Diamond Head Hike and Museum

Yesterday was a full day. We started out by going to Anna Miller's for breakfast. Kate goes there when she is feeling particularly homesick for the "old country" as she likes to refer to home. They serve breakfast all day long so it was definitely a win win for Jeff. Once we were fortified with fuel we headed out to Diamond Head and the hike to the top.

On the way up the crater side we saw this lighthouse.

And a nice gentleman offered to take a picture of all 3 of us together when we were at one of the overlooks.

A shot of the coastline. Isn't it beautiful.


The hardest part of the hike were the steps believe it or not.

This is the final destination of the hike. The top lookout deck.

I saw this kind of bird several times since arriving here and there is a plaque at the bottom of the trail that had pictures and descriptions of the birds of the area and this is a Brazilian Cardinal.

We hit the vending machines for some water once we got back to the start of the trail and headed on to another adventure. We thought about going snorkling but decided it was getting a little later in the day than we needed in order to allow enough time.
Jeff had read about a quilt exhibit of Hawaiian quilts at the Honolulu Museum of Art and suggested that he drop Kate and I off so we could check it out and he would do some exploring of town on his own. Another win win. It was great to share this exhibit with Kate. She saw details that were easily missed and seemed truly interested in learning about the construction and history of this unique style.
The museum, rather unassuming from the front but very unique inside.

Inside there are corridors that encircle inner courtyards with the different rooms holding the exhibits around the outside. Here is one on the courtyards.

This quilt got a lot of discussion by Kate and I. It was one of Kate's favorites.
Here is a detail of the applique stitch called the "chicken foot", Kate was quite impressed with how tiny the stitches were and how it added a lot of detail to the applique. Note also the quilting motif that was named "soda cracker".

Here is another very traditional Hawaiian style quilt. The colors are the traditional red on white with the stylistic applique.

Kate declared this one to be her very favorite. She liked the soft blue-gray color of the applique and the subject matter too, anchors.

Detail of the anchors.

This one was my favorite. The color combination is a bit unusual. The red is the background with a gold as the applique.

We visited the museum gift shop, which for being a museum gift shop, the prices were fairly reasonable. I bought 2 books for the granddaughters and a Hawaiian quilt book along with a watercolor poster.

We then headed back towards Kate's and stopped for Chinese for dinner. We got so much food we will be eating Chinese every night till we leave.

After arriving home, Jeff weed wacked Kate's yard, which took about 10 minutes. Did some tidying and sat down to watch some tv, which never happened, as Kate and I got out our lap tops and delved into Pinterest sharing things we love.


I have been impressed, on this trip, just how big and diverse this big blue and green ball we live on is. When you look out and about from a high vantage point you can get a good perspective of just how grand and amazing this world is and how small you are. It is truly amazing to try to wrap your head around how awesome our heavenly Father is. Just try to imagine knowing who every person is, where they are, what they are doing, and what they are going to do next. We can't even begin to be able to do that even with our most intimate family and friends let alone every person in every house, car, building, park, beach, etc., etc., etc. Yet we are told in the Bible that God even knows how many hairs are on our heads. He knows where every person is, what they are doing, and what they going through. He is everywhere at all times. How amazing is that.

Have a great day and be thankful that you are loved by a mighty God who loves you beyond measure.