Lanikai Pill Box Hike

The Lanikai Pill Box hike is known for its beautiful view, making it easily one of the top MUST hikes on my list.  I also have some love for history so the fact that the pill boxes were used as military look out points interest me too. 

The drive to find the hike is beautiful but finding parking was more difficult than finding a whore house in a red light district.  Martin Luther King Day had it all crazy, everyone and their mama was trying to hike or go to the beach.  All the street parking was closed and the vehicles that took the risk of parking on the street had tickets on their windshields.  The Honolulu police were not playing. At one point we saw a vehicle attempt to park on the street and as soon as the driver got out a cop car pulled up behind him.  We ended up parking near the Lanikai Monument (which looks like a giant penis) and walking the half mile to the start of the trail.

Totally phallic looking.

The start of the trail is fairly steep, uneven and slippery.  Lots of big steps for everyone. 

Thank God for this ghetto sign or else we would have never found the start of the trail.

Both my girls needed to stop and take breaks frequently because it was so steep.  Poor Zuri took the cake on being pathetic though.  She ended up being carried around in Ticklebug's backpack!

Thankfully the whole trail isn't steep.  A fair amount of the middle is only slightly inclined but still rocky.  Since a majority of the portion of the trail is flat the view can be fully appreciated.

The Mokulua Islands

So, I might be crazy but for a portion of the trail I smelled cilantro.  I asked the family if they smelled it and Ticklebug said he did faintly.  The family behind us smelled it as well and we laughed about how it can induce the craving of tacos. 

Fields of cilantro!

Hiking the highest part of Lanikai is very much like the beginning, it's steep and rocky.  Around this time I didn't get to really focus on enjoying the hike because the girls were, to put it nicely, unhappy.  Bug was was insistent on telling me that she thought she was going to have a heart attack and Monster was flipping out about how she thought we were too high.

When we reached the first pill box Bug, Ticklebug, and I all climbed on top to take pictures.  Monster straight up refused so we had to hop down.  She tried to bolt for the trail to head back but Ticklebug ended up picking her up and carrying to the front of the pill box for pictures.

The second pill box looked to be less than ten minutes away but we decided not to hike it since both my ladies were being bungholes and not wanting to walk any further.  Going down the trail was probably more challenging than going up.  Poor Bug kept slipping and falling. 

I would love to do the hike again with only adults, no kids and no dog.  Maybe just Ticklebug and me or with a group of girlfriends.  That way I can fully enjoy the experience and get to the second pill box.  It would also be nice to spend more time at the Lanikai Beach and perhaps paddleboard to the Mokulua Islands.