Honolulu

07 - 11 April 2023

Julie and Anthony from the top of Diamond Head

We flew to O’ahu on Friday. We stayed at the DoubleTree Alana in Waikiki Beach. We were able to get tickets to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on Saturday.

Lesson Learnt: If you are going to Pearl Harbor, you need to get your tickets to the Arizona Memorial and Diamond Head park in advance.

Arizona Memorial from the Battleship Missouri

Saturday morning we drove to Pearl Harbor. We took a ferry from the Pearl Harbor welcome center to the Arizona memorial, which was very moving. We walked through the museum and saw the movie about the Pearl Harbor attack. The movie re-iterated how well the attack was planned, how unprepared the US was for the attack, and ultimately how devastating the attack on Pearl Harbor was for Japan.

After Lunch, we visited the Battleship Missouri, where the Japanese surrendered to the Allies to end World War II.

Saturday evening we went downtown for a Ghost Tour. We learned about Hawai’i’s most successful monarch, King Kamehameha, who united the islands in the late 1700s. We also heard about the night marchers, who are ghosts that roam Honolulu and will kill anyone who looks at them.

Liliʻuokalani was the queen who was deposed when the US government wanted to make Hawai’i a U.S. protectorate in 1893. Liliʻuokalani was imprisoned in the ʻIolani Palace and later moved to Washington Place, where she died in 1917. The queen has been seen haunting both buildings.

Easter Sunday, we went for a hike at the Diamond Head State Monument. We had a 2 mile hike with a 520 ft ascent to the top of Diamond Head. We were rewarded with terrific views of Wiakiki Beach.

After Diamond Head we drove south down the coast to Wiamanalo Beach. On the way back to Waikiki we stopped at Lilo’s Tap and Table a restaurant on Kaupa pond, and had lobster rolls, which were yummy (and half the price they are in Raleigh).

Monday, we drove through the Nu’uanu Pakli Lookout to the east coast. It very windy, and sadly the trail to the Falls was closed. So we continued on to the North Coast.

We drove up the east coast, past Kualoa Park up to Kawela Bay, to Haleiwa for lunch.

Yellow Hibiscus, the Hawai’i state flower

On out last night in Hawaii, we went down to Waikiki beach to watch the sunset. Chris and Blair, friends from Raleigh, happened be be staying in Waikiki as well, so we met them for drinks on the beach after sunset.

Our treks in Honolulu.

Chicago

The Big Island