Diamond Head

Everyone's seen the iconic tourism photos illustrating a world famous landmark, completely devoid of any humans that would spoil the picture.We all know these scenes are either photoshopped to edit out the throngs of tourists or the sites are closed to the public for the shoots. Nonetheless, we all dream of these idyllic circumstances when we visit these places.

Brenda and I figured that if we arose at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning and made our way to Diamond Head when the gates open at 6:00 AM, we'd be the only living beings foolish enough to be there to watch the sunrise from the summit.

And so it was. Brenda set her alarm for 4:30 and we were out the door by 5:10. The 45 minute walk had us entering the State Park just before 6:00. But hey, wait a minute! As we round the corner into the park, we see a line of cars and tour busses at least a kilometer long! WTF!?! Who are all these crazy people? We were supposed to be the only ones here!

JAPANESE TOURISTS!!! That's who! Throngs of them. Some hiking up the 763 foot high hill, others riding their tour bus most of the way to the top. All armed with cameras or smart phones with selfie sticks.

So much for our serene sun worshiping.

Despite the crowds, we were already here so we soldiered on and hiked up the long extinct volcano in about 33 minutes, arriving at the summit three minutes after the sun crested the horizon.

Despite the unexpected company, the experience was worthwhile and provided us with some spectacular vistas and a little bit of knowledge.

Diamond Head was born by a single volcanic explosion about 150,000 years ago, creating an almost perfectly round crater measuring over 3500 across with a floor area of 175 acres. The peak is 760 feet high and was used in ancient times as a place of worship to the god of wind to protect against strong updrafts that could extinguish the navigational fires of the ancient Hawaiians.

The crater is known as a tuff cone and was formed as the ash fell back to earth following the eruption. Layer upon layer of ash accumulated on the rim of the crater and built up to form the ridge that remained once the lava had cooled. The leeward side of the crater is much higher than the windward side since more ash would have been blown in that direction. Huh! Ya learn something new every day.

On the way home we stopped at two local Farmer's Markets and sampled the offerings. Strangely, there are very few farmers at these events that are comprised mostly of artisans and food stalls. We came across one stall that completely blew us away. At the smaller of the two markets there was a kiosque operating under the name "Not Just Desserts". The owner/chef, a woman who had trained in France and Italy, has created gluten free products that are indistinguishable from their wheat based cousins. Using a variety of home ground flours, root vegetables and a secret ingredient, she has made by far the best tasting and textured GF foods either of us have ever tasted. We left her stall with a piece of carrot cake and bread pudding (almost weighing in at one pound) for only $6.00. She'll be publishing an eBook shortly that we will most certainly purchase in the hope she divulges her secret ingredient.Read more