Diamond Head and dinner yesterday (Sunday)

[beowabbit]

Yesterday (Sunday), sionnagh and I hiked up Diamond Head again. I forgot to bring my camera this time, but this is the same hike the three of us did in early November, so you can see pictures from last time at http://www.aq.org/~js/gallery/2003.11.05-diamondhead/.

About halfway up, we ran into a newly-married couple from Illinois, one of whom went to Western Illinois University, the school in my home town (Macomb), where my mother and stepfather work, and where my father used to teach, and where I went for three years before coming out east. That was entertaining; it's not often I run into people who've heard of Macomb, Illinois, much less been there. They were friendly.

As sionnagh and I were climing up a particularly steep and long stretch of stairs near the top of the crater, I mentioned (as I thought) quietly to her that this was indeed an excellent staircase with many sterling qualities, but the one thing it didn't have quite enough of was short skirts. I thought I was speaking so only sionnagh could hear me, but our friends from the prairie were nearby and exploded in a paroxysm of laughter -- made the more inconvenient because everybody was pretty winded to start with.

After the hike -- which seemed a bit quicker this time than last time -- sionnagh and I wandered around downtown Honolulu looking for someplace that might serve dim-sum in the evening. We didn't find that, but we did end up at a particularly yummy Thai restaurant, where sionnagh had seafood in a yellow curry, I had outstanding spicy beef Masaman curry, and we shared a generous order of fresh spring rolls as an appetizer. sionnagh finished with mango ice cream, of which I had a few bites.

Today (Monday) we're planning on meeting some friends at the water park, but that may depend on the weather; it's been raining off and on all day. Tomorrow the plan is to go kayaking, and Wednesday (New Year's Eve) we'll be going to a flea market (where hopefully I can finally get some postcards!) and then having a little New Year's Eve party here.