Our guidebooks keep suggesting viewpoints for sunrises and sunsets and we chase them fervently, however, most of the best are the ones that take us by surprise. Today we don’t want to be surprised and have planned our sunrise in the east of Oahu. Our drive along the windward Kaiwi coastline offers a surprising number
Diamond Head Trail at Diamond Head State Park is a well known land mark of Hawaii. Although already busy with tourists at 8-am when we arrive, it is a tranquil preserved natural environment with lots of birds and noticeable mongoose among trees and flowering grasses. The setting is a 475-acre crater with the trail taking
Pearl Harbour We rise at six. Our intent is to get the early bird free tickets given out for the USS Arizona Memorial site at Pearl Harbour National Park. Overnight there was a huge electrical thunderstorm and it is pouring with rain now. The view from our balcony is not encouraging. We truly believe we’ll
A day on the beaches. We walk the famed Waikiki Beach Walk, via the large hotel complexes lining the coastline. These are filled with tourists, predominantly American, Japanese and Chinese, and past the shopping centres such as the Royal Hawaiian Centre, Luxury Row and the International Market Place. Waikiki Beach is the miracle mile, the
A slower start today – we’re certainly not as energetic in the mornings as we were when we were camping – comfort zones can’t be good for us. We take a walk across the road to Dukes to shop for brunch groceries. There are at least a half dozen ABC shops on the way or
We have a small panic at 7:30 when Bernie starts to check us in on-line and we notice that our flight is at 8:35-am on our itinerary and not at noon as we thought. Fortunately, it was an old copy not updated and is at noon – thank goodness! A 6-hour flight on Delta Airlines
Yesterday’s glimpse of Mount Rainier in the gloom, on the windy, tree-lined road, proves to be the only glimpse we’ll get at this stage. It’s a misty, rainy, grey outside and snow is falling in Ashford, a town not far from where we are. The direct road to Sunrise which was open yesterday is now
MOUNT HOOD, MOUNT ADAM, MOUNT ST HELENS AND MOUNT RAINIER A very full morning of research and the daily grind. We realize that fitting in time for Mount Rainier National Park will put undue time pressure on arriving in Seattle. Suddenly, we’re leaving today, a day early to arm us with some distance before night
What we neglected to report yesterday is that we are on the “Lewis and Clark Trail” exactly 214 years later to the day. This needs some further explaining. In 1803 the USA purchased Louisiana from the French. President Jefferson was then keen to make sure that the USA had dominion over the western half of
We’re unlikely to return to Oregon any time soon so we slot in a two day visit along the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway of the Northern Oregon Coast via Portland. We arrive early, having travelled from Welches through the small towns of Sandy and Boring, to a fresh and wet Portland, Oregon’s largest city. We