Funny then, that we loaded up our beach bags and stocked the cooler, driving close to an hour (traffic) to our favorite beach on the windward side, Bellows, only to be greeted by thick clouds, a cool strong wind, and an angry looking horizon. Not beach weather. Even funnier is that we wasted two-plus hours in the middle of a Saturday doing this two different times. I say funny because looking up surf cams here is one of the things kids learn before being potty trained. Honestly, there are surf cams everywhere, since the surf on all coasts varies dramatically from each other and changes throughout the day. The weather is extremely difficult to predict and also morphs from rainy, dreary morning to blue skies paradise and back again before ending with a breathtaking painting at sunset. All we needed to do was look up a surf cam and save ourselves a trip and major disappointment.
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...
So a couple of weekends ago we were really itching to go play in the waves at the most perfect beach I have ever been to. While Jeff began gathering our frisbee, magazines, sunscreen, etc., I checked the surf cam. Once Jeff saw the big grin on my face, he picked up the pace of packing. After we'd both changed into our suits, we were off to take the Pali through the Ko'oloa Mountains. This is an absolutely beautiful drive, especially when the cloud cover is minimal. I take this route to Kailua every Thursday for hula, and never tire of the picturesque view from the tunnel overlooking the azure coastline.
Shot from a few miles south of Bellows.
Before making it to the beach, we paid a visit to the best plate lunch place around, Keneke's. With styrofoam platter in hand, we made our way to the side of the road near the entrance to the park. A short walk thorough a grove of trees leads to a most impressive beach. Jeff staked the umbrella in the sand while I set up our short chairs and sheet. Lunch was ono (good), a teri chicken, rice and mac salad plate with a fountain drink. Super local. The mac salad left me wanting.
Though this beach is gorgeous, soft white sand and all, it's rarely busy. Today was like any other with a few families here and there, a college student or two, loads of dogs and toddlers.
While eating, we watched some nearby beach goers who were pulling something out of the ocean on a stick. Uh, oh. I'd seen that trick before when a friend found and caught a Portuguese Man of War jelly several months ago. The MoW out here are small, like the size of a golf ball or smaller, but that doesn't much change the fact that the sting hurts like the dickens (or so I've been told).
Since our lunch was finished, I wanted to walk a little and investigate. Sure enough, they'd found a jelly, but it wasn't alone. Thankfully they float, so spotting them in the water is pretty easy, if you're paying attention. With several on the beach, I cautiously went into the water. People joke about being afraid of sharks in the ocean. Oddly, I've been snorkeling with a shark close by and didn't freak out, but the jellies are a whole different story to me.
Jeff and I splashed around and swam some, but I was completely distracted by looking for the jellies. After about 15 minutes I spotted one in our vicinity. A couple more dunks, and I was ready to get out of the danger zone. Jeff and I made it back to the beach without incident and took a walk. I saw probably 8 or 10 on our walk. I found out later that the jellies are more frequent during tradewinds. I'm guessing we'd been out there during Kona winds on most of our other trips, since we'd never seen so many jellies. The 10-day-after-a-full-moon rule only applies to box jellies. I'm more terrified of being stung by the box jellies sine they're much harder to see and don't float. I've seen them in waters I wasn't planning to enter, which was really neat, but still a little creepy.
Something else we spotted while strolling in the sand was colored glass. At first, we thought we'd stumbled upon a broken beer bottle. There was too much glass and an array of colors to be a mess leftover from a party, plus it was frosty and had very rounded edges. We'd found sea glass. I filled my hands with brown, green, light blue, and clear pieces of beautiful sea glass. This will be a nice addition to the sand and shells we like to collect from the beaches we visit.
Another quick dip to cool off was followed by a long game of frisbee before some lounging to cap off a fabulous Saturday.
I hope to make it back to Bellows a few more times before our stay in Hawaii comes to an end. Typically this is my favorite place to body board, but the jellies' presence kept us from enjoying the waves. All in all, it was still a very fun day at the beach and another perk of living in Honolulu.
Shot taken on a different day in late summer. Super fun for all ages.
Happy to have enjoyed the beach without getting
up close and personal with a jelly.
up close and personal with a jelly.
On to Waiola Shave ice!
