This is sadly our last day in Hawaii. Also sadly, we had to wake up at six something in the morning, and we hadn't finish the bottle of whiskey we bought on the first night in town. Luckly someone (who will remain nameless) though to combine those two negatives into an extremely questionable positive. I don't know how many times I said "don't judge me...I'm on vacation!" on this trip. I know this was one of them. Drinking before the sun comes up is perfectly acceptable in some cultures.
We then drove to the Diamond Head volcanic crater thing we had seen from the observation point (and pretty much everywhere else on the island because it's huge). We then proceeded to hike up this, through tunnels, and up these stairs. Mid way up my lungs reminded me that I had just finished three weeks of pneumonia and they called me words I don't care to put on my blog. Even worse, as we were going up, we found out someone had had a heart attack on the top of the mountain and needed to be Life Flighted back down (he was ok though). We had to wait in the tunnel while the helicopter came, and saw them getting him ready as we went up the next set of stairs. By the time we reached the top, they were flying him away suspended by a cable(?!). That would pretty much give me a heart attack by default. The views from the top were pretty scenic for pictures (if you managed to get a shot without 200 the tops of tourist's heads in your shot). The hike back down went super fast (thanks, gravity!), and we had more shave ice and hot dogs from a truck in the parking lot.
We then drove up to a more secluded part of the island which was super cool. It looked kind of dangerous and a lot less touristy. It's also where the beach bums build their tent and shack settlements so they can bum on the beach. I may very well move there some day and sit next to this bear on the beach. Except we would face the couch the other way Corona commerical-style.
On the way to the airport we stopped off for Hawaiian Barbecue and Liliha Bakery for Coco Puffs. Then it was on to the plane and off to our next stop.
Our time in Hawaii was great and both Nicole and Hawaii were so sad to see it come to an end.
