Aloha!

This post was supposed to begin, "Greetings from sunny Waikiki!," but, I never got around to finishing it while I was there...the beach just always seemed way too inviting. Regardless, I decided that I could definitely make Hawaii my permanent residence. I never knew that such a perfect climate existed! Day or night, it was always between 70 and 85 degrees I was never cold!

We had a blast exploring the island. On the day after we arrived (a Friday), we went to Pearl Harbor and saw the USS Arizona memorial. It was pretty neat. This is the monument that has been erected over the ship which still sits on the floor of the Harbor...it's the burial site for several thousand service men.


From the monument, you can still see some parts of the ship peeking up out of the ocean:


Saturday, we rented a car and drove to 3 different hiking areas. First, we hiked to the top of Diamond Head Crater, an extinct volcanic crater on the island of Oahu.


Getting to the top of the crater consists of a 3/4 mile hike complete with a 225 foot tunnel passing through the wall of the crater and climbing nearly 200 stairs...the view from the top was definitely worth it!


After hiking back down Diamond Head, we hiked 3/4 of a mile to Manoa Falls. The hike in was pretty nice, but the "falls" were a bit of a disappointment:


Let's just saw there was no swimming in the spray of a water fall like I had hoped for!

Our last hike of the day was a 6 mile loop that took us through huge groves of avocado and bamboo trees and offered amazing views. The hike was beautiful but a little unsettling given all of the warnings posted about wild pigs! Lucky for us, I watch Man vs Wild with Jason, so I had all the tips on what we should do if we were to encounter a wild pig. Everyone gave me a lot of crap about my survival tips, but I'd like to know who would have been laughing had we gotten lost and I was the only one who knew how to erect a sound, water proof, wild pig-safe shelter! I bet everyone would have suddenly become pretty fond of my survival know how.

Needless to say, after all of that hiking, we were pretty worn out. We decided to relax with a nice dinner on the beach:


Jamie even decided to sample some of the local vegetation...

...she said the plumaria, which garnishes EVERYTHING you order in Hawaii, tasted a lot like cauliflower and proceeded to eat two or three more over the course of our stay. Never a dull moment with you Jamie!

There are endless more stories I could tell about our trip, but I think the main point of my post - that we loved Hawaii - has been well established by now. I'm currently trying to sell Jason on looking into a faculty position at the University of Hawaii, but he doesn't seem to be jumping at that idea. I keep telling him that he could be the one who goes down in history as the person who put U of H on the map as a chemical physics powerhouse, but he's not buying it...if you get a chance, work on him for me!!