Hawaii Trip - Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor


The only way to fly to Hawaii from Australia is through Oahu, so when we first decided to go to Kauai we figured we should stop in Oahu for a few days as well.  At the top of the list was seeing Pearl Harbor, and fortunately by chance it had just reopened a couple weeks earlier after being closed for reconstruction for many months.  The Diamond Head hike was also one of those things I figured we should do.

 Well, Diamond Head was horrible.  The parking lot is small so we parked at a nearby park and walked in which was fine.  The point was getting some exercise so that helped us get more in.  But the trail was completely packed with all sorts of oblivious people.  It wasn't a super difficult or long walk, which meant all different sorts of people were out there.  The problem with that it we all had to converge into narrow stair cases in a couple points which meant we spent more time waiting in line on the hike than actually hiking.  And then once we got to the top the lookout was again packed with people who were climbing over the railings that said do not climb over and flying drones over the signs that said no drones here.  The people did not make it a pleasant experience.  The views were nice, but after spending a relaxing few days in Kauai this hike was exactly the opposite of what we were hoping for.
View of Waikiki from Diamond Head
View from Diamond Head of where we stayed - straight up that steep straight hill towards the middle

Pearl Harbor, however, did not disappoint.  If that makes sense.  It was a very somber environment and really made you feel the magnitude of the attack.  Looking around at the lively city and picturing how it must have been then and how surprised everyone was when the planes struck made it feel very powerful.  We took the ferry over to the memorial and were able to have a look around for 15 minutes.  Seeing the ship just under the waterline and the oil that was still seeping up nearly 80 years later was very hard-hitting.  Visiting the memorial made the stop in Oahu worth it on it's own, which turned out to be a very good thing considering how unimpressed we were with the rest of the island!

The ferry out to the memorial
Pearl Harbor Memorial form the ferry
USS Arizona

Oil coming up from the ship


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