Where's Diamond Head?

Things change. You just don't notice changes when you live with them. I've lived in the same town now for 34 years. It's changed dramatically from the way it looked 34 years ago. But for me it's been gradual because I see it all the time. Someone who moved away 34 years ago and then came back probably wouldn't recognize anything. Very little would be as they remembered.

I went to Hawaii 38 or so years ago. One of the things I remembered (other than the 2nd and 3rd degree burns over 80% of my body) was Diamond Head. So this trip when we checked in to our hotel, (Marriott Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa) the first thing I did was go out on the balcony and look toward Diamond Head.

I couldn't see it. I knew it should be to my left. Our balcony was angled on the right side of the building. That was why I couldn't see it. Later when we were walking along the beach, I was sure I'd see it. But I didn't. 

Diamond Head as seen from the lawn of the Sheraton in 1978

Where was it? It's just too big to disappear. It couldn't have completely eroded in 30 years. I felt a bit disoriented. I knew that I'd only been there for one week 38 years ago, but still it was in my memory like it was last week. The next day Mark and I went for a walk along Waikiki Beach in the direction of Diamond Head. We finally reached the place where the beach ends and I still hadn't seen it. (And who knew the beach ended? I'd always assumed that the beach went all the way to Diamond Head.) Now I felt totally disoriented. Mark told me he'd seen it, or at least he thought he had when he was out running that morning and that it was just a block or two away from us. That didn't sound right to me. It should be miles away. But fine, we would see!

We walked about two blocks away from the beach and then boom! There it was. Not in the distance as I remembered, but looming over me at very close range.

Then it started to make some sense. The coastline around Waikiki is something of a horseshoe. When I'd been there before, my hotel was nearer the right edge of that horseshoe. This time, we were staying in a hotel that was near the far left edge of the horseshoe, which put Diamond Head almost behind us. And since we had an ocean view, we weren't able to see it from our balcony. I don't know when they built those hotels on that side closer to Diamond Head, but many of them weren't there 35 years ago.

Our hotel was relatively close to Diamond Head this time. 

I don't know why I was surprised. Nothing is ever as you remember it. We were in Ohio last year and I was trying to find my way around Akron and absolutely nothing looked the least bit familiar and I lived there for a few years - of course, that was over 40 years ago.

And the moral of the story is, take lots of photos! Sometimes that will be the only way you can prove you aren't crazy.

Diamond Head 2016