Our first big day of sightseeing!

We drove all the way around the southeast end of the island, from Waikiki Beach to Hanauma Bay, then up to Kailua, where we took the Pali Highway to Interstate H-3, and then drove back to Waikiki.  H-3 is exactly like an Interstate Highway, but really, think about it -- Interstate?  In Hawaii?  They have three of these roads on the island and they're everything you'd expect in an Interstate Highway.  Why H-1 even looks like a parking lot most of the day! But don't try to drive from Hawaii to another state.

But before we left, we stopped at an ABC store.  They are literally on every street corner in Waikiki, and in the middle of the block too.  They sell everything a tourist might need.  Sunblock?  Check.  Water?  Check.  Flipflops?  Check.  You name it, they got it.  Waikiki is basically just one big ABC store with hotels and restaurants in various places on its grounds.

Our first stop along the way to look down at the beautiful blue ocean.  Very nice.

And this is Hanauma Bay.  Look at all the people down there on the beach, and all the snorkelers our there peering down into the coral.  We're going to come back here to do a little snorkeling ourselves, later in the trip.

Bill never tired of the incredible scenery.

Bill, use sunscreen.  Your face is turning red.

I betcha the snorkelers are using sunscreen.

Pretty, but you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Bonnie has found a blowhole, a place where spray shoots up when a wave hits just right.

Look at the layers of sedimentary rock.  How can that be, if this is a volcanic island? Well, if the volcano erupted over and over again, each time depositing a layer of ash... 

The ocean is beautiful. Sure doesn't look like Florida.

Whoa, now the mountains are beginning to look as dramatic as the ocean.

Oddly-shaped little island.

The wind is really blowing here and, hey...what's that up in the sky?

It's a paraglider!  Hope that guy knows what he's doing.

Doug and Bonnie aren't worried.

Close-up of the oddly-shaped island.

Ooooh...I've seen mountains like that in scary movies.

Do those people in town understand what sort of creatures might be living up there in the Misty Mountains?

Now we're on the Pali Highway, headed back to Honolulu. 

Here's an interesting tidbit:  Although locals do think of the islands as having north shores and south shores, west coasts and east coasts, seldom will anybody direct you by using the most common directional terms.  Instead, they'll send you either makai (ma-kai), a directional meaning toward the sea, or mauka (mow-kah), meaning toward the mountains. Because each island is basically a volcano with a single coastal road circling it, those two terms are often enough to do the trick.

We're going mauka.

And now we'll stop at a lookout point with some incredible views.

The Nuuanu Pali Lookout ("Cool Height Cliff") overlooking the 985 foot cliffs of the Koolau Mountain Range, is one of the best views on O'ahu. It was here in 1795 that King Kamehameha and his warriors defeated the O'ahu armies by sending them over these steep, forested cliffs and claiming his victory and uniting the Hawaiian Islands. The breathtaking sight and the gruesome history of the battle fought here is enough to cause a chill to run up your spine. Add to that the incredible winds that often pass through the Pali and you may be swept off your feet!

Those mountains in the distance are called the Koʻolau Range.  It is not a mountain range in the normal sense, because it was formed as a single mountain called Koʻolau Volcano (koʻolau means "windward" in Hawaiian). What remains of Koʻolau is the western half of the original volcano that was destroyed in prehistoric times when the entire eastern half—including much of the summit caldera—slid cataclysmically into the Pacific Ocean.

Great view.

And when you look over this way, well, my, that's a dramatic sight.  Wonder if anything exciting ever happened here?

Yep. 

Looking peaceful today, though.

Bill kept telling Doug that back in those hills the natives maintain a huge gate to protect them from a big monkey.

That town down there is Kailua.  I think.

Beautiful.

Hey, look down there!  It's that tunnel we came through.

And here's the old road, from the days when there was no tunnel.  Now it's a hiking path.

See?

Now we're driving through a rain forest area.

Just look at those vines.  Tarzan would love this place.

Now we're in Honolulu, on the grounds of the Iolani Palace.  It's the only Royal Palace in the USA. 

Should we take a tour?  Well, of course.

In the palace parking lot is a banyan tree (all this is one plant with a huge root system).

More creepy than beautiful, I think.

A side view of the palace.

They made us wear fancy slippers so the filthy tourists wouldn't muss up the King's house.  That's Bill's foot.

And that's Bonnie's.  She got the fancy slippers.

They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, so I won't go into detail about King Kamehameha and his visit with Queen Victoria and the royal family and Queen Liliuokalani's house arrest and the decrepitude of this place and its restoration and all the rest.  You want to know what's inside?  Well, that snooty lady wouldn't let us take pictures, so Google it.