Our Last Day in Paradise :(

Our plane didn't leave until 9pm on Sunday night so we spent all day on Waikiki Beach. After doing a little shopping we walked the beach, laid out in the sun, and of course had food and drinks. I love this place and can't wait to return...:) We arrived back in Sacramento around 8am then an hour drive to Modesto. Needless to say we were exhausted, but this was a trip of a lifetime that I will never forget!

Diamond Head

I guess Diamond Head is the most well know volcano on the island. We hiked up it Saturday afternoon. It was quite a climb but well worth the view!!

View from our Hotel

We stayed at the Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio, it was a super nice hotel even though we didn't spend much time in our room. Here is the view we woke up to every morning. Surfers would be already out even as early as 7am. They probably were out before the sun came up and they would stay until the very last bit of daylight.

The Dragon Upstairs

After our food and drinks from Bamboo for Two we ventured around the corner to a little dive called The Dragon Upstairs. Once again a local hangout. We enjoyed some live music from a bluesy kind of artist. He walked over to us between sets and asked how we found that place? He was very surprised but with the internet you can find anything!!

Saturday Night

Our last night on the island and I had found these neat little places to go on Living Social. We started out toward China Town which was a 5 mile drive and it ended up taking us an hour to get there because we kept getting lost. Of course this did not deter us, we wanted to go to places that were local hangouts not touristy hangouts. Our first destination was Bamboo for Two Martini Bar and Restaurant. A very neat little hang out...and our waitress had only been in Honolulu since August...she was from Tennessee..

Para Gliding

Today I went para gliding with Jorge. He is a darling guy from Venezuela. He has a masters degree in engineering and said he got tired of the office and a 9-5 and gave it up to do this for a living. His wife is a vulcanologist and they have lived on the island for 11 years. I think that is such a neat story to follow your dream.. Para gliding is such a neat experience. We hiked half way up a mountain to the take off point. Jorge gave me instructions stating...the wind will catch the sail and pull us about 3 steps backwards, when this happens I will tell you to run and you run as hard as you can off the mountain....now don't worry you will not fall, you will be flying before you know it! and he was absolutely right, I ran about 3 steps and we were in the air. He flew me to about 2000 feet and it was an amazing view. I could see the island of Maui from this height. At the end of the ride he asked if I was up to doing some tricks....well, of course....he evidently didn't know who he was talking to!!!lol He asked me to lean from right to left then to stay left and we spiraled down toward the ocean at an incredible speed, of course he pulled us out of it and would go back up for another ride. So much fun. The flight was about an hour long and worth every penny of it....I posted some pics from my point of view.

Friday evening

After the sail we enjoyed a Mai tai and watched the sunset over Waikiki. The pictures do not do it justice.