Aloha, my peeps! We're currently on our Hawaiian honeymoon! "But Alyssa," you are thinking, "you got married in October." To which I will respond "yes, but the Virginia weather in October is lovely, and the Virginia weather in February is not." At any rate, please enjoy your terrible ice storm.
I started writing this at 5 a.m. my time, which is 10 a.m. your time, for all you East Coasters. I'm not very good at making this particular time zone change, but that's fine, because it means that we can go hiking when it is not too hot and not too crowded. Which is what we did Friday.
We had already done Diamond Head on a previous trip, and had not found it hard at all. Neither did the Japanese tourists we saw that did it with HIGH HEELS on, ya'll. but let me assure you, no one was wearing high heels up Koko Crater. In fact, they like to remind you a lot that you will probably die:
Koko Crater involves a 1200 foot altitude change over the course of 1100 steps. It's straight up an old rail car track. But Chris and I have been working with a trainer that is a fan of squats and lunges while hurling kettle bells about, so we thought we'd do it for her. "For Beehive!" we exclaimed over breakfast. (Obviously we call her Beehive, which is an affectionate mockery of her actual last name.)
Even though I'm asthmatic, and I didn't bring an inhaler, I thought, "I can do this! I will just stop if I need to catch my breath!" At first, that was every 100 stairs. Then 25. Then 10. Then whenever the hell I felt like it. I wouldn't have made it had it not been very windy (thanks, wind)! And when it started to rain a little, I was even happier.
Along the way, the number of stairs you've gone is painted on the cable car track. "Oh, I've passed 300," you happily say to yourself. "I'm more than a fourth of the way there!" By 500, the altitude change hits you as you begin to wonder "why am I doing this again?" As you approach 600, you encounter this.
What can I say? Everyone loves climbing over a rickety bridge while staving off an asthma attack. Seeing as how I am afraid of both bridges AND heights, this was...interesting. I might have used both my hands and feet, and silently cursed and thanked Beehive for making me do all those planks and mountain climbers.
But the view from the top was worth it.
Don't we look happy and red? We're not sunburned, just exhausted.
After we did this, we went back to the hotel and THEN got sunburned. Turns out that having some mixed drinks and sitting in the sun after a hike will make you fall asleep at the pool. So I'm hilariously sunburned on only one side of my body, because I fell asleep on my side.
Continuing our tour of Beautiful Places, we re-visited our singular favorite on any of the islands: the Byodo-In Temple. I think it's physically and mentally impossible to feel anything but calm here.
I started writing this at 5 a.m. my time, which is 10 a.m. your time, for all you East Coasters. I'm not very good at making this particular time zone change, but that's fine, because it means that we can go hiking when it is not too hot and not too crowded. Which is what we did Friday.
We had already done Diamond Head on a previous trip, and had not found it hard at all. Neither did the Japanese tourists we saw that did it with HIGH HEELS on, ya'll. but let me assure you, no one was wearing high heels up Koko Crater. In fact, they like to remind you a lot that you will probably die:
Koko Crater involves a 1200 foot altitude change over the course of 1100 steps. It's straight up an old rail car track. But Chris and I have been working with a trainer that is a fan of squats and lunges while hurling kettle bells about, so we thought we'd do it for her. "For Beehive!" we exclaimed over breakfast. (Obviously we call her Beehive, which is an affectionate mockery of her actual last name.)
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| Sure, we'll just climb up this for a little morning activity! |
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| "And she's climbing the stairway to...asthma heaven." |
What can I say? Everyone loves climbing over a rickety bridge while staving off an asthma attack. Seeing as how I am afraid of both bridges AND heights, this was...interesting. I might have used both my hands and feet, and silently cursed and thanked Beehive for making me do all those planks and mountain climbers.
Don't we look happy and red? We're not sunburned, just exhausted.
After we did this, we went back to the hotel and THEN got sunburned. Turns out that having some mixed drinks and sitting in the sun after a hike will make you fall asleep at the pool. So I'm hilariously sunburned on only one side of my body, because I fell asleep on my side.
Continuing our tour of Beautiful Places, we re-visited our singular favorite on any of the islands: the Byodo-In Temple. I think it's physically and mentally impossible to feel anything but calm here.
I rang the bell...
And visited a giant Buddha that is carved of wood and coated in gold.
On tap for tomorrow: we take a Food Tour of Honolulu and eat weird stuff!