- Waikiki - Terry Pruyne
The eighteenth floor of our hotel, the Queen Kapiolani, named after the wife of the last king of Hawaii, offered a sensational view. One side had the beach and the sunset; on another side Waikiki and Honolulu. When we walked out of the hotel, which was at a very reasonable price, we could see Diamond Head, a 760-foot volcano extinct for 150,000 years.
Diamond Head received its name from English sailors who mistook calcite crystals in the rock for diamonds. A part of the Honolulu Volcano Series, the volcanoes created Oahu and many other landmarks such as Koko Head and Hanauma Bay. Lori and I rode a bus to the foot of Diamond Head. After a short walk to the crater, we walked through a 580-foot tunnel that passed through the crater wall. We then hiked nearly two miles winding to the summit.
Most of the hike occurred in the blazing sun, except for a 225-foot tunnel near the top. The tunnel and a flight of ninety-nine stairs reached to the fort along the volcano rim that the military used to spot targets on the Pacific. We could see Waikiki, Honolulu, the Eastern Shore and the Hawaiian mountain range from our vantage point. Breath-taking. Make sure you bring water with you. We tried a Hawaii specialty -- shaved iced -- upon our return to the bottom of the volcano. Nice way to cool off.
Duke’s Canoe Club and Other Establishments
Of the many establishments we visited in Waikiki, our favorite had to be Duke's Canoe Club. Located on Kalakaua Avenue, patrons can access the bar/restaurant from the street or the beach. The koa paneling and bamboo wall holds an assortment of Waikiki memorabilia from outrigger canoes to a modern progression of surfboards to pictures of Duke Kahanamoku with various celebrities including Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio.
Duke popularized surfing and won five gold medal in the Olympics for swimming between 1912 and 1924. Usually crowded, visitors must wait for table or seat at the bar. The bartenders, quick with jokes and conversation, flip glasses in the air, while making tropical concoctions. We preferred to sit at the Barefoot Bar with Lava Flows, Dig Me Daiquiris or a Tropical Itch and order delicious appetizers like beach fries and crab and macadamia nut wantons with mustard plum sauce, which Lori said were “simply amazing.”
One afternoon, Lori and I tried surfing and failed miserably, but had a great time trying. Waikiki Beach near Duke’s was so crowded we were risking our lives between outrigger canoes and out-of-control surfboards. We preferred swimming near our hotel where the beaches were less crowded so we could snorkel, looking for fish not rings.
Also on Kalakaua Avenue, we often frequented the Tiki Bar & Grill on the second floor of the ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel. Quite the opposite of Duke’s, the Tiki Bar & Grill, when we visited in the afternoon had a sparse crowd, but after walking the crowded streets along Kalakaua, we welcomed the serenity.
The Tiki Bar's drink menu included drinks such as the Greg Brady Wipeout, so named after the Brady Bunch's infamous Hawaiian vacation, the Waikiki Moonlight, the Screaming Tiki and one of Lori's favorites, the Lotus Lycheetini.
Paradise Cove and the Oceanarium Restaurant
We participated in a luau at the Paradise Cove, west of Honolulu. Our guide told us we would be there in twenty minutes or a half hour. It didn’t matter. It’s Hawaii time. Hang loose, baby! When we first arrived, we the luau set up a number of activities including spear throwing, lea making and tropical drink contests. Well, the latter wasn’t an official contest.
The show was very entertaining, but a bit commercial. The food was a buffet. I called it Old Country Buffet meets Walt Disney World. We did get to see them removed the pig from the ground. You don’t see that at OCB. We enjoyed watching the sunset that evening as we slow danced among the other tourists. You have to see a luau in Hawaii. It’s a requirement. The shows were great.
We hit a seafood buffet at the Oceanarium Restaurant in the Pacific Beach Hotel on Kalakaua Avenue. The restaurant features a two-story aquarium filled with tropical fish, octopuses, sharks and sting rays. With a mass array of good food, the aquarium watching left Lori and I with a peaceful, serine feeling. An added bonus, a diver climbed into the tank and fed the sea life. Fish surrounded her and fed them and tucked pieces of fish into little nooks and crannies for the less aggressive fish.
A few buildings from our hotel stood Teddy’s Bigger Burger. Our first meal on the island. Delicious. USA Today named Teddy’s as one of the top ten burger joints in America. One of the most surreal feelings of the trip occurred in the morning when we woke and went down to the corner by the hotel. We would sit outside of Starbucks with a coffee watching the surf roll in. It just didn’t seem real. Hang loose, baby!
Lost: Where’s Jack and Sawyer?
On our last day in Waikiki we snorkeled at Hanauma Bay, actually the crater of a volcano that resides partially below the surface of the Pacific. The bay is one of the premiere snorkeling areas in the world. We swam with triggerfish, tang, surgeonfish, parrotfish, goatfish and sea urchins as well as other sea creatures.
Then Lori found, in one of her guidebooks, an area where they filmed Lost episodes. We did this after performing a juggling act of renting a car, checking out of the hotel, leaving our luggage at the hotel, and arranging a pick-up service from Expedia at the hotel after returning the rental car.
We drove outside of Honolulu to the base of the Ko’oaus Mountains and entered a lush tropical forest. Banyan and banana trees surrounded us creating a darkening canopy. Vines slithered up the trees and across the ground. We found giant lobster claw bird of paradise and shampoo ginger. At the first we managed the mile-long trail without problems, but, as we continued, the path became steeper, muddier, and narrower, but we proceeded on. Midway through the adventure, we reached a forest a bamboo. I overheard a tour guide telling his people that the opening scene from Lost had been filmed there. Jack wakes up and runs out of the bamboo forest onto the beach where the plane crashed. The beach he ran to is about thirty miles away. The magic of television.
The falls dropped spectacularly down hundreds feet of the rocky terrain in two separate cascades. Trekkers can see both sets of falls from a distance, but from right beneath them they can only see the lower falls. The guidebooks warn people not to drink or swim in the water due to bad bacteria.
After the walk back to the falls, we ate once more at Duke’s before picking up our bags and meeting our ride to the airport. We boarded our plane and noticed our muddy our shoes and socks. We laughed. We took back some Hawaiian soil on our shoes and in our hearts.
Terry Pruyne - I wrote for my high school and college newspapers on my way to teaching degrees in English and History. Later, I received a Masters Degree ...
