Aloha From Hawaii-- 2

We've been to Hawaii seven times in the past 20 years, so this time we were determined to do some things that we've never done before... and no I'm not talking about sex.

To force us into such activities, we purchased a Go Oahu Card before we left the mainland. The premise behind this venture is fairly simple: Buy the card and cram in as many Go Oahu Card approved activities as you can in the time alloted. We bought a three-day. Today was day one.

We decided to take the Waikiki Trolley out to Sea Life Park. We nearly fell over when the lady behind the desk told us that the trip would take two hours. We had just spent 12 hours on a plane. We weren't really interested in another 120 minutes on a trolley. But since we didn't find this out until after our card was activated we had no choice but to continue on with our journey.

It turned out to be fun. We boarded with all of our Japanese fellow travelers (my husband was the only blond taking the trip) and bounced around the back of the vehicle, seated just above the deafening diesel engine and endured several kidney-jarring bumps along the way. And the wind! Oy, the wind!

We stopped at Hanauma Bay and Sandy Beach Park. We drove through several mall parking lots (one had a bust of Jack Lord) and made a U-turn inside the crater that is Diamond Head. We were supposed to go to the Halona Blowhole but the Blowhole was closed. There's nothing sadder than a closed blowhole... just ask a dolphin.



Speaking of dolphins, Sea Life Park is one strange little place. It's a bit decrepit. When we arrived a sea lion was dancing to Footloose. The poor little thing was dancing his sea lion heart out... he was flipping his flippers and wiggling his butt and rolling on the floor. The crowd gave him nothing! Nothing! I wanted to pull him aside and say, "Matinees are a bitch. You don't get paid for the shows where you kill, you get paid for the shows where you bomb."

We stayed for about 30 minutes. There wasn't much to do. So, instead of staring at the dolphins all afternoon, we decided to hike to the Makapu'u Point Lighthouse which was about a mile away.

The guidebook said it was an easy hike, perfect for families with strollers. As we walked the 2-1/2 miles straight up hill we kept thinking to ourselves, "Easy?! Strollers?!" Turns out there's another hike nearby that's easy to do with strollers. This was the hard hike. The "walking straight uphill for 2-1/2 miles" hard hike! Our haunches will never be the same.

But it was worth the pain. The view from the top is one of the prettiest we have ever seen.