On Thursday, I woke up around 6 am, ahead of my alarm going off. This was so that I could fit in a kayak trip up the Wailua River prior to departing the island. I hit the river around 7:30 am, paddled about 2 miles, hiked another mile, into see Secret Falls. Kayaking and hiking, combined, are the only way to reach these falls. After this, I hiked a mile back, and paddled up the river a bit further and quickly docked at the Fern Grotto (part of the Wailua River State Park) and got some photos before the 2 mile trip back, into the wind. That part was rough. But, I got back around 11 am, back to the hotel at 11:30 am.

A quick dip at the pool, lunch there, and a shower and I was ready to depart for Oahu. Having a hotel just 5 minutes (or less, maybe) to the airport, was awfully convenient. Pat and I left the hotel just 45 minutes prior to the flight and were not rushed at all.

Oahu is a totally different island, which we expected. It’s a lot more commercialized. But, even with that, Waikiki Beach is not nearly as crowded as you would think. Honolulu holds a great majority of all of the island’s tourists. About 30,000 rooms in all. There is Turtle Bay on the north shore, but most of the action is south in Honolulu. We’re staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort and Spa. It consists of: 7 tower hotels, on 22 acres, with 3,000+ rooms, 90 shops and restaurants, several pools, and it’s own private (2~ acre) lagoon. The Hilton has more overall oceanfront property than any other hotel on Waikiki.

For dinner last night, we walked down Waikiki, towards Diamondhead (our hotel is at the far west part of the beach). The sun set to our backs, and I got several good photos of this. Parts of the beach were really narrow and we had to stay on sidewalks. There was one part that was a good 10′ higher than the water. I loved it when the waves came in, crashed on the wall and splashed us as we walked by. We went to eat at the beachhouse at the Moana Surfrider (now a Westin hotel, but originally a Sheraton). It is the oldest hotel still standing on Waikiki. Very southern plantation-like. The food at this place was out of this world, and we paid for it.

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