Thinking Allowed: Stairmasters

After a few days on O'ahu our thighs are bulging. We have been taking advantage of the superb weather to go for lots of walk and swims. We knew our house would be near Koko Crater and both Jakob and I were eager to race up the 1,048 railway ties to the top. The girls had no interest in stairs and Aurora has became very poetic in her rants about hikes involving lots of stairs. When I got the chance I eagerly left the house running. By the time I got to the base I was already short of breath but set off anyhow to conquer the long stairway. It is a most surreal hike. Partly because of all the steps and the fact that it once was a volcano but more so because it is right beside a shooting range so as your heart pounds away the bullets bang in unison. Also, adding to the cacophony, is really loud music all the time because it turns out that the thing to do around here when hiking up mountains is to play music at full blast for all to hear. So there are bullets, and there are radios, and there is the heavy breathing and panting of all the others.

As I mentioned, Aurora had no desire to walk up the 'stair mountain.' But on a whim today I decided we should do it as a family. So off we went with Zadie the only lucky one being carried. The railway ties are really spaced far apart so I suspected it would be hard for little feet but the girls did admirably well. Sophia, as usual, astounded me with her stamina. She decided she didn't want to take any breaks and zoomed up that mountain at an astonishing rate, putting all the red faced adults she passed to shame. I tried to keep up. Her favorite part was obviously the section of railway ties floating on a bridge of iron rail with a ten-foot drop beneath them. While I was impressed with the girls' physical and mental fortitude, everyone on trail seemed to be impressed with me and would say cheesy things like "you are an inspiration" because I was carrying a baby and surrounded by children. No one would have said things like that in Australia, which makes me feel that it takes less to inspire Americans.

We also did another popular hike involving stairs (Diamond Head) that the children loved. Although someone stopped me to mention that the hike had lots of stairs and would be way too hard for us, it was anything but. The children adored the fact that we were given a numbered map of the trail, the fact that the trail was winding, and all the stairs and tunnels. The upper part of the trail was a loop connecting staircases, tunnels and viewpoints. All three girls insisted we do it a second time. And a third. And when a fourth round was requested I had to insist we hike down and promise we would return. At one point I asked Sophia "how many times do you think most people do this trail in a row?" "umm like 10?" she answered hoping that it would convince me to keep hiking the loop. So while most walkers went up 200 steps we got in over 600. Though Aurora still insists she hates stairs.