We spent a lot of time at beaches during our two weeks in Hawai’i. All of us loved playing in the waves and just relaxing in the sand.
Inevitably, people were buried in the sand. Kyra insisted it was surprisingly comfortable, and it certainly kept her from getting sunburned.
Here’s Zaque as he attempts to “break out” by sheer strength:
A random shot of a wave slithering along the smooth sand:
We saw all kinds of little sand crabs. These guys were maybe an inch across, and they blended into the sand almost perfectly. You couldn’t really see them until they moved, and when they did, they were fast!
We did some snorkeling, but it wasn’t very popular with this crowd. I think we might’ve enjoyed it more if we’d been in places where there were substantially larger reefs.
Here’s Kyra diving for a closer look:
We saw a few sea turtles, which are always fun.
Riding the waves is always a hit. I was standing next to Laralee as one came in:
She went down. And so did I.
Zaque takes one in the back:
This time I caught a good hit to Laralee:
We tried boogie-boarding at a few of the beaches, but couldn’t quite master it. Alex seemed to do the best.
Laralee caught a big wave and tumbled hard. Afterward she looked a bit washed-up.
(She swore off boogie-boarding after that incident.)
Alex and Zaque both had fun rolling with the waves. They’d lay on the shore, just above the waterline, and wait for a big wave to come in and sweep them away. Here’s Alex getting rolled:
And Zaque’s swimsuit model pose. I promised him this will be in our family Christmas card.
Alex found a coconut floating on the waves:
These guys are formidable. He and Laralee spent a good five minutes smashing it on a rock and tearing at it to get it open.
Finally they were rewarded with some fresh coconut milk!
One of the places we went on Kaua’i was called Queen’s Bath. It came highly recommended, not only in our guidebook but also by several friends. It was, bar none, the muddiest trail I’ve ever hiked (even muddier than Haleakala, which we’d done a few days earlier). Zaque didn’t have shoes so he did the whole thing barefoot, including walking across the sharp lava rocks at the shore. When we finally arrived at Queen’s Bath, he expressed our opinion pretty succinctly:
Maybe on a “good day” it’s a cool area, but that day it was more like a tepid, stagnant pond. No thanks.
In the end, if you finish the day with sandy feet, it was probably a good day.
