Waikiki was a complete change from Moloka’i, full of people and lots of shopping. Jewels only had one day to be a tourist before she started working full time, so she got to pick our activities for the day. She wanted to climb Diamond Head, a volcanic cone on Oahu that provides stunning views of Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean. We fueled up on a decadent hotel breakfast and hiked to the top in a half hour–we had been expecting it to take an hour. The beautiful views of Waikiki with a hint of Pearl Harbor were worth the trek. The top included a rather humble shelter, and we joined many other tourists there to look down into the crater then out to the ocean. It was very beautiful, but not nearly as peaceful as in previous days.
Having hiked up quickly, we wandered down to Waikiki from the crater, taking in banyan trees and a statue of Gandhi decked out in leis. By the time we reached our hotel, we had earned our tropical drinks and space on the beach for the rest of the afternoon. We put on swim suits and soaked in the sun and watched our fellow tourists for the rest of the afternoon.
We treated ourselves to sushi for dinner in Waikiki that night and shopped for trinkets, enjoying the sunset over Waikiki.