Hawaii Day 4 (Monday)

Monday morning began like any other Monday... with a hike in a luscious paradise. We hiked the Diamond Head hike, which is near Honolulu and a really big touristy hike. There were tons of people and lots of languages being spoken. Still a fun hike though, despite the oppressive heat of the day. The hike included several sections of tunnels and stairs, such as these...



The view from the top. You can see the ocean, Waikiki/Honolulu, and the crater that makes up Diamond Head.



Ah, here's an example of one of the tunnel sections.


Yay, we made it back!


We then headed back to our apartment, stopping for groceries and the famous and delicious malasadas at Leonard's Bakery. We made fried rice and eggs at our apartment for lunch and decided to take advantage of our close neighbor, the Waikiki Aquarium.



Then back to our apartment to change into beach clothes and off to Waikiki Beach before the sun went down. We also enjoyed walking down to see the Duke statue (big famous surfer guy statue). There are so many stinkin' people on Waikiki Beach. We decided that we liked staying in Waikiki because the atmosphere was really fun, especially at night. You probably shouldn't go wondering around the more isolated beaches late at night, but you totally could in Waikiki. However, Waikiki Beach itself is not that fun. Go check out the North Shore beaches. Much less people and much more beautiful.

Throughout that day we had noticed a large stage and seating going up on the beach. We didn't think too much about it until we noticed what it was for...



The new version of Hawaii Five-O was broadcasting the following Monday and they were doing a special premiere the week before. While we thought about our possible plans for the evening, we walked over to Teddy's Bigger Burgers (also a close neighbor) for the most amazing hamburger, fries, and shake.


We decided to go hang out on the beach again as the sun went down. It's just so peaceful and sweet. I think this was the night we saw a grandma/grandpa couple wade out into the water and watch the sunset holding hands. How sweet is that. Also, notice the flower behind my ear... Mark picked it just for me. :)


We then decided that we didn't have anything else going on and it sounded like fun, so we found a spot where we could stand and see the stage and screen for the Hawaii Five-O party. And guess who showed up?? Jin from Lost!! Nowhere near us of course, but up on the stage. There were hundreds of people sitting and standing on the beach, but thankfully they had the speakers turned plenty high and the video quality wasn't too shabby. Apparently they show movies or shows there on a regular basis. The show actually turned out to be pretty awesome and we have been seriously hooked ever since. It's especially fun to watch now and see the places we visited.