Pillbox Hike

Our first hike in Hawaii

After one month of living on the island, we were finally able to go for a hike. Moving to Hawaii during their hurricane season prevented us from going on hikes as often as we had hoped during our first couple weeks here. Although we had lots of beautiful sunshine, there have also been several days of rain consisting of flood warnings. Luckily, our first home was nestled up along one of the mountain ridges that flooding wasn’t really an issue for us. Now that we are living in Kailua, we are very excited to have beautiful trails right here in our neighborhood.

The Lanikai Pillbox trail is also known as the Ka’iwa Ridge trail. As you hike up this ridge there are breathtaking views of the mountains and ocean. Along the horizon you can see several small islands close to shore including the Mokulua Islands, also know as the mokes or twin islands because of their similarity. The reason why it’s called a pillbox hike is because there are 2 military bunkers (pillboxes) from World War II along the hike. During this hike, we went in the evening to watch the sunset so we only stopped at the first pillbox.

This hike was so beautiful! Although there isn’t any shade along the way, the trade winds are magnificent so we never really got too hot. Once we arrived at the first pillbox we decided to settle in and watch the sunset. Not only were we able to watch the sun begin to descend behind the mountains, we were also able to watch a full moon rise over the ocean and twin islands.

I was able to do this hike once before with my roommates when I lived here in 2010 so sharing this hike with Andrew was very special to me. I’m so happy to be experiencing Hawaii with him. It’s moments like this that remind me how hard we have worked to get here and how blessed I feel to have Andrew as my husband. It’s a wonderful thing to live life with someone who dreams big and who also believes in the beauty of your dreams.