Nu'uanu Pali and Diamond Head Bay

Alooooooha!

Last Sunday at church we were delighted to hear the bishop get up at the pulpit and say "Aloha", to which the congregation answered aloha back. When they say it like that people draw out the "o", so it sounds more like I wrote it. Hopefully, you'll play along and whenever I say "Aloha", you'll say aloha back to me.

Sam and I caved and rented a car from the on-base rental agency. We may have severed off our arms with a blunt spoon to pay for it, but it was well worth the $ just to have a way around the island.

Military members have the option of living on or off base, but most people we've talked to say it's better to live on base. The air force pays you enough money to live off base, but it takes so much time and gas to commute you ending up paying a lot more than you bargained for. We found that out for ourselves when we decided to go for a "quick" drive last night. Unfortunately, the Medford-ites that we are, we hit the freeway at 4:30, right at rush-hour traffic. This is a taste of what we encountered.

And in case you were wondering, this street is not pronounced "likee-likee", but "leekeh-leekeh". We were stuck in front of this sign long enough I decided to take a picture of it.

As part of Sam's inprocessing- sorry, PCSing- we had the chance to take a tour around Honolulu.

We got to see the Punchbowl, Diamond head, Waikiki, and my personal favorite Nu'unau Pali "cool heights cliff". I'll have more pictures of Waikiki and the Punchbowl latter, but for now I want to share Nu'uanu Pali and Diamond Head.

Nu'uanu Pali is part of the Ko'olau Moutains, one of the only traversable parts. It's famous as being the site where King Kamehameha secured control of O'ahu, by driving the opposing army off of the cliff (pali means cliff). Trade winds funnel into this valley creating a sort of wind tunnel. Something about the wind, the slight chill, and sheer cliffs reminded me of the Oregon coast- maybe that's why I liked it so much.

I wish I could say that I took this picture, but I actually found it on google. I wanted to give you an idea of what the cliff looked like.

Diamond Head is on the more southeast side of the island, not far from Waikiki. It snakes over to Hanauma Bay, famous for it's snorkeling, waves, and because Elvis Presley made a movie there. We didn't get to see it because was closed (sorry!). Diamond Head is a pretty spot for body surfing, wind surfing, and actual surfing. We kept our feet on ground and out of the water because of the tour, but the water called our name and I'm sure we'll be back.

In my next post I'll share some pictures of Historic Pearl Harbor, including the USS Bowfin and the USS Arizona.

Aloha!