The day my legs wanted to die

On July 18th, I took a day off so Dolly and I could do a bit of exploring. There was a hike I'd wanted to do for a while, so I figured, why not? Dolly only worked 19 hrs, so she already had most of Friday off. I didn't take in to consideration, however, that my legs were sore from an intense leg workout the day before. But go we did! We first went to Kaneohe where I visited with Doctor Kam who thankfully told me I could take my splint off. Yeah!

We left the office and got on the Pali Highway, nearly getting smashed by a large 18 wheeler. We stopped at the Pali Lookout, which was windy as ever. Also ended up being a bit windy. We left the lookout and headed into town where I took the Jeep to Jiffy Lube for an $60 drink of oil and where we refueled at Subway.

Then, we headed over to Diamond Head. This is a much different hike than I have done previously in Hawaii. Picture a large cater with no trees, hardly any shade, and a lot of dead, brown, grass. I am sure this may be pretty at some point in the year when the mountain is green, but the only reason to hike this is for the view from the top. And the sun was HOT! As you reach the summit, you crawl through what looks like the side of a flying saucer, obviously a remnant from military use, and then hike to a lookout where you can see the city below on one side, and the ocean and coast on the other. Great views!

The next stop was unplanned. It was a scenic outlook just North of Hanauma Bay where the waves crash hard on jagged rocks. It was probably one of the favorite places we went that day. The road goes over a bridge right over the top of this place. If you didn't stop, you never know what you would be missing!

The last visit was the lighthouse at Makapuu point. I had heard (falsely) that this was a short hike. Well, I suppose it wasn't bad, but at this point both our legs were about ready to give out, and we were out of water and food. But since it was a "short hike", we went anyways. This trail was also lacking in trees, and we even saw cactus, which was a first for Dolly. I've never seen anyone so excited to see cactus! But we made it finally to the lighthouse, which sits right on the cliff. Incredible view! It was still worth the struggle to get up the hill. We stopped at Ruby Tuesdays on the way home to regain some energy...much needed energy in the form of food and water!