Uncategorized

Second time is definitely not the charm (so far)

No Comments

Now that Brian’s back, I’m trying to slowly get him to do things. Friday after Thanksgiving was supposed to have big North Shore swells, so we took a chance and took Jess with us to go watch. We stopped at Laniakea in hopes of seeing turtles, but it looks like the trend is either big swells and no turtles or small swells and turtles.

The beach was way busier this time around and there were a lot more opportunities for pictures.

Jess is a big fan of boogie boarding and appreciated these guys for making it look badass.

I think I’m making this experience out to be less exciting than it was. I really loved going back. I think the waves weren’t maybe quite as big, but really what difference does an extra two feet make when they look gigantic.

Brian slept while we were there. It’s kinda just how recuperating goes. I was thankful to have Jess there and surfers to keep me occupied.

Then we took off and tried to find turtles further down the coast where I thought my Aunt had said they saw a lot, but we didn’t find any. Then we took off for Dole Plantation, strictly to get Dole Whip (no touristy other parts). If you recall, last time I went to dole I didn’t get any camera pics because my SD card corrupted. I was successful this time!

I tried the chocolate coating this time around and that was the wrong choice. I think I’ve just been lucking out picking the right choice the first time! That doesn’t mean this was terrible, I just don’t think Chocolate is a good match. I think the fruit topping is, though.

I guess overall this was a great day, except we went on an adventure for turtles and didn’t see any.

The Dole Whip was amazing, as usual, and I just made the wrong choice.

There wasn’t a lot of traffic and we were able to find parking relatively easily. I hear this can be rough, but both times it has not yet been… it might be a benefit of COVID or timing, unclear which.

Maybe my expectations are just being set too high. Anyway, stay tuned for another post about the second round being not so great.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

North Shore Waves

No Comments

A friend of a friend is in Hawaii (this seems to happen a lot) and she wanted to go see the waves on the North Shore because there were 15-20ft swells. So, we ventured up there last Wednesday. We stopped at my favorite Acai bowl spot, Hale’iwa bowls for a quick lunch, and then tried to view turtles at Laniakea. Turns out that during high tide and high swells there isn’t much room left for turtles, so there weren’t any out to play.

Then we ventured up to Sunset beach where she was told there would be a lot of surfers. However, on our way there we passed a beach park that was really active. We kept going anyway, but there was next to no one at sunset beach… so we backtracked to that busy beach and found street parking. This turned out to be the Bonzai Pipeline beach (also known as Ehukai beach). There were still only two surfers and two boogey borders and a ton of spectators. But, the waves were super impressive and fun to observe. The surfers are really far off from shore, so even as good as my zoom lens is, these are cropped which adds to the blurriness.

The surfers that were there did not surf a lot… there could be a million reasons why, but those first few pictures were a lucky grab from basically right when we sat down. So I took probably a million pictures of the waves, trying to capture the essence just right. Here are some pictures of just waves.

The white thing on this one’s head is a helmet.

This gives you better perspective of just how far away they are. There is still a lot of sand you don’t see.

Here’s a boogey boarder.

The waves created so much splash mist it looks like it’s raining.

What a sight to see. 10/10 recommend experiencing this once in your life. The swells don’t come often right now, I keep checking to see when the next one will be and it won’t be until well into November. I’m hoping Brian can make one day work, it’s just outstanding to watch. Glad Anna was there to push me to go see this one!

I recorded some video and captured good waves, you’ll see a boogey boarder at 30 ish seconds in.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

San Onofre

No Comments

Brian’s mom and I went to visit San Onofre which is a hugely popular surfing spot. Unfortunately there weren’t many surfers… but I still enjoyed walking down a new part of the coast. There’s a nuclear power plant that’s being removed, and we walked right up against it to view the coastline further down(seen above).

Saw this iconic VW van.

There’s one surfer!

