DAY 4 - AN ADVENTURE TO THE MISTY MOUNTAIN

Rich and I decided before we left that we wanted to do some hiking.

No performances today,..a day to ourselves,..and a dinner date with Cory,..

We asked around to find out where the best trails were,..We were told that there was a waterfall trail on Tantalus Mountain . We were also told we could get there by taking the bus,..

hehehehe

I'm here to tell you that you can't,..

I don't think we were victims of malicious intent,..I think we were just given bad information.

We got to Tantalus via 2 buses,..And Rich admitted later that the bus driver of the 2nd bus told us to take a different bus to get closer to our destination, which was the trail heads.

It took about an hour for us to get to the mountain from Waikiki and at that point we had enough of buses, we decided to go explore on our own and find the trail using our "map", which, by our estimations didn't seem like a very long way,..maybe a mile or 2,..no big deal, we'd get to the trail head after a nice stroll in a nice residential section (and maybe find a mango tree if we were lucky)

here are some juicy tidbits concerning Tantalus that wasn't included on our "map".

>>excerpt from the lonely planet guide to Hawaii <<

"2 miles from downtown Honolulu , a narrow switchback road cuts it's way up the lush green forest reserve land of Tantalus and Maikiki valley. The road climbs up almost to the top of 2013ft Mt Tantalus, with swank mountainside homes tucked in along the way. Although the road is one continuous loop, the western side is Tantalus drive, and the eastern side is called round top drive. The 8.5 mile circuit is Honolulu's finest scenic drive, offering splendid views of the city below.....the trails are seldom crowded...perhaps because the drive itself is so nice, the only walking most people do is between their car and the scenic lookouts........The maikiki Heights area below the forest reserve is one of the most exclusive residential areas in Honolulu......There's a bus service as far as Maikiki Heights but none around the Tantalus-Round Top loop drive.....the park entrance is 2.5 miles up round top Dr from maikiki st....

we started south of Maikiki street , on Wilder ave,..and as we didn't have all of this wonderful information beforehand, began our adventure from Mott-smith drive, which is a very steep (for those of you with treadmill experience, an incline of at least 15), it was really steep,..and also about a 1/2 mile west of the street we should have been taking to get to any trailheads. It winds around in a half circle up and up and up, we passed the contemporary museum and at some point after that met a jogger who told us we were waaaay far away from any trail heads and gave us some directions to get to round top drive where there are some trailheads,..

Well,..the first hour or so was hard but splendid,..Both Rich and I were happy to be out and about, taking in the scenery and we were both enjoying the hard exercise, thinking it wouldn't be much longer until we hit a trail.

There were beautiful homes, beautiful flora and the views from a few driveways we passed were beautiful.

Far above Waikiki . The next 2 hours were a little more difficult. I was starting to believe there was no nature reserve,..ergo no park, no trails, we were duped! every mango tree we passed was fenced in very well,..

I was starting to get a little weary and then Rich said "yo gym girl, thought you could hack this kind of thing, haven't you been working out for a year,..you're just psyching yourself out!"

Which made me a little peeved, so I mustered up whatever little demons I had and, not wanting to be shown up, started plowing up the road ahead, muttering to myself, passing Rich who was calling out to me and laughing the whole way,.saying "wait where are you going, wait up,..I was kidding,.etc etc"

and then a miracle!

we were just about at a scenic view lookout on the mountain,..it was hot but all of the sudden it started to sprinkle,..a nice cool breeze blew by and I looked up and out into the valley and I saw for the first time in my life, a double rainbow!

It was faint at first but stopped me in my tracks and I watched as it made it's way from what looked like the top of the mountain to the valley below,..it strengthened as I watched,... any rainbow I've seen have been small and faint,.you can make out the primary colors but this one,..you could see the entire spectrum clearly, the double was faint, and faded a bit by the time I got my camera out. It was absolutely the most beautiful view I've ever witnessed!

And then another miracle!

A car was parked and 3 people were also gazing at the rainbow, taking pictures, etc etc. We began talking to them. Turns out, our new friend Dana, was showing her parents around Oahu . Her step father grew up in Brooklyn , and we had an opportunity to chat for a while. They asked where our car was, and we proceeded to tell them we'd been walking up the mountain for the last 3 or 4 hours, trying to find the nature reserve where the trailheads began. They kindly offered to give us a ride up to the nature reserve (Dana had never known it was even there) which of course fed my paranoia that it didn't exist,..but it did!

We all piled into the car, and drove up another 2 miles (uphill) and saw the sign for the reserve! The honolulu watershed forest reserve, to be accurate.

Once we entered we drove another mile (uphill) and made it to the last outlook post. there was a parking lot and a kiosk. That's it,..well and signs to the trailheads. At that point we had already done enough hiking and Dana was kind enough to offer us a ride back to Waikiki , since she lived very closeby.

We made it back just in time to meet Cory who was coming to pick us up for dinner with his sister at her Ranch.

It was 6p

The drive to Cory's sister's ranch was just as beautiful. (her name is dana too)

The road we used drove along the coast of Oahu ,..To our right, there were beautiful sandy beaches and crags, and volcanic rock cliffs where the waves hit and sprayed water zest.

To our left were beautiful green and lush mountains, all jagged, they sloped for miles,.. Words can't even describe the beauty.

After a quick stop at the supermarket, we made it to the Ranch. Cory's sister, Dana owns the ranch and she teaches handicapped children to ride horses.

We had an absolutely wonderful time!

This was the night where Cory made his infamous steak! there is a quote that goes with this steak, but I couldn't remember it offhand,..cory email'd me the real deal: {And for the record, the quote about the steak was, "it brings nations together and restores peace to the world" Personally I thought the guy that told me that just got a little too into the beer cooler.}

They should ship it direct to the White House!

We also got to try the hawaiian version of sashimi "poke"

it was tuna marinated (i think) in some kindof sauce. Very good!

We were also joined by 2 other of Cory's good friends, Paco and a woman who was the female polo champion of Hawaii . She may have been the first female polo player in Hawaii ? I'll have to check my facts with Cory, before I start making stuff up,..

We all had a great time and chatted and laughed and ate,..

ahhhh

hawaii !

We were expected at the "W" hotel for a special girlfest party, so we all bade farewell, and Cory and Rch and I drove away from the ranch.

At the "W" we encountered a bit of a problem,..We were all dressed for "hiking and eating BBQ"

We had called Kathryn to find out whether there was a dress code and she said casual is fine,..

The bouncer didn't think so. After a small scufffle and major apologies from the staff, were allowed in. It's nice to be a star,..heheheheheehhe

So under dressed but happy to be there, (Rich was turned off by the whole affair and decided that he wasn't going to enter the hotel, his form of social protest, he went off for a walk)

We watched my aforementioned st louis friend, Jane, do an impressive belly dance, and hung out for a while talking and laughing and meeting some new faces,..

It was time to go,.JenEd and Jen decided to walk back to the hotel, Cory and Rich and I hopped in the truck,..Although because there were seatbelt checks going on by the local police, (we previously had squished into the front cab of the truck) I rode in the back. Funny how laws are right?

Better wear your seatbelt! BUT if you're sitting in the bed of a truck, that's ok,..ahhhh,..But not without a helmet!

Cory has an old WW2 helmet in the back of his truck and Rich, being the constant purveyor of my safety, said, hey wear this helmet just in case,..

So i did,..

they took pictures,.hopefully none survived,..

and that was the conclusion of day 3,..

we slept very well, I may add,..

more to come!