The best place to body board in Waikiki is at "Walls." There is abundant coral in the area near the breaker wall, causing the waves to buckle and create body boarding heaven. Also, surfing is prohibited in this area, making even more ideal for the finned adventurers.
Jeff and I head down here often, though he ends up in the water more than me, since I dislike getting all goose-bumpy at sunset, the time we most often visit this beach. Something we haven't attempted yet is jumping from the end of the wall where the gazebo is. People plummet to the waves below every few seconds, though it's quite shallow. The smarter ones wait for the waves to kick up before taking the plunge.
While Jeff was in the water, I played with the camera, noticing that a group of early twenty-somethings nearby me had a few empty Corona beer bottles. I was inspired to bother them for a couple to see if I could recreate a commercial-esque shot with the sand, waves, sunset, and empty bottles.
The young woman I asked was great to give me the two bottles I asked for and then proceeded to tell me I could have as many as I wanted. She started digging more out of the trash bag. At this point, I realized they were planning to throw the glass bottles (100% recyclable) into the trash. Most people may have corrected these nice young folks, explaining that just a couple were wanted for some fun photo ops. However, I suddenly felt compelled to take all of the precious bottles to recycle them myself. A nice young fellow got the cardboard box they all came in (also recyclable) to make carrying easier.
I'm not sure how this all happened, really, but I walked away with a box of twenty or so empty beer bottles. I realized that Jeff would most likely shake his head and crack a joke about Miss Planet Earth or something after seeing the new addition to our pile.
Unfortunately, since the beach was pretty crowded, I couldn't get any shots that I wanted. After a while, one of the young guys came over to me and apologized for dumping all the bottles on me. He offered to take them back since they realized I was only trying to take a picture of one or two of them, and they didn't want me to deal with disposing of them.
I assured him that I was happy to take the bottles since I could recycle them. Yes, he looked at me a bit oddly, but I didn't care. Later, he came up again, once Jeff was back, to double-check that I really didn't mind taking the bottles. Once again I explained that I didn't want to throw them away. Jeff told him I do this all the time, kind of in a "Don't mind her; she forgot to take her meds today" kind of way. I know I felt better taking care of the bottles and the earth, even if my husband still needs a few more lessons on environmental awareness.
