How about some more photos of beaches?
First up...Kikaua Beach followed closely with Kuki'o Beach (they were adjacent to each other).
Kikaua Beach offered a safe, protected cove for the kids to swim and snorkel in.
Annika went snorkeling with her Daddy's help.
We took a little walk to the adjacent beach- Kuki'o Beach....you'll see why we did....
Is it a sea monster? No! It's a beached sea turtle! No, it's not dead. We did observe it for quite some time....it did move! And no, you're not allowed to touch these creatures. We heard/read that there's a stiff $1000 penalty for touching them. So we observed them from a safe distance.
The guidebook (which I'll talk about in another post) mentioned that sea turtles love to beach themselves here at Kuki'o. The guidebook was definitely right-on target with that remark! I'm not sure how many turtles we counted on our walk up and down the beach (as more turtles were beaching themselves as we were walking).
Makalawena Beach
This might be at the top of my list for favorite beaches on the Big Island. The kids might disagree...and here's why:
after driving down a bumpy "road" (if that's what you can call what we drove on!) you park the car and then walk on a trail ....on the a'a (or uh-oh) lava for about 30 minutes before you finally come to the beach. Of course you have to carry everything with you- beach toys, towels, cooler full of lunch & snack goodies and gobs and gobs of sunscreen. All the kids were employed in helping us get our stuff to the beach (& hence why they might have been grumpy about that beach! LOL!).
And here is Makalawena (say that ten times fast!):
Isn't it perfect?
So absolutely, divinely perfect...
and those are my freshly pedicured, turquoise-painted toes.
and since it's a fair hike to the beach there aren't many others there.
Of course there was Frisbee playing in the water (Uncle Ray & Daddy's favorite beach past-time).
Even Ava tried playing Frisbee.
Aunt Beth, Henry and Uncle Ray in the water. Can you believe the color of the water? Oh man...my favorite colors. Just absolutely incredible. I can't believe the water was that color!
Enjoying the gorgeous water!
and how about a beach rooster? We also saw wild goats on the walk to the beach (the guidebooks warns about them).
Of course....Annika digging in the sand. Making a Mud Pit. (in the sand? really?)
Some buried kids...Lily is fully buried under that hat (her head isn't buried- don't worry!).
Sploosh! Enjoy those waves!
And of course what goes in has to come back...and here's the walk. We had some tired kids dragging their feet on the walk back out. Some of them may have fallen and scraped up their knees on the uh-oh lava.
And moments after we got back into the car....
that isn't exactly a surprise, is it?
Oh, wow - you got some great photos! I feel like I should blow some of these up huge and paste them on the wall at my house to make it LOOK like it's a window and that's what's just outside :-)
All of those brilliant blues...what amazing photography! Including your pretty toenails :)
Looks like it was photoshopped !
Ava was brave to get so close to that turtle!