Merry Christmas Eve! Josh and I got up at 5:15 am to go watch the sunrise over Lanikai. We were joined by about 50 of our best friends as we apparently weren’t the only ones to think of this fantastic idea. It only takes about 15 minutes to get to the first pillbox (left over from WWII), but it was definitely a cardio workout, as the first five minutes were up a pretty steep hill (and we navigated this in the dark). After that, the trail leveled out for the most part so we made it up in pretty good time. Once at the top, we sat and enjoyed the coffee (me) and tea (Josh) we brought and took a million pictures waiting for the sunrise. It was gorgeous and a great way to kick off the day. After that, we went and had breakfast at Koa Pancake House to kill some time. I had Hawaiian sweet bread french toast with coconut syrup and Josh had an omelet…both were pretty good..mine was better :). Then we took cookies to the barracks on base for the Marines who didn’t go home for Christmas and finally ended our morning around 9:30 am with a stop a the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout on the way home.

Sunrise Slideshow (captures about a half hour before and a few minutes after sunrise)

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Waiting on the sunrise and the hike back down.