March 7, Mei-O feeding the koi in the pool in the Marriott Hotel's garden in Līhuʻe.
March 7, Mei-O feeding the koi in the pool in the Marriott Hotel's garden in Līhuʻe. |
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| With our ship not leaving until 7:00 PM with boarding beginning at 11:00 AM, we had to spend some time today in Honolulu. |
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 Our hotel room was a corner room with two big windows which let a lot of light in when we awoke today. It looked like it was going to be another beautiful day. |
 The hotel had a surprisingly good complementary breakfast bar. While we were eating, our Canadian friends, Maria, Grace, Alfred, and Alay joined us. We have traveled with Alay and Alfred before (to London, Portugal, and Spain in 2017), and visited them in Toronto twice (in 2015 and 2016), but this was the first time we met Maria and Grace. |
 Unable to board our ship until 2:00 PM, we left our luggage in the hotel and headed over to Waikiki Beach, filled with sun worshippers, some swimmers (it was still early in the morning), and even some surfers, though the waves weren't very big. And the banyan tree we saw last night looked more impressive in the daylight. Oh, and we saw these guys. (Don't see 'em? Click here.) |
 At 9:30, we all met up to get a couple of cars to take us to Diamond Head, a volcanic tuff conenote steep-sided volcanic landform with a cone-like shape and a broad, bowl- shaped crater at its summit. Tuffs form from the interaction of water and hot magma. |
 From the parking lot (where there was a pretty good view of part of the city and the sea down below, and some distant mountains), this tunnel led into the grounds of Diamond Head. Two important things we didn't know: one, you need a reservation to get into Diamond Head (and there were no openings today), and two, which we only found out once we got onto the grounds, there was really nothing to seenote where you could learn about Diamond Head and its history, but even for the low entrance fee of $5 per person, no one wanted to go in. |
 Walking through the tunnel, we came out on the grounds of Diamond Head, actually inside the tuff cone (but not very impressive.) As we looked around for what there was to see, a park staff member pointed out Diamond Head's main attraction: the trail to the top that wound through the cone's wall up to what must be a beautiful vantage point. (You can see some people climbing up the trail here.) But, alas, none of us were going to get there. |
 Needing to document that we were at Diamond Head (though this picture really doesn't do it), we took a picture in the crater. And then, with nothing to see, ... |
 ...we headed back out through the tunnel and down the hill where we came across this: a remembrance that we were there! |
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Next (Day 2, Page 2) |
