Paradise in Pictures

I wanted to share a few of my favorite shots from my recent vacation to Hawaii - more to follow this week.

Lagoon and Diamond Head

The View from Diamond Head

Feeding the Penguins!

I Can't Keep Count of Hawaiian Vacations

After much discussion over the weekend, it looks like we have a date for our next trip to Hawaii.  It got me thinking about how many times I have traveled to Hawaii, including the times I went there with three suitcases and a green card in hand.  Whenever you travel to Hawaii, you are required to fill out a quick survey from the Hawaii Convention and Visitors Bureau, and it asks how many times you have visited the Islands.  I think on this next trip I will create a box titled: Too Many Times to Count.

Here's some of my favorite images from our most recent trip, in November 2009:

On the way to Koko Head Crater

Koko Crater, in all its glory

John at Fort De Russy Beach - with Diamond Head in the background

Diamond Head

Diamond Head is one of those landmarks that you associate with Hawaii, in particular Waikiki and the island of Oahu. It can be seen in almost every television or magazine commercial, and unless you are living under a rock its the first thing you notice when you fly in/out of Honolulu.

Diamond Head is known to Hawaiians as Lēʻahi, probably from lae 'browridge, promontory' plus ʻahi 'tuna' because the shape of the ridgeline is similar the shape of a tuna's dorsal fin. The name Diamond Head was decided by British sailors in the 19th century, who thought that calcite crystals embedded in the rock were actually diamonds! That would have been nice - diamonds for all!

You can actually hike to the top of Diamond Head - anyone can do it (in fact I have seen Japanese tourists in high heels do it) - so don't skip this one! It costs $1 to enter the park and take the hike and $5 for parking. It takes around an hour to get up and back, and be sure to take water with you - no ABC stores at the top.

I have included a few shots of Diamond Head as well as proof of my trip - as you can see it is a sight hard to miss.