Sunday, February 10, 2013

Aloha to the Lanikai Pillbox


 

During my walk around Lanakai (at this link), I noticed a WWII pillbox overlooking the beach. 



When I returned home, I looked up how to climb up to this historic landmark.  It was suppose to be easy.  On Sunday morning, I drove my kids and friends back to Lanikai Beach. 


The trailhead was not easy ... it was a landslide.   


I clung to the fence to the first landing, offering a view of Mokulua - two islands.   


  
Plus a view of the Mokapu Peninsula.  It looks like a turtle eating a sandwich!  



Mokapu is home of the  Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH).


And then a storm blew over.  I clung to the trees as the wind whipped around the trail.  I yelled to my kids to crouch down and hang on!   My son looked ahead at the trail and assessed that I would never make it to the pillbox.  So we climbed down, wet, but satisfied that we tried.  



Here are some "shabby chic" mailboxes .... 


... incorporating a surf theme.



At least these homeowners are honest ...



... and their gate was wide open!   Do you have hiking story?  One randomly selected commenter from this week's blogs wins a book choice from my convention stash.  This giveaway is open to all readers. Comments are open through Saturday, February 16, 10 p m in Hawaii.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, February 17 at SOS Aloha.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii


 We should have heeded this tiki's grim warning.


11 comments:

  1. Only hiked once. It was good
    Kimh

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  2. Had some interesting hikes with the girl scouts - as a child and then as an assistant leader. We all got lost on one of them and it got dark but the leader refused to say we were lost - I just said we were having an adventure. And of course it started to rain. We eventually found our way back and we sure were wet and tired lol.

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  3. I do like hiking, but haven't don't it in a while.

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  4. One day while hiking at Red Rock we took a different path than usual and came across what we thought was one vertical flat rock, as we got closer we saw it was two vertical rocks and there was just enough room between them for us to walk through. The dirt under our feet turned into soft cool sand and the air became cooler because the rocks were so tall it shaded the area we were walking into.

    As we finally made out way to the back of the rocks, it opened into a really cool area that had a couple of small tree's, a few flat rocks we could sit on and it was so quiet and away from everyone we decided to sit back there and eat our lunch. it didn't look like many people had found this spot and we loved it.

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  5. I like to hie but Daughter number 2 has a prosthetic leg and so when we hike she will often sit down and claim it is just too rocky for her. We let her rest and come back for her later. She cannot feel rocks with her foot and she they roll under her.

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  6. No hiking story for me. City girl totally... and it's snowing like crazy lately!

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  7. Only went hiking once. I'm a city gitrl too!

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  8. I've hiked along a section of the Appalachian trail, a few steps with a dead weight 2 year old draped on my shoulders. You were wise to have only self mobile kids.

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  9. I've never hiked a day in my life. Mind you, I've a climbed a few hills, but only to reach places of interest.

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  10. I love hiking. And it is stories like yours (when things don't go perfectly) that you will cherish for years. :) We hiked a lot when we went on our trip to the Canadian Rockies. On one hike we wanted to see 5 different lakes, but only saw 2, because we were informed there was a bear on the trail ahead of us.

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