April 7

Awoke to sunny skies and balmy breezes.  We are back in the northern hemisphere where spring has sprung and left autumn in the southern hemisphere behind.  We put on bathing suits and walk across the street to the manmade ocean pools.  The hard-on-the-feet lava stone has mostly been removed and we walk and float in ocean waters behind stone walls that the ocean invades with high tides. The water is refreshing, the sun is hot and the trade winds blow.  We are walking in clear water with a white sand bottom.  What a nice surprise, there are clam holes in the sand and several kinds of coral fish swim around our feet, including eels.  There are small black crabs moving across the seawalls. The beach is white sand. We venture to the next pool and it has less rock and less fish but it is open to the ocean and tide so we get to hop some waves.  The surfers and outrigger canoes are all around us.  Stop off at the hotel buffet breakfast where our table sits by the pool.  Get the car and take off to explore the island.  We will drive the full circumference, minus the roads the rental agency won’t let us drive.  We drive east coast East coast passing Diamond Head crater on two lane road past very upscale properties and golf courses we pass by beautiful Maunalua Bay and Koko Head Crater.  Then a stop at Hanauma Bay, striking isolated bay that is part of the whale conservation area.  A beautiful bay carved out by the pounding of the waves with white sand beaches, clear green waters; swimming and snorkeling here.  We drive up to the Halona blow hole with rocky beaches and a hole where the waves pop up through the lava rocks where the water has carved through.  There are large container ships moving toward the Honolulu port and we can watch them from a distance at the hotel.  As we travel North West on the easterly coast, there is a change from calmer waters to big wave country.  The mountain range is a solid wall near the shoreline and we are in rain forest.  This is the windward side and more rain and the foliage shows it.  There are shallow coral reefs just off shore that take the brunt of the force of the waves.  It’s eerie to see it.  The road literally rides where the shore meets the ocean and we have waves coming up on the road spraying the car.  North shore is agriculture and hippy territory.  Lots of roadside stands with food (mac nuts, coffee etc. and crafts etc.  We try their famous garlic shrimp, we’re not wild about it but not bad..  Wild chickens all over.  Lush forests and foliage; traveling between high mountains and ocean, walls of jagged foliage covered peaks. Rain has been through here but we have missed it. Traveling down the west side, northwest direction, we stop at Sunset Beach and Waimea Beach.  Huge waves are the specialty, lots of surfers, the water is aquamarine and fierce.  The agro in this area is sugar cane and pineapples, papaya.  Lots of controversy over loosing farmland to more housing developments.  We can’t continue down the west coast, the rental agency forbids so we cut through the mountains in high plains with crops growing on either side.  We decide to drive the west coast coming up from the south where we are allowed to drive.  It’s slow going with rush hour coming out of Honolulu.  We have seen where real Hawaiians live today, out of the city.  The beaches in this area are broad white sand and tame surf.  Lots of locals fishing and swimming.  Campers all along the road.  What is really striking is the wall of mountain that parallels us.  Jagged tops with carved steep sides.  Foliage makes them look sage green.  The highest mountain on the island is here at 3100 feet.  That’s from sea level.  The official is 18000 feet if it is measured from the bottom of the ocean floor.  Hawaiian families tend to live more communally which we have seen today. Back to Waikiki hotel room and down to the poolside café for dinner.  A large extended Hawaiian family of entertainers are playing their music, singing and performing hula; some of them are from other Hawaiian islands.  A 96 year old family member who fought in Europe in WWII sang for us.  One of them is Mrs. Hawaii International and is in competition later this year in Jacksonville Florida. Time for bed.  Spending tomorrow at the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites.