Life From Under a Beach Umbrella (Hawaii, #7, July 25, 2013)

This past week, Theresa and I have visited a lot of Hawaii sites and enjoyed ourselves tremendously!  We have fit in varying amounts of 'beach time' daily.  Today we decided to rent our beach umbrella and lounges early and spend the entire day on the beach.

Diamond Head, Hawaii, as seen from under our beach umbrella: What, oh what, will we do tomorrow when we no longer have this wonderful view!!

We used gobs of sunscreen on our exposed body parts, SPF-100 for my pale skin and SPF-8 or -50 for Theresa's already tanned body.

The very, very mellow Theresa.

Here was our world today:

 Sights:
*Women and men on beach lounge chairs under umbrellas or on beach towels, sleeping, reading, watching everyone else or applying sunscreen to back and shoulders, children either in the water or coming out of the water but never still;
*Sailboats (there is a new color of sail today: pink!), catamarans (Those close to the shore are always rocking.), outrigger canoes, navy vessels, cruise ships, assorted boats;
*LOTS OF SAND!;
*Never-ending waves, getting taller with more foam as the day progresses to high tide around 3:30 p.m.;
*Para-sailors in the distance to the west;
*Hats: many different kinds of beach hats of all colors and sizes;
*Beach toys: fluorescent-colored inner tubes and other floating devices; balls of all sizes for throwing;
*Tiny bikinis, both female and male; most folks are covered up;
*Little birds hippity-hopping on the sand (are their claws hot?), large seagulls gracefully gliding high in the sky;
*Sand castles in various stages of building; several humans nearly covered with sand;
*The parade of people carrying Surfboards, some at their sides, several balanced on the top of heads, some with the ankle straps still attached to ankles; one with an ankle strap attached to his hand;
*Body art!  an uncounted number of tattoo designs on various body parts;

Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii.

 Sounds:
*The Wind is stronger today; I have to wear my clear goggles to protect my eyes;
*Waves: closer up the hill to our chairs but never reaching them;
*Jet planes from the near-by airport, a distant roar; single-engine planes have a soft lazy hum; helicopters usually can't be heard unless close to the beach;
*Cell phones: occasionally one will ring;
*Conversations and children giggling, very pleasant.


Smells:
*only the saltwater!

Cutest sight today:  a little Asian girl with clear plastic, inflated water wings on her arms, no older than three, had a little pitcher which she would fill with water at the shore and gleefully sprinkle on the sand castle her father was building.

The Black Pearl:  for most of the week, a black pirate ship has daily sailed close to the beach.  We tease and call it "The Black Pearl," Johnny Depp's pirate ship from the movies, "Pirates of the Caribbean."  Where is it today?

Theresa's Excellent Adventure

Theresa has been thinking seriously about an outrigger canoe ride all week.  Today, she did it - in a big way!  Captain Ted put Theresa in the lead seat of the 8-person craft, because she "could speak English!"  The group paddled far beyond the beach area, turned around and caught a really good wave to glide quickly back to shore.  She was so excited and worked so hard, captain and crew asked Theresa to help them for the next four trips.  She loved it!

Theresa, the lead paddler, and group begin to leave the shore in the outrigger canoe.

Now they are almost past Diamond Head.

Surfing the Big Wave!

The purple boat is backed into its place on shore.  Theresa is the last to get out.

Ah, that was hard work!  Arms are sore from all that paddling!  Time to rest. . .

Alas, we are packed tonight, ready to go to the airport tomorrow!  Our Week in the Paradise of Hawaii has been the Best Vacation of Our Lives!