With all the adventures, we did hang out at the beach quite a bit. Unfortunately, because it was so relaxing and chill, we didn't take as many pictures.
We detoured to a not so wave-friendly beach first, so we ditched it and headed to Hapuna Beach on Kona. It was fun and crystal clear and had great waves. We stopped at the little stand at the top of the hill where I ate yummy fish tacos. Then we hiked down a bit to the beach and we played in the waves all day.
(and apparently gangster signs and what-not were cool at the moment for us. ah geez.)
Our hotel on Oahu surrounded a peaceful little cove. We rented cabanas and lay in the sun all day reading, eating, playing in the water. (Note: those lily-white legs in the background do not belong to us.) We explored the rocky beach behind the hotel a couple times too. Dad would talk to the fisherman and saw a big sea turtle.
Daddy and his son. Spencer leaves on his mission so soon! Ah!
One day, we decided we really wanted some good waves to go boogie boarding. Our hotel gave us some dinky little kid boogie boards with pictures of sea turtles and whales. They were not legit. But we really didn't care, took them and headed to Sandy Beach. The concierge told us if we wanted waves it was the place to go.
We were all excited. We packed a lunch, brought coolers and books, checked out towels and a chair or two, and toted our wimpy boogie boards with pride. It was quite a drive and we finally arrived at Sandy Beach. As we pull into the parking lot we saw a HUGE and I mean HUGE wave crash onto the beach. Surfers and boogie boarders--legit ones/natives--cover the water. There isn't a gradual beach either. The waves crash against the beach because the sand dips down into the water like a V. When a wave hits, everyone disappears, sucked in by the wave. Totally rocked. The picture below swallowed at least 20 people, no joke.
(don't let it fool you. it was intense. it swallowed up 20 people every time it hit.)
I can just picture us. A large, white tourist family toting all their crap up the beach, goofy smiles on their faces, holding a loaf of bread and styrofoam Wal-Mart boogie boards. So bad. All eyes are on us, like "You've got to be kidding me. Look at these noobs." As we walk on the sand, signs and posts are everywhere: Danger! Death or Severe Injury! Immediately, as soon as we plop our stuff down the lifeguard gets on the speaker, "For all of you who just arrived," --we are the only ones who just arrived, he means us in our noob glory-- "this is a very dangerous beach. People have died here. If you are looking for a recreational beach I can give you directions here at the lifeguard station." Mortified. So bad. All eyes still on us.
He could have just said, "All you tourist losers. Yeah you guys, the white ones. There's a baby bay up the road. Take your baby boards and bread and go to the baby bay, babies." I thought Bert would die of humiliation, especially since there were tons of really cute native surfers all around staring. She headed to the station with my mom to get directions to the baby bay--to escape the humiliation---only to find that the lifeguard was the hottest of them all. Haha. It was hilarious. We toted our coolers and toys back to the car just laughing and laughing and laughing. The whole situation was painfully funny.
My dad said, "I bet that lifeguard's saying to himself, 'I just saved 7 people's lives today.'" Haha. I bet he did.
But all was well in the end. We drove to the beach the lifeguard and suggested and it was beautiful. Simply breathtaking. Hardly any people. A gorgeous beach. Big waves. Soft, fine sand. Large trees for shade. Mountains behind us. Wonderful. We were thankful that we had been kicked out to the baby bay. The waves were still plenty powerful. We all had to hold onto our swimsuits otherwise we'd be skinny dipping. We gobbled down chocolate macadamia nuts. Spencer got stung by a jellyfish. We threw spiky acorn things at my dad's back. We wrote in the sand. We swam, etc, etc. So much fun. Loved it. The baby bay is the best!
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a couple of outlooks to explore.
The sign says Danger, so what do we do? Ignore it. Explore. Climb. Take pictures. (with Scott's phone)
We felt brave after our death-defying visit to Sandy Beach :)
Another great day of memories and stories made in Hawaii!
No comments:
Post a Comment