Where My Beaches At?

In the weeks leading up to our departure, I kept giving myself pep talks like "hiking isn't so bad, you can do it" and so forth. I even packed appropriate shoes. David is an eagle scout so I thought that he'd want to go on on some sort of nature hike (and make fires and build tents too). To my surprise and relief, he didn't. That worked out for me because that gave us more time at the beach!

Our favorite was probably Laniakea, a beach known for turtles coming onto shore to bask in the sun. When we got there, the turtles were a bit shy but they were still close enough for us to spot.
In one of the pictures you can see a lot of dark spots of turtles in the water, just hanging out and occasionally coming up for air or a bite to eat. David was ecstatic and swam with a family of honu. He may or may not have gone for a turtle ride. As he was taking pictures in the water, a big ass turtle pushed him out of the way. There were a few other interesting things to look at, namely these guys who were swimming with a contraption that looked like half of a rabbit cage. They tied half gallon bottles to their "raft" to prevent it from sinking and proceeded to dive for sea urchins. Then they cracked them right on shore and served up dinner!


Waimea was a fun beach, although overridden with high school cheerleaders and jocks. The water wasn't quite as warm or clear as other beaches. There was a small rock that you could climb and jump off:

We swung by Hanauma Bay even though we didn't snorkel here. It was still really beautiful from afar. We saw a lot of people stepping on the coral...and there was a lone surfer riding VERY small waves. It was kinda frustrating to watch them.


Ko'Olina was another great beach that I already blogged about...but because we had so much fun swimming with dolpins, you get a collage for it!


Waimea was also where we saw our last sunset in Hawaii:


Yes, that's me posing in the top left picture.