Spring Break Hike

Guess where we went today?!



The parking lot in the crater was full, so we had to park at the bottom and hike into Diamond Head Crater, just to do "the hike". 10 mins into the hike and the kids were yelling for a break.

A view from our break stop.

4 more feet from where Tyler is standing, is a cliff. And we are not even at the point to start the hike.
The tunnel to get into the crater.

Randy couldn't believe I walked the kids through this tunnel. There weren't very many cars and every body else was walking too.

We finally made it in and were on our way. I don't know why Micah insists on wearing long pants and long sleeves. I did pack along T-shirt and shorts, but he refused to change even though he was HOT!

Tyler's hiking footwear, local style. Only in Hawaii.

Rest stop (again, 10 mins into the hike). Tyler's hot, Kara's got dirt in her eye (and wants to know why we have do this hike. People passing us heard cries of, "I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE IT!".

We kept going and the trail went from sidewalk to rocky path. I think that's where the fun began for the kids.

We got up pretty high. You had to climb up into this rest stop. Because there was only me with the kids, I told them to just look from where we were standing.


We kept going and soon hit the "stairs". There were a lot of stairs. The kids each had maps and just were so excited when they could figure out where the were on the map. Soon I was hearing, "Mom, this is a fun hike! Let's keep going!" The map helped motivate them. When they could see on the map what was up ahead, they wanted to keep going to reach that next goal.

Speaking of which, what was next?

The tunnel. It was pretty dark in the tunnel.

Another rest stop after coming out of the tunnel. Not the most flattering of me, but the background I thought was cool, shows how high we were getting.

Next, you guessed it! More stairs. These ones went straight up. Half way up, Micah hopped into the rain gutter that you see to the left of the stairs. He thought it would make a great slide. Not if the bottom is off the cliff. I of course screamed at him to get back on the stairs.

We were getting closer to the top. This was the bottom of the observatory.


When we came out, this was the view.

Here's another cool sight! All of this is Kahala and Waikiki area, where are all the rich people live.

Hey! More stairs.

This is the absolute top of Diamond Head. We reached the top and it was cool!

These were beautiful views. This is Waikiki.

Picture time.

The girls.

This is this other side, Kaimuki area. The nursing school I went to is in this area.

After reaching the top, it was time to go back down.

The tunnel was dark, a couple of kids hit that side rail because the path would curve.

I think going down was harder. I had to keep Micah from running full speed. I was afraid he was going to either plow into some old lady in front of us, or go right off the edge in some areas.

Almost done. You can see some of the kids are tired and laughing from delirium.


Here's a view of where we were. Kind of hard to see from this picture. I was so happy we did the hike. The kids did great and said that they loved the hike. They were exhausted and so was I. The only sad thing was that Randy couldn't be with us. Next time dear.