After an early rise and breakfast at Eggs'n Things (which came out to be more expensive than advertised in travel books), we got our rental car for the day and drove away... Not very fast though because they organized the Honolulu 2007 Marathon exactly on that day. Some roads were blocked and the traffic was re-routed, so we had to patiently wait in long lines of slowly moving vehicles.

We first stopped at Hanauma Bay. The parking lot is on higher grounds and offers a nice view of the bay. They offer a little bus/shuttle that goes down to the beach ($0.50) then back up ($1.00), but we prefered walking to better enjoy the view. We rented some snorkeling equipment to later realize what a rip-off that place was - with the same price we could have rented equipment for a week. This was our first time snorkeling and we enjoyed it a lot. We saw huge, colorful fish, which minded their own business - didn't even care we were watching them. The coral was not as colorful as I expected, but a little grayish (it is almost dead - according to some reviews I read). After leaving Hanauma Bay, we headed North and stopped several times to admire the waves breaking into the rocky coast and some (supposedly) picture-perfect beaches. We didn't like Kailua that much - a river flows into the sea right in the middle of it. Lanikai was not very easily accessible, but was nicer.

We made it to the Pali Lookout at around 3 pm. Unfortunately, the clouds decided to crown the Oahu mountains and obstructed what otherwise should have been an amazing view. After another half an hour, the clouds seemed pretty determined to hang around the mountains and ruin the view at Byodo-in Temple. Ringing the sacred bell didn't help much - probably Buddha is not into moving the clouds around for the satisfaction of the tourists who want better weather. Or - maybe - not immediately. We became luckier as we drove North (thank you, Buddha): while approaching Maleakahana State Park, Mount Kawela decided to reveal itself to us in its full splendor. Finally, I saw the Hawaiian mountains the way I expected: rough, green with dangerously high slopes.

The time came to look for other things we expected: surfers riding huge waves on the North shore. At Sunset Beach we saw some waves (not as huge as we were hoping for), we also saw some surfers, but the surfers were riding the waves only from time to time and watching them soon became boring. After watching the waves break into the rocks at Pupukea Conservation District we moved on to Waimea Bay to admire the sunset.

• Diamond Head
• Driving around Oahu
• Pearl Harbor
• Volcanoes National Park
• Road to Hana
• Haleakala and Makena
• North Kohala
• North Kauai
• Waimea Canyon