Sunrise hike to Lanikai Pillboxes

We woke up early Saturday morning and drove to the trailhead. Buffy was so kind to let Stella stay asleep and watch her that morning when she woke up. It felt so good to go do an activity sans baby! We got such a good parking spot, considering there are only like 5 parking spots right by the trailhead. It’s a neighborhood and so they have someone standing out there making sure you don’t park where you aren’t supposed to.

We started the hike and it was still pitch dark, we had our two headlamps which were insanely helpful. We hiked to the first pillbox and the view was great, but it was still a bit before sunrise so we decided to hike to the second pillbox. We got a really good spot to watch the sunrise and we just waited. More and more people showed up to catch the view.

At some point a guy set up his really fancy camera to catch a time lapse and told me to “be really careful my arm doesn’t move an inch to mess it up.” Right guy, okay, we’ve been here for quite a bit longer than you and you didn’t even bring a tripod!? Well, we tried but it didn’t matter because more people showed up and some walked right in front of his camera. It was pretty hilarious tbh. He packed up his stuff and left. Sorry man.

Other than that weird side story going on the sunrise was gorgeous! We were in the perfect spot somehow and we didn’t even know the sun was going to come up right at that angle. If you know me than you know I seriously enjoy finding the perfect spot/getting a great table, etc.. And after the sun rose we asked a girl to take a picture of us and afterward she said “we’ve been waiting for you guys to leave because honestly you got the perfect spot!” After we took a picture for them and walked away, Abe was laughing and I was like “what!?” Abe said something like “Did that comment just make your life or what? About getting the perfect spot?” And we laughed about that for a while.. even though I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, it is definitely true. Actual joy was brought to me by a stranger acknowledging I got the perfect spot for a sunrise. Ridiculous, I know, but something worth documenting for sure.

At that point we were hiking down and noticing all these people hiking up and we were thinking “looks like all the people who tried to catch sunrise but decided to sleep in.” Which is us 9/10 times, except without a baby we actually made it out! This hike was incredible and not too hard at all, with amazing views. I think doing it at sunrise was so fun and worth it, but even if you can’t make sunrise it would be worth it to go whenever you can. We are so glad we did this hike! It was the highlight of Hawaii for me, maybe mostly because we were able to go just me and Abe, but that still counts.

Thanks for reading!

Linds