November 30th - Honolulu, Hawaii

The sail into Honolulu was Hawaii as advertised - beautiful sunrise and
beautiful weather. Got off the ship and rented a car for the day.

First stop was the obligatory stop at Waikiki Beach. It was Sunday and the
last day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, so the beach was getting busy
nice and early.

Decided to go over to Diamond Head Crater to climb to the top. I have been
here many times before, but somehow never made the climb up the 753 foot
summit - there was a very long stairway at one point, but I made it and got
my "I made it to the top" stamp.

Continued on to Hanauma Bay, Sandy Beach and Maka-puu Point and Lookout,
making numerous photo stops along the way.

Stopped at Byodo-in Temple at Valley of the Temples, located at the base of
the Koolau Mountain Range with over 2,000 lush, green cliffs. This was
opened in 1968 to celebrate the centennial of the arrival of the first
Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. The building is a replica of the 11th century
Phoenix Hall of the Byodo-in Buddhist temple compound. The pond surrounding
the temple contains black swans and hundreds of Japanese koi, some of the
largest I have ever seen.

Continued the journey to the North shore with a stop at Sunset Beach, where
there is a surfing competition currently occurring at the Bonzai Pipeline.

Went on down the road to Haleiwa Beach Park for some more scenic views and
looked for the green turtles that can sometimes be found here.
Unfortunately, no turtles or whale sightings today.

The sun was beginning to set and we were losing daylight, so headed back to
Honolulu. Wanted to make an early night of it since I had an early flight to
Kauai in the morning.