Here are my top 10 reasons why I love the beach:
1: if you're having a snack and get messy, just jump in the water
2: there is something for everyone to do: babies love eating sand, young kids build castles, teens/ adults play in the waves and sun bathe, old people lay around on the beach or on a float of some kind
3: warmth
4: catching sand crabs is always a thrill
5: There are pretty shells to find so it's like going on a treasure hunt every time you're at the beach
6: getting ready to go to the beach is the easiest thing ever...no makeup, no styling of the hair....easy!
7: people watching: when you're sitting around staring at people at the beach it's no big deal and you can often hide behind your sunglasses. If you sat around at Disneyland doing that you'd be a creeper. At the beach, no problem.
8: I do nothing at the beach and still feel productive. I can sit and do nothing and feel good about myself. It's delightful.
9: The tides are always changing so, you'll never have the same experience twice
10: salt water and sand act as excellent natural exfoliators
I got lucky finding a man that enjoys the beach almost as much as I do and by the looks of things, Patch enjoys the beach too.
When we arrived on Tuesday afternoon, we hit the beach almost right away. We got to Turtle Bay, put on swimsuits and sunblock and BOOM, we went to the beach. We just hit Turtle Bay resort and Patch had fun in the sand. We went home to get ready for dinner at Seven Brother's at the Sugar Mill (formally Kahuku Grill) and all of us crashed at like 8:30 PM.
On Wednesday, we hit Scott's favorite beach Wiamea and made the trek to Waimanalo beach park (about an hour away toward the east side). The waves were insanely perfect for boogie boarding. They were breaking out a little ways from the shore but weren't overwhelmingly big. Scott and I had fun riding the waves and my awesome parents hung out with Patch on the beach. We left after 4:00 PM and headed for dinner at this BBQ place near the military base. Dinner was pleasant and Patch made friends playing in the sandbox they had on the patio.
Thursday was my beach day. We went to Sunset beach in the morning, just me and Scott and Patrick. My parents had to stay behind at the place for some remodeling that they're doing. Scott and I had a blast burring Patrick and ourselves/ each other in the sand. Patch loved jumping into the big holes in the sand over and over again. We drove to Haleiwa to arrange our scuba diving trip and on our way out, we stopped at Matsumoto's for shave ice. The line was a little long but it was something that Scott hadn't done and mentioned casually that he wanted to do. He usually doesn't get too pushy about his "agenda" on our trips so, when he does speak up, I try my best to make it happen for him. That evening, everyone seemed kind of pooped but I did not feel that I got my fill of beach time so, my loving father took me back to Sunset for the afternoon/ early evening. We got home and made spaghetti for dinner and went back to Sunset for the third time to watch...the sunset. Sunset sunset sunset sunset...bla bla bla ;)
Friday
Saturday morning we had our scuba dive trip at Shark's Cove. I have snorkeled that cove more times than I can count but diving it was fun. I keep longing for dives with overwhelming amounts of sea life or strikingly colorful choral (we had some in Bali) but, I've yet to see any dives that really knock my socks off. The Bali dive was by far my favorite...and unfortunately it was my first real dive so, I'll always compare everything to that. Anyway, shark's Cove was cool. There were lots of swim throughs and caves to explore. We saw two eels, two turtles, and one huge puffer fish. I've never seen a puffer fish before so, that was enjoyable. Saturday afternoon, Ted's bakery opened up again. They were closed for some remodeling so naturally, as soon as we could we stopped by there. We got food to bring home because after a morning with Yiayia at the Dole Plantation riding the train there, Patch was passed out in the car. That was all the beach time we had on Saturday because we got tickets to the Luau and show at the PCC (again...we just loved it so much last Feb!). We accidentally showed up 2 hours early. Scott was told it started at 4 but our tickets were actually for the 6:00 luau so, that gave us 2 hours in the park which Scott seemed pretty thrilled about. We were able to ride the canoe and see a couple of shows including the coconut show in...I believe it was the Fiji area.
Sunday
Monday we snorkeled at Electric Beach. Scott had such an amazing experience last time with Doug and Heather that he wanted to go. I missed it last time because I chose to spend the morning with Melissa while the Moore family went to see Pearl Harbor. I've been there done that so it made sense to hang with Mel. Well, when Pearl Harbor was closed due to high winds, the Moores hit up Waikiki and Scott went with Doug and Heather to snorkel. Anyway, we got to do that together on Monday and it was pretty incredible. There were just SO MANY FISH! It felt like I was looking at a less colorful version of the reef in Finding Nemo. There was this amazing cosmic moment when I was literally surrounded by hundreds of glistening fish and it was so magical. Patrick was being playful in the waves too and that was super fun. He would just hold onto my hands and let the waves come up and scoop him up through my legs and back. Literally riding the waves in and out. It was adorable. While the area on that side of the island and immediately surrounding the beach isn't too pretty to look at, Electric Beach has lots of trees surrounding it and is really quite lovely. We headed back to the North Shore for lunch at Teds Bakery...again. Patch fell asleep...again....so we brought the food back to the condo...again. Patch slept until close to 5:00 but I didn't feel that I got my fill of beach so, I insisted that we hit up one of my other favorites: Hukilau. It was memorial day so, the beach was full of locals. It was probably a ward activity. There were tons of kids and the waves were decent for boogie boarding. Patrick actually finally showed interest in getting in the water so, we poped on his life jacket and got him on a boogie board. The waves were REALLY gentle but he felt like he was riding them. Every time we turned him around to face the shore, he would grunt and point back out to the ocean. We asked him to use his words and he said "thabway".
Tuesday morning we hit up Wiamea again and stayed there most of the day. We were probably there until 1 or 2:00 which is unusual for us. We typically go to Wiamea for just the morning, trying to beat out the competition for a parkings spot, and leave by lunch time. We wanted to soak in every last minute and it was truly the best day. Patch was comfortable in the waves. We were playing the water and playing on the sand. It was perfect. That evening we headed to dinner at a sushi place in town that Melissa and Ted liked. Patch was being a little bit of a pooper so, I took him on a walk outside the restaurant while we waited for our food. I thought about how incredible it was that we were able to take a plane to hang out in Hawaii at a place my parents own (thank you Grandma and Grandpa). They spoiled us to lots of paid for meals and watched over Patch so that we could play in the waves together every once in a while. We're pretty lucky.
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