May 15-16

Jon's workload decreased significantly once the part broke. He went to the barracks for three hours on Thursday (15th), and not at all on Friday (16th). I was thrilled to pieces, because that meant he got to hang out with me!

These crabs were all along the pier on Waikiki. I actually found them quite disgusting--like giant, black spiders.

Since Jon didn't have to go into work on Friday, we figured it was the perfect day to hike Diamond Head. If you look at the mountains on the right side of this picture, Diamond Head is the crater you can see sticking up. We were warned in advance that there was basically no shade on the hike, so we decided to get an early start.

As in a 4:30 am early start. Granted, this is 10:30 am Maryland time, but it still felt early. We were out the door by 5:30 am to begin the 3.5 mile walk TO THE TRAILHEAD. That's right--we walked almost four miles just so we could hike a 1.6 mile trail. And, of course, it was slightly uphill the entire way.

We reached the trailhead at 6:30 am and began the .8 mile hike to the top. Luckily there was some sort of wind tunnel going through the crater or I would have died from the heat. Well, actually, it was the humidity that really got me. It may only have been 85 degrees out there, but it felt a LOT hotter than that.

The hike itself wasn't too bad, although I did have to take a few breaks (I was almost 31 weeks pregnant--cut me some slack). The switchbacks, while obnoxious, didn't really get to me. And then I saw these:

74 stairs.

(I took this picture on the way down, in case you're confused as to why we were walking DOWN stairs). This baby hates stairs. He likes to set me off into Braxton-Hicks contractions if I even think about walking up stairs. But hey, he needs to be toughened up, right? So up we went.

At the top of the stairs was a tunnel. I love tunnels. Not only do they block out the sun, they also have this fabulous breeze going through them. I took my precious time walking through it. It ended all too soon, letting us out at the base of these:99 stairs.

Straight up. Lucky for me, they had a rest area at the bottom of the stairs where fat girls like me could sit and contemplate how we could get our husbands to carry us up to the top. No such luck. I finally got up the courage to do it, and made it up without a single break (although the toddler behind me was riding my heels by the time we made it to the top).

As a final test of willpower, the trail then takes you to a set of spiral stairs. You stand at the bottom, silently (or not) curse, and start going up, only to realize that the stairs are blocked off 1/3 the way up. Instead of going all the way up, you turn around and realize you're practically at the end.

Sadly for all of you, I don't have a picture of me or Jon attempting to make it through the crawlspace that leads to the top. Picture this: Diamond Head was once used as a military installation. The peak, where we now were, was a sort of bunker. People in bunkers don't want to get hit by artillery, so they have small spaces to crawl in and out of. As in 3.5 feet off the ground, and about 2 feet high. Now imagine me, with a 31 week pregnant belly, crawling through this hole. Like I said, it's just too bad for all of you that I don't have pictures.

We were actually kind of disappointed by the view at the top. We happened to pick a day with bad vog (volcano haze), so we didn't get the spectacular view we anticipated. There were still some good shots, but we couldn't see clear across the island. By the way, you are all extremely lucky to be seeing this picture. I look absolutely disgusting, but I wanted to prove that I did it.

The way down was much easier (minus the part where I had to crawl back INTO the crawlspace). As a testament to my continuing pregnancy stupidity, Jon noticed that I no longer had my visor or sunglasses. I, of course, had absolutely no memory of taking them off or putting them down anywhere. We checked every possible place I could have left them, but to no avail. I can only hope someone out there is now enjoying my sweaty visor and glasses as much as I did.

We booked it back home (okay, not really--the baby was letting me know he wasn't pleased with me) and made it to the hotel just before the breakfast bar closed. Let me tell you--this breakfast bar is the sole reason I gained 9 pounds in the last 5 weeks. All you can eat, every morning from 6:30 am to 10 am. I went twice daily--once at 6:30, once at 9:30. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, muffins, danishes, fruit (the pineapple was AMAZING), bagels, and made-to-order omelets. How we missed that breakfast bar when we went to our other hotel.

After the hike, I managed to get Jon down to the beach, which is a much harder task than one would expect. The water felt fabulous on our feet, and we managed to escape with only slight sunburns, thanks to the purchase of an $8 beach umbrella at Wal-Mart. Needless to say, we slept REALLY well that night. Good thing, too, as it was our last night in our nice hotel. Let's just say that I didn't sleep that well again until we got home.

More to come. I'll leave you with a picture of these sweet trees that were all over the place. If only pregnant ladies were better tree-climbers...