June 22, 2009

We woke up around 7:30am and my uncle dropped us off at Diamond Head. A lot of tourists go here, but the views are worth it. Winding up the inside of the crater, the path is a mixture of sidewalk, rocky stretches and stairs. There are parts where you actually climb through old military bunkers. We stopped several places along the trail to take pictures of the scenery; beautiful views of the mountains. Once we got to the top, there's an overlook area and you can see about half of the island. The weather was perfect for seeing the views.

We headed back down to the bottom, inside the crater. After filling up our water bottles, we headed out of Diamond Head crater and started our walk toward Waikiki. We passed by Diamond Cove Health Bar and stopped for some fresh fruit and vegetable juice. After our pit stop, we continued walking. We passed by Kapiolani Park, a nice little tree/flower garden, and the Honolulu Zoo. We stopped at Teddy's Bigger Burgers for lunch, then walked out on the Waikiki Pier to watch the surfers. It's crazy how crowded Waikiki is... less than a mile in either direction the beaches aren't crowded at all.

Anyway, we walked west along the beach toward Ala Moana Beach. We must have walked a total of 4 or 5 miles, including the hike. We did some swimming and sunning at Ala Moana, then went to the mall for a snack. There's finally a Jamba Juice here, and they have these fruit, yogurt, granola bowls. So we each have one of those, very refreshing after the walking and the beach. We also got some mochi (chewy rice cake); Matt really like the chocolate peanut butter ones, but I also got a few of the more traditional type filled with azuki beans (sweetened japanese red beans). Then we walked around the mall while we waited for my aunt to be done with work and pick us up. We went into Shirokiya, a Japanese store.. they have everything from clothes and nice dishes to pasteries. Matt got a chocolate banana flavored mochi ice cream (mochi filled with ice cream).

When we got back home, grandma already had dinner made.. long rice noodles, chicken, chinese cabbage.. she's such a good cook. She thought we would be coming home earlier, so she had also made somen (rice noodles) and a shitake mushroom & seaweed both. Anyway, we ate dinner and passed out pretty early, exhausted from all the walking.

June 23, 2009

This day was a very lazy day. We woke up around 8, ate breakfast- papaya, leftover chicken and steak from Sunday's Father's Day dinner. Then I did some laundry, while Matt passed out on the couch with one of the dogs. Then I took a short nap since Matt was still sleeping. We had the somen and soup my grandma made the day before for lunch. In the afternoon we borrowed my uncle's car and went to Ala Moana Beach for a couple hours. Threw the frisbee, got in trouble for throwing on the beach... the grass and water are ok, but not the sand... Then we came home, showered and met my mom and brother at the car rental place. Matt signed on so he can drive the car too. We headed back to the house and had a big spaghetti dinner with all the family members. Dinner was amazing, so were the desserts. Coco puffs, haupia (coconut pudding) cake, mmm!

June 24, 2009

So today my mom had to go to the dentist, emergency appointment.. She dropped us off at the beach before her appointment. It was low tide, so a lot more of the reef was exposed. Matt and I swam out to the reef and watched the surfers. He says he saw a baby shark, I didn't see it but I'm glad I didn't. I'd be afraid to swim out there again. After my mom picked us up, we headed to Chinatown to find something for lunch. We walked around, checking out the produce and taking in the atmosphere. We ended up eating at a Vietnamese place for lunch; Matt had spicy lemon grass chicken, I had wonton soup with saimin (like ramen noodles), and mom and Tyler had veggies with vermicelli (rice noodles). We got some pho- Vietnamese beef soup- for grandma.

Now it's about 4:40 pm.. Not sure what we're doing this evening, but we need to do some packing. We're going to Kauai tomorrow for 4 days. Not sure if we'll have internet access at our vacation rental.

Check out the slideshow below of our Diamond Head pictures. I'm not html savvy like Matt is..