Rainbow Connection

R was up and out the door early this morning so that he could get malasadas from Leonard's Bakery for the fam before the lines got too long. What a guy!

And in case you were wondering if the four of us ate all of those malasadas in the picture, the answer is "NO!" He bought enough to share with his cousins, who were coming over to visit today.

Trying to be COVID-cautious, we took advantage of our huge lanai at the condo to have an early lunch together outside. R's cousins picked up bento boxes from Fukuya Deli on their way over.

While it was a little breezy outside and we were sprinkled with some liquid sunshine, it was so fun to hang out and catch up! We even got to see C again, who had come over to Oʻahu to see her kids.

After their visit, we still had enough time left in the afternoon to go up to the summit of Lēʻahi (aka Diamond Head State Monument). Since the last entrance to hike the trail is 4:00PM and the gates are locked by 6:00PM, arriving at the park just before 3:00PM was perfect timing because we were able to snag a spot in the parking lot as most people were leaving. Otherwise we would have had to park on the other side of Kahala Tunnel and hoof it in even farther!

The trail to the summit is 0.8 miles one way and is even paved for the first portion. Since the elevation gain from the crater floor is 560 feet, there are lots of switchbacks and stairs to climb.

But the payoff of marvelous views along the way makes it totally worth the effort!

The boys left us in their dust

Kahala Tunnel and Koko Head

Rainbow #1 (3:45PM)

Postcard view of Waikiki (with military bunker) 

Rainbow #2 (4:05PM)

Rainbow #3 (4:30PM)

It took us around an hour and half roundtrip, even counting breaks for us slow old folks. I'm glad that we were here in the winter because most of the trail is pretty exposed. I imagine that hiking to the summit in the heat of summer might not be as enjoyable.

Afterwards, we dropped the boys off on Kalākaua Avenue in Waikiki since M wanted to pick up some shirts from 88 Tees (he saw it on Terrace House on Netflix), while J wanted another stab at getting some sunset pics at the beach. They walked back to the condo, and once everyone was cleaned up, we headed over to grab dinner from Rainbow Drive-In to finish off our day. Yum!

Loco moco, eggs with Portuguese sausage, and chili rice