turtle Bay Resort just as a PGA tournament was finished and lucked out. Our room was not ready, so they upgraded us to a cottage. I was just disappointed that we were only staying for one night.
That night we ate at Haleiwa Joe's, which we both felt was a little over priced for the type of food they served and the service that was provided.
Monday through Thursday I worked the majority of the days, but D really explored the island. He did some really major hikes up onto quite a few of the peaks, and explored quite a bit. His goal was to find the best places to take me for our last few days there. I'm still a little jealous that he was able to see so much, but I love that he really kept in mind what I would like so I could see it later. On Wednesday evening we did have enough time after work to drive around a bit before sunset and we lucked out and happened across the others village from LOST (Camp Erdman). D did not think it actually was the others village, and honestly we may not have even noticed it except for the extremely cute feral pigs that were hanging out nearby.

eeep... It's much later than I thought, I will have to continue this tomorrow.