Le'ahi

Le'ahi is otherwise known as Diamond Head Crater to us heathens.  It means "brow of the tuna" (ahi tuna, anyone?) because Hawaiians thought it looked like, well, a tuna.  Of course, 19th century British sailors, being the road scholars that they are, thought they found diamonds in the crater's slopes.  Turns out it was just shiny calcite.

It was used as a strategic military lookout, for reasons that will soon become apparent.  The 0.8 mile hike is the most touristy one on the island, and the one Stephen and I decided to tackle on Monday morning.

I will say this much: wear sunscreen and take water are good bits of advice, but mostly because the Hawaiian sun is brutal and since living here only two weeks, I've found I needed to increase my liquid intake drastically regardless of activity.  At the risk of TMI, I can't even sleep overnight without waking up and finding myself dehydrated.  A gallon of water a day is not unreasonable in this much direct sun.

But I digress.  On with the pictures!!

This is the view from a parking lot before the tunnel into the monument.

Selfie!

View from the path up

I couldn't get a picture of Stephen making a good face...

Me with another view from the path

Lookout point on the way up

View from the lookout point

Stephen looking out

Selfie at the lookout point

The view of Honolulu from the top.  Pretty strategic, I'd say.

Need I say more?  Okay... holy cow.

As we descended, we found a bunker with this as the view.  Yeah.

Pinch me, because I live here.

We did the hike in the morning because we hoped to beat the rush.  Of course, it seems like 90% of people living in Honolulu are actually on vacation, so Monday morning be damned.  It was still crowded.

Still, it only took us an hour and a half to get to the top, take some time scoping out the view, and get back down to our car.  Not bad.

That left half a day for Waikiki and apartment hunting!

We did scope out two places in Honolulu, one of which was a no-go, and one of which was decent until they lumped on the $60 per pet per month (hey, at least this place took them) and the $125 per parking space per month.  At that point, we disagreed on living location (my vote for Honolulu, Stephen's vote for Kailua), but at least we agreed that if Kailua didn't work out, Honolulu could work.

With that, we hit one of the beaches in Waikiki.

Lots of rock coral means lots of waves

Another shot of the beach at Waikiki

Just proof I was actually there.

 So there you have it.  Rock coral under the feet is a little creepy.  There were a lot of people bodyboarding, and more than a fair share of people surfing.  While it was a little people-heavy, this felt like Hawai'i.

It turned out that, while we were third on the application list for the place in Kailua, things worked out and ours was the one that went through.  After a little bit of deliberation, we chose the place there.  It had an easier commute, close access to a picture-perfect beach, and more space than we could get in Waikiki.  Needless to say, I have to choose between my interpretations of paradise.  What a hard life!

Okay, but I am going to say that paradise is costing us $1600 a month for a 550 square foot apartment.  That's well under my basic allowance for housing (otherwise known as BAH), which just tells you how expensive the average cost of living is in paradise.  At least by living in a small space, we can afford to keep up the adventures!

This last week mostly involved work (cuz like I said, paradise is expensive!) and starting the process of moving to our new place.  We bought some fabulous Hawaiian clothes at Hilo Hattie's (I'm sure Mom and Dad remember that) and checked out some more of downtown Honolulu, which I'm pretty sure should just be renamed "Japanland."

I told Stephen that next week, after we've fully moved in to our new place, our task is to go to Snorkel Bob's (which still exists) and purchase our snorkel gear.  Aside from getting my picture taken with a silversword plant and a baby pineapple, my clearest memories from Hawai'i as a kid were snorkeling, as if I snorkeled every day.

There's just so much to do that I'm sure a fourth year extension on my tour is going to happen.  How can it not?