Capturing the Moment

  My sister is in town for a visit so I am pulling out all the stops on an adventure filled exploration of Oahu to show her my new island home. She has already been to the big island and visited me on Maui twice so she knew to arrive ready for adventure. Our first day started out at the lookout on the rim of Punchbowl Crater . From the top of the military memorial cemetery here you can look down and have a great view of Honolulu from the airport to Diamond Head. From this serene spot we headed down into the hustle and bustle of Honolulu.   We drove through Waikiki, behind Diamond Head and past the mansions of the Kahala district before arriving at the famous Kahala Hotel. A few weeks earlier my mom discovered dolphins and sea turtles here swimming in the lagoon which the hotel surrounds. Lea and I happened to be there during one of their dolphin experience shows so we sat and watched the bottlenose dolphins show off just how intelligent they can be. The surroundings of t...

Wall of MIA soldiers from the Vietnam War Just around the corner from my house stands a volcanic crater known as Punchbowl Crater. Created by a rejuvenation eruption series 100,000 years or so, Punchbowl is now a National Memorial Cemetery with the remains of over 53,000 veterans from WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. WWII Battles Diamond Head Crater   It is a surreal experience coming from the hustle and bustle of Honolulu and dropping into the serene crater of Punchbowl. The first thing you see as you enter the gates is a long drive heading way up to a huge white memorial. An information booth is set off just to your right as you enter in case you want to find anyone in particular who may be buried here. Then you pass rows upon rows of graves on the way to the memorial. My first time here I sat in front of the tile artwork learning a ton about the different wars. Each major battle, offensive, defensive, and front lines are shown on the tile maps. I wanted to ...

View of the reef Diamond Head Crater   The Hawaiian islands are amazing places for geologists to study. The islands are all volcanic, and formed over a hot spot in the middle of the ocean thousands of miles from the nearest land mass. These huge shield volcanoes are eroded over time and become weathered green peaks like those seen on Kauai and Oahu. Sometimes after the main shield forming eruptions have ceased, these volcanoes go through a rejuvenation eruption. These resurgent events formed some of the most well known formations on Oahu. Diamond Head and Punchbowl Crater are two formations that occurred a million years after the main volcano of Ko'olau became inactive. And both are examples of tuff cones, formed when fissures opened up under the reef which allowed magma to come into contact with the shallow ocean water. This built up steam which resulted in a huge explosion, sending pumice, ash, and limestone thousands of feet up. Diamond Head Summit The particulate...