Dean & Ginny's excellent adventures... Main Adventure Page
San Diego & Hawaii -- 5/06: << Part 1 Part 2
We
went in search of other Hawaiian vistas, beaches, and more waterfalls.
Some overlooks were more hair-raising than others depending upon the
wind--the photo to the left was taken at the Pali Highway Overlook.
Some of the waterfalls were at the end of some pretty fair hikes and most of them were higher than Waimea Falls at the Audubon Park. We didn't meet up with many other tourists on our searches for the falls. I felt like a 1930s "pinup girl" when I climbed out on the pile of rocks in front of these falls to pose for this photo.
The hikes through the forested trails were filled with bird calls some melodious, some not. Our favorite birdsong--deep, throaty, wonderfully melodious, and reminiscent of the mockingbird's long song--belonged to the white-rumped shama.
Sometimes
it was difficult to concentrate on the distant view when the close-up
scenery was so beautiful.
We drove up a convoluted route along a steep, narrow, and hairpin turn-filled road to the Puu Ualakaa Overlook. Several times we thought that we must have been on the wrong road. Once we reached this site, we were rewarded with a 180+ degree panoramic view that included Honolulu and Diamondhead.
To our left, across Honolulu, was Diamondhead. From here you can clearly see the whole Diamondhead crater. There's a park inside the crater and you can hike to the top--maybe we'll try that the next time we go to HI.
To our right, we could see Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force Base where we stayed for part of our visit.
The various military bases on Hawaii are pretty classy. Below you can see that some base housing looks quite nice from the outside. More housing, shown in the photo below that, looks toward a river walk with sausage trees--Hey Dean, Look out!
Below right is the Freedom Tower dedicated "to those who died so others might have freedom."
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After
eight days on Hawaii, we headed back to San
Diego. We spent another three days there while waiting for a ride
back east. Hmm... San Diego, what else could we do there? Of
course! The obvious choice was the world-famous San Diego Zoo.
I'd wanted to visit this zoo ever since Marlin Perkins transmitted his 60s
TV show, "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" from this zoo.
We
took a tour on a double-decker bus and then spend most of our
time there watching the birds in the open and in the large, walk-in
aviaries. 
The
aviary walking areas are at ground-level and in the canopy. Feeding
stations were set up near the walks to produce close encounters with the
wide variety of birds within.
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The colorful flamingos pushed their bills into the
sand for morsels, thus creating their funny up-side down flamingo
smile. When it was feeding time, though, they all raced over
to a zookeeper for better stuff. The ones sitting on eggs were the last to leave the area, but, in the end, could not resist the temptation. I imagined the nest sitter to say, "Hey, save some for me!" I hope her eggs didn't cool off too much. |
After three days in San Diego, we finally caught an east-bound flight on the US Marines' only Gulfstream jet--the type that are used as corporate jets. We were the only "space A" riders to accompany a general and his entourage to Andrews AFB in Maryland. We rented a car there in MD, drove three hours to Norfolk, VA, and finally got a flight back to Jacksonville. It's all part of the adventure.
