Got up bright and early Monday morning to make the trek up Diamond Head. Still made it there an hour after I originally planned. Is it at all possible to get someplace on time when there's a woman involved? ;-) But we still got there early enough so that there weren't too many people and the weather hadn't gotten too warm yet. The hike overall isn't too bad; hell, old people with walkers can be found on the paths and military folk and other in-shape people use it as a jogging path. The incline is mostly mild 'cept for some parts but definitely make sure you do this climb early in the morning otherwise it gets WAAAAAY hot or else you have to contend with mosquitoes at dusk. The view from the top is awesome though.

For those who don't know, Diamond Head is basically an extinct volcano crater that the military built a lookout outpost on top of. It's one of three outposts located strategically around the island so that they could triangulate the big land-based guns they used to have to bombard enemy ships with. Not used for that purpose anymore so they've turned it into a tourist attraction. You no longer need to bring a flashlight with you on this hike as they've lighted all the inner passageways that used to require the flashlight. But good walking shoes and water are a must.

Afterwards we drove all the way out west to the Ko'olina resort area, specifically Lagoon #2. They have 4 man-made crescent-shaped lagoons in the area that are supposed to be beautiful. However, winter is definitely NOT the time to visit the west shore of Oahu as it gets way too windy, leading to colder temperatures and higher waves. Even though the sheltered waters of the lagoons aren't affected so much by the high waves (stay clear of the openings leading out to the ocean though), it was still waaaaay too cold to stay out there for long periods of time. So we just took a quick dip, had a bunch of sand blown into our faces and all over our stuff and promptly headed back to Honolulu. We'll come back in the spring/summer next time hopefully.

Made it back to Honolulu in time to barely miss rush hour traffic. Had some time to clean up and relax a bit before meeting up with Kim, Rob, Jeff and Kyle for dinner at a local Hawaiian eatery, Ono's. First time I've seen those guys in 7 years. They haven't changed a bit. =) Ono's was quite good too. Big portions and cheap as well. Kailua pork was great! Still can't get used to poi though. ;-)