Saturday morning we decided to hike up Diamond Head to get a view of the area. We discovered that since we are old, we could ride the bus for $1.00 apiece, each way, which meant we did not have to get the car out, the find our way there and find a place to park (very limited parking on the island, and virtually no free parking around Honolulu). The bus took about 20 minutes to get us to the drop-off point, and then we started the hike to the top of the crater. I guess we weren't the only ones with the idea, since we were in a continuous stream of people headed up the crater. The trail is paved, or volcanic rock, nearly the entire way. It starts in the crater, climbing up the inner side of the crater, to an overlook point at the top of about 200 steps. The temperature was well above 90, with little breeze until we got near the top, so we were very glad to have water bottles with us. The view from the top, an old military gun post, was spectacular, with Honolulu in one direction and the south and east coast of the island in the other.
The walk down from Diamond Head was much easier than going up, and when we got back to the area of the bus stop, we found a huge Saturday Farmers Market, where we got pineapple-mango smoothies and special lunch crepes, before hiking back to our condo (too long a line waiting for the buses by that time). Nice, relaxing naptime, followed by a call from Tom at the airport, where they were picking up baggage and heading to their condo, right across the street from ours. We met for drinks at the Moana Surf Hotel beach bar, where we watched the sun go down, then struggled past all the shops (jewelry, clothing, stuff) to find our way to the Outrigger Hotel Hula Grill (we had dinner here a few days ago) to listen to the live Hawaiian music and have dinner. By this time, Tom and Cathy were falling asleep (midnight, Colorado time), so we went back to our condos to rest up for the next day.
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