Hawaii - Day 5

After the long day yesterday, Sandra had planned for today to be a fairly light recovery day.  We let the kids play for a bit in the early morning, while Grandma and Grandpa headed out to explore Honolulu.  Later in the morning, we took the kids to the market, where I bought a hat and we bought towels for the beach.  We then headed to the beach for the rest of the morning.  The older kids played in the water while Bradley fell asleep in Sandra’s arms.

We returned to the hotel for lunch, after which Alexander and I headed out to hike up to the top of Diamond Head.  He had expressed interest in the hike and this was a great opportunity, as we could go out while the other kids had a nap.  We walked to a bus stop, took the bus to the entrance and then hiked into the park, which takes a bit of time as the park is in the middle of the crater and the bus stop is outside the crater.  You walk through a very narrow tunnel, so that you don’t have to hike up and down too much, until you begin the actual hike.

We entered the park, stopped for some sunscreen and then headed up the hill.  The first part is paved and not too steep, but it quickly turns to nothing but rocks and a whole bunch of stairs.  After the first hike up 70 or so stairs, you come out at a ledge where there is a staircase that seems to rise up forever.  After that, you are at the top and can see out over all of Honolulu.  If the weather permits, you can even see Maui and the other islands near it, but it was too foggy out off the coast for us to see any land.

Xander did great on the hike and did not complain at all, though he asked to stop and rest after the stairs.  He did drink an entire bottle of water on the way up and he looked pretty red in his face, so when we got back to the bottom of the hill, I bought him a shaved ice cone to cool him down.  The combination of that and the fact that it rained for a bit cooled us both off, and we headed out of the park to catch a bus back to the hotel.  We arrived just before supper, though most everyone was still asleep.  When they woke up, we headed out for a walk to the nearest Taco Bell, which wasn’t actually all that near.

The food was normal Taco Bell, though we ended up with a bunch of tacos with sour cream on them, as I didn’t realize that their regular tacos came with sour cream.  Before we left, Jonathan really wanted to eat at Taco Bell, and he especially wanted a Doritos shell taco, which I was able to buy him.  Unfortunately, he is still using supper as a power struggle with his parents and the moment it came time to actually eat, he refused.  Sandra eventually “convinced” him to eat three bites, which is all he had of the special taco that he really, really wanted.