Oahu! A Walk at Ala Moana Park and Waikiki

It’s always hard to return from vacation and it’s even harder to share your enjoyment without putting your reader to sleep. (Remember the neighbor’s slideshow of no interest to anyone but him?)

So I’ll break our trip into chunks and dole them out over the next few weeks starting with Honolulu, the base for the first half of our stay on Oahu.  More precisely, we stayed at the far end of Waikiki next to Ala Moana Park, a favorite of the locals.

The park is huge with broad beaches, wonderful trees and great views of Diamond Head, perfect for walking or reflecting any time of day.

I loved all the trees in the park especially the mysterious looking Banyan trees.

I also loved how the Monkeypod trees provided shade and a lovely canopy to bride and groom.

In fact we saw many couples ready for their nuptials – I counted three in the picture above.

And if you look closely you’ll find another bride and groom in the center of the picture below.

They’ll always have happy memories of Ala Moana Park and we will too.

But Waikiki is in the opposite direction and also deserved a visit.

Now, a bit on Waikiki. It’s basically composed of a string of beaches running two miles from the Hilton Hawaiian Resort to Kapiolani Beach Park. Waikiki Beach is one of them (mostly manmade) in the center. The area is iconic with luxury hotels and Diamond Head in the background and everyone visiting Hawaii should see it at least once.  But just so you know, these are NOT the best beaches on Oahu, being rather narrow and crowded with tourists. (I’ll show you some of the best later.)

Even so, I was eager to make the trek to Waikiki and in particular to see the Duke at Kuhio Beach. I started my walk at the Hilton Lagoon, alone; Bob opted to visit Pearl Harbor that day and we were both happy.

At times I had to skirt around eroded areas or take walkways next to the beach;

but I finally made it to the center of Waikiki

and the Pink Lady, the historic Royal Hawaiian, one of the first hotels established in Waikiki in 1927.

Soon after I was at Kuhio Beach and saw the statue of the Duke.

Duke Kahanamoku (1890 – 1968) was Waikiki’s legendary surfer and Olympic gold swimmer who popularized the ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing.

There’ll be more about surfing later when we head to the North Shore but now it’s time to go back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool.

More to come.

~ Susanne