Day after Christmas..figured another hike was in order since we all had the day off. Love hiking up to the Lanikai Pillboxes and Ellen has never been up there. So we headed up in the early morning.
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| Headed up to the Pillboxes |
Hiked up rather quickly this time (thanks Yoga!!) Super windy day..major gusts of wind felt like we would be blown off the mountain.
Made it to the Pillbox and sat down to watch the beauty before us...my absolute favorite spot on earth ...Kailua/Lanikai
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| Rudy checking out the views |
After hanging up on the top for awhile we decided to head back down.
Once we were close to the bottom and the trail got real steep and narrow we saw 2 guys standing there looking at us. They stopped us and said “you will need to stand here and wait....we have a large group that needs to pass”...Ok, I thought...strange, but no big deal. I thought...why would some tourist group stop us from decending?
I started to notice strange things like how they were dressed the same (khaki pants, and button down shirts ) weird for a hike up here! Then I noticed more of them....all dressed the same...huh? …they continued to make us sit there and not move which by now was kinda irritating. I only saw a few people pass us not some large group! Why cant we go down there? I made a joke and said...what are you guys the Secret Service or something? Haha....Ellen followed by saying....is it someone important?? We got a good laugh at this later
Then I noticed the pins on all the shirts...metal detector wands and ear pieces, LOL...wow, think this IS the Secret Service. Duh....Rudy knew all along of coarse, Ellen and I were in our own world and not really paying attention to them. Once I realized who would be walking by us shortly I grabbed my camera. He looked at me and said...sorry no photos.....WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you kidding me right now?? I could not even believe what I was hearing. How can you possibly tell a photographer not to photograph something like this? Seriously?? I even said...please, I dont think the president would mind! He looked at me and said...”Please dont do that “ in a stern and pleading voice.
Are you kidding me right now?? I could not even believe what I was hearing. How can you possibly tell a photographer not to photograph something like this? Seriously?? I even said...please, I dont think the president would mind! He looked at me and said...”Please dont do that “ in a stern and pleading voice.
Right after that I saw his daughters go by and shortly after was President Obama himself...right in front of us waving at Rudy, Ellen and Myself....saying Hello and Merry Christmas...asked how we liked the hike etc...all I could think of was how horrendous this was for me not to get a damn photo. LOL..oh well
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| NOT my photo! Took off the evening news...hmm...they were allowed to take his photo :p |
Wether you like Obama or not, its still pretty cool to experience seeing the man that runs our country just hike on by you on a trail in our little town!
When we were allowed to go back down, we were greeted with about 10 cars full of Secret Service and a line of people who were trying to hike up the mountain and were being stopped by them to check bags, ID's etc...we apparantly made it just in time!
Walked thru the crazy group of Secret Service to get to our car and saw the big red X on our Jeep....guess they checked our Jeep too, LOL...cleared by the Secret Service
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| The Secret Service gang that greeted at the end of the trail |
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| Cleared by the Secret Service...guess the Jeep passed haha |
