Taking it Easy in Waikiki

Hawaii April Travelog #11
Waikiki, HI - Sun, 10 Apr, 2022, 9pm

We've taken it easy this evening. And for the purposes of taking it easy today, the evening started around 3. I relaxed in the room and caught up on my blogs while Hawk went out for dinner. Yes, dinner around 3. I ate a good lunch and she didn't, so she was hungry. And she thought maybe that amazing udon place with the line 50 people deep would have less of a line. Success for her: it did! The line had only a few people in it. Though by the time she finished eating it was already halfway down the block.

After Hawk's early dinner the two of us went out to the hot tub for a while.



The hot tub is big but the pool is small. And cold. So we stayed in the hot tub.

The view from the hot tub is... odd. It's on the 5th floor deck, but about all there is to see is the rest of the hotel.



It's a fairly tall hotel. And the one thing I draw satisfaction from looking up at is that while our room has no balcony, none of the rooms have balconies. 🤣

After an hour two in the hot tub we went back upstairs to dry off and think about dinner. Hawk wasn't terribly hungry, having already had dinner at 3pm, so I walked alone to a small takeout pizzeria several blocks away. I bought two slices for myself and one for her, too, and brought them back to the hotel. She met me downstairs and we had a picnic dinner of sorts out on the hotel's breakfast lanai.

After dinner for me and second dinner for Hawk we retired to our room. Tomorrow' will be another busy day. We don't know what we're going to do yet but we're sure it will be busy!

Hiking the Koko Head Rail Trail

Hawaii April Travelog #12
Hawaii Kai, Oahu - Mon, 11 Apr, 2022, 10am

We got up early this morning, not just because we wanted to go somewhere early but also because we had to figure out where to go. We've approached this whole trip with only a vague list of things we want to do. Other than visiting the Pearl Harbor Memorial, a specifc thing we knew we wanted to do (and kind of the main reason we're even on Oahu this trip), it was "hike some more waterfalls, hike some more craters, and visit more beaches".

Today our planning started with, "Hey, let's visit the botanical garden in Koko Crater; and BTW what else is nearby?" It then morphed into, "Let's hike the Koko Head railway trail".



Koko Head is the top of the rim around Koko Crater. You can see it in the picture above taken from a ballfield near the trail. You can also see the trail in the picture. It's called the railway trail or tramline trail because it follows the route of a short rail route built in the 1930s to haul equipment to a defense station atop the mountain. The rail trail ascends 885' from its base.

And when people call it a railway trail, the rails are still there....



This is a picture from near the bottom of the rail line. Yes, hiking it means climbing crossties like steps. Yes, it goes in a straight line—no contouring around the steep parts. And yes, it starts at a pretty good incline, gets visibly steeper in the middle, and then gets even more visibly steeper-er in the top third.

All that, and it's only 0.8mi (1.3km) each way. 0.8mi of hell. We're not sure we'll make it. But we'll try. In beauty we walk.

Update: Continue reading in Crossing the Chasm!

Crossing the Chasm (Koko Head Tramline Trail, part 2)

Hawaii April Travelog #13
Hawaii Kai, Oahu - Mon, 11 Apr, 2022, 10:30am

We made good progress up the first third of the Koko Head Tramline Trail. As much as the view up at the mountain above us seemed intimating the views back down behind us started to become inspiring.



That wasn't all, though. About a third of the way up is where the tramline crosses a bridge.



We knew about the bridge from the trail notes we found online. The notes said just to walk along the cross ties over the gap. What the trail notes didn't convey is that officially you're not supposed to do it.



But I'm a bad boy.

Another thing the trail notes don't mention is that there are bees.

Yes, bees. 🐝

Halfway across the gap there's a beehive down under the cross ties. And the bees don't like everyone walking over their home. That spot, unfortunately, happens to be right where a person wants a break from laboring uphill while balacing on the crossties. But I got through it.

Update: Keep reading as We Reach the Top of the Tramline Trail!