Life has been pretty relaxed for us causing me to get a little behind my daily reporting. I need to catch up, so here’s what we did yesterday …

Uhhhh … gotta think about this for a little bit because it’s all fuzzy. I remember that our main attraction for the day was to find a place to watch the Hilton Village Friday Night Fireworks, or HVFNF, if you are in to abbreviations. That’s not a real thing, but it’s fun to do and easier to refer back to it later on without having to type it all out.

The fireworks are ignited every Friday night promptly at the stroke of 6:45 pm, or 7:15 pm, or even 7:45 pm. What’s advertised isn’t necessarily accurate. Everyone here is on “Hawaii Time” which is code for ‘we start when we want.’ No one is in a hurry except some people on the freeway. There are always people in a hurry out there. Driving around at 35-45 mph all the time in, say, a Dodge 392 Hemi, or a Ford F-150 Raptor, can be frustrating. I get it. There should be places reserved on the island for people who buy such vehicles to let off a little steam. They could, for instance, open up the run way at Wheeler Army Airfield to let them go crazy once a week, spending the remaining ration of fuel on frivolous actions. Or, have a road rally from downtown Honolulu, up H-1 to H-2, go right to the North Shore, turn right on Highway 99 to Haleiwa, where Hwy 99 transitions into Hwy 83. Follow this around past the Polynesian Cultural Center and all the way to Kaneohe where you turn right to join H-3 which goes through the mountains via two tunnels, one of which is very long and the walls, of which, are completely covered with 4″ ceramic tiles. This is true. I think. At least it looks like 4″ tiles as you cruise through at 45 mph. Keep going until you encounter a stunning maze of on and off ramps for H-201 and H-1. From there back to Honolulu on H-1 is simple. The finish line should be in front of Ross Dress for Less in the Kahala Mall near where H-1 becomes Hwy 72. I have no idea how far that is but just consider the chaos if those roads were cleared so people could race their over powered cars and trucks. What fun!

Ok, got that off my mind so I can move on.

To reel off a little time while waiting for 6:45 pm, or whatevah, we decided to drive toward Diamond Head crater. It’s only 4.5 miles away and only takes 45 minutes to get there, according to the GPS. The roads took us through the high priced district that looked a lot like Hawaii’s version of Rodeo Drive. Pretty plush stuff. We made it to the crater entrance just after it closed for the day, but there was a parking area nearby. So, we parked.

In the distance, on a very clear day, you can see Maui. I thought I could see it but Diane said I was dreaming. Maybe I was. But, I saw something out there in the distance.

Here’s where we parked. You can see the tunnel that goes through the crater.

Then, it started getting a little darker which meant we should head for ‘Home’ to prepare for our walk out to the lagoon for the fireworks.

Here’s what we saw during that trek.

If you look all the way left you can see an aqua colored light. That Gilligan’s food cart in the parking lot that goes all the way out there. Our Granddaughter Gilligan thought that was pretty cool to have her very own food cart out there.

I just spent the last couple of hours trying to get the video I took last night to play on here. But it just doesn’t work. So, here’s a LINK to the hotel you can see a bit of it.

Now for some random photos that I CAN include …

Gilligan’s Food Cart, again …

Hilton Rainbow Tower

My lovely Bride …

We were surrounded by people that surrounded the Lagoon. We suspect that this is weekly entertainment for some families on a regular basis. Kids were everywhere having a great time.

OK – that’s it for #10.

Aloha