Monday of many turtles.

Beach 69, so named for the number of a telephone pole near the park entrance, is steps from our house here in Hawaii. We swim in Waialea Bay almost every day, and this morning I checked out the conditions with Nancy. We were thrilled to see flat, calm water. The whole group soon jumped in, and we had a lovely swim along the north side of the bay to a colorful reef, then across the bay, then along the inside to our starting point. We saw turtles, Nenue fish, 4 kinds of urchins, and a large group of big, colorful Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, the Hawaiian state fish. Heather took some video of the guest’s strokes, which I’ll review with them tomorrow. 

Kekau found a twenty dollar bill at the bottom of Waialea Bay!

Kathy and Katie broke into a spontaneous artistic swimming routine - exactly the kind of play we encourage on SwimVacation.

I’ve been adding hikes to many of our swims lately, and that concept really started on this Hawaii trip a few years ago. The Ala Kahakai (ALKA) was designated a National Historic Trail (NHT) in 2000, composing a 175-mile coastal network of ancient, historic, and modern trails. It crosses right in front of our house, and gives us a nice connection to Hapuna beach State Park, just a mile away. It traverses a rough, scrubby patch of land that is criss-crossed by dirt roads. It’s the kind of place without many rules, there’s access to a nude beach, people camp in random spots, and there are no fences or signs telling you what you can and can’t do. We chose to simply hike, and arrived at Hapuna in decent shape, though a little thirsty and with some big Kiawe thorns in our sneakers. 

We swam the length of Hapuna beach and back, greeted by a lot of turtles along the way. They were getting tossed around in the surf as they ate their lunch of seaweed and algae off the rocks, and it made for quite the show.

We hiked back to our hale just in time for the evening’s entertainment - traditional Hawaiian music and hula dance. The trio of Kahi, Luna, and Angel performed for us, and even gave a Hula lesson to our guests.

Chef Dan put out a real Hawaiian Luau, and we feasted on Kailua pork and cabbage, purple sweet potatoes, and about a dozen other Hawaiian offerings including traditional poi. Local chocolates for dessert. Uncle. 

The EEs conspired to go stargazing at 3:30am, just after moonset, and we hear that it was pretty amazing. Thank you Katie for grabbing some beautiful photos of the night sky.

Hopper

Here’s a fun vid of our jam packed day. Don’t miss the turtles and the hula - just two things that make this place so incredibly special. - HP XO