It costs something like $10 to park for the day. Or you can buy a pass. There’s plenty of parking, but apparently there’s a forever wait in the summer time and cars line up starting at 4:30am.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

San Clemente Highlights

No Comments

My in-laws live about ten minutes from the San Clemente beach, so it’s easy to get out the door and explore the area. T-Street beach is a pretty popular spot for surfing and where Brian and I had our lesson a couple years ago.

There’s a really nice walking path along the beach that stretches at least two miles. Some of the entries are a steep walk down from the main residential area. You can see there are houses precariously close to the edge of the cliffs next to the beach.

Eventually you get past the pier and on this boardwalk which was damaged from some landslides for the longest time, this was only my second time able to walk on it since I first visited in 2018.

I was able to snap some pictures of surfers from the pier.

And observed some Halloween spirit on my walk inland.

It is definitely cooler here than in Hawaii! And I’m often found in my sweater. Still not quite as cold as the Northeast.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

USS Germantown to Yoga

1 Comment

On Monday afternoon we received word one of our friend’s submarines was leaving. We headed to go watch at Missing man monument, except after waiting an hour we found out we’d be waiting another 45 minutes, so we left before we saw a submarine. But, we didn’t leave before seeing this wicked cool ship. The USS Germantown (LSD 42)

It was HUGE.

I found the contact information for the Ombudsman on the internet and sent her the pictures. This boat is stationed in Sasebo, Japan.

We then headed to Diamond Head to find parking for a yoga class and took a short walk to see the Diamond Head Light house up close and personal.

And then went to the diamond head lookout and saw some surfing, cool wave patterns, and pretty shoreline.

We went and relaxed at the Lē’ahi Beach Park for a bit before Yoga started. I don’t have any great pictures of the actual yoga, or the full park, but imagine people in a grassy park doing yoga and extremely picturesque palm trees. I was still hurting from the hike fall, but I did my best. The sun set while class was happening and I was a bit distracted that I wasn’t able to take pictures. All the same, it was a peaceful class and I was happy to explore a different part of the island.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Kalapawai on the way home. And by that I mean she bought a salad and we both bought an ice cream sandwich. (I ate real food I had at home first!) It was DELICIOUS.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

North Shore Wrap up

No Comments

After the botanical garden I made my way to Hale’iwa bowls, a place specializing in Acai bowls. It was definitely the best one I’ve had on island so far. It was fruity but not super sweet.

I got the local bowl. It’s really hard to take a picture one handed with my camera. Apologize for the poor focus.

The parking lot had space for maybe… 10 cars? So it was a little crowded, but the turnover is quick and there was space even though I went at prime lunch time.

I never know if I can drive to my next spot before it completely melts… so I just ate it there. Then, I HAD to find my way to a beach so I can see the big waves. Ha.

This obviously wasn’t it, but it was a protected (from the waves) cove and I saw three turtles just by walking the shoreline. It was Hale’iwa beach park. I did see surfers… so I started walking along the beach toward them.

This is very zoomed and cropped, but I will for sure bring my zoom lens some day. I thought this crew was cute!

I was getting very weary in well doing at this point… it was very hot. There was a little bit left to a beach before I turned a corner. So I saw a couple walking back and asked if there was anything exciting to see around the corner, and they said “big waves” and I said great! And they were right. This doesn’t really give perspective, it’s really rocky so I imagine a terrible spot for surfing… but one day I’ll get a surfer so you can see how big they are. I would not go swimming, that’s for sure.

Looking forward to spending more time in this area!

There’s a category of photography called street photography. Professor Hines is one of my favorites to follow. Essentially you photography cities; walk the streets and capture some cool moment in time. I want beach “street” photography to become a thing. This would be one that I would put in that category.

After this I headed home. I would’ve loved to stay longer, I just knew my energy levels wouldn’t sustain it. I walked something like 5 miles… phew! So fun, and can’t wait to go back. It’s so much the same but so different.

Continue Reading