Goodbye Hawaii, hello California 4/8

For our final day on Oahu and in Hawaii we decided on an early morning hike to the diamond head crater. This is a mountain abs crater formed from a single explosion. It has a long history of being used for defense. The US military made a base there in 1910 cutting tunnels and staircases right into the walls. 

Even with what I knew about the volume of tourist on this island I was shocked by the numbers of folks already there at 730. But this is one of the iconic Honolulu events. 

The climb up is a bit of a psychological test. One is confronted with the possibility of acrophobia, claustrophobia, and agoraphobia to name a few. 

This is the spiral staircase but there is a 6 foot tunnel that you can't see the end and a stair wit 97 steeps so steep it is almost a ladder. 

Benchmark at the top. 

Here you can see the levels cut into the crater wall. 

Interior view of the crater

View of "town" from the top. 

From here we drive through Waikiki beach. It looked like New York City. High rise buildings, designer stores and people everywhere. The actual beach had only small waves when we were there but the magnitude of the buildings was surprising. 

We then headed to the airport accidentally stopping at a military gas station to fill up the car. That did not get us very far. But boy was the gas a good price. Service comes with a few benefits. 

The travel to San Francisco was harrowing. I came down with some mysterious illness hours before we left. It was a rough flight. 

We were picked up by Chris's cousin Jesse and I went directly to bed.