Sandy's Beach

I got a random message in the middle of the day yesterday from Ben asking me if I wanted to go to Hanauma Bay for a little snorkeling. Even though I don't have any equipment to snorkel with I was easily convinced. Come to think of it, I'm always easily convinced when it comes to going out and having a good time :) I threw my towel and a bunch of stuff in a bag, headed down to their room, collected them, and we were on our way.
The bus ride wasn't that long but all of a sudden we heard "Sandy's Beach" announced over the loudspeaker. We got off the bus and I was told that we had missed our connection, sort of, and we could either walk back and grab a bus to Hanauma Bay, or we could hang out at Sandy's and ride the waves for a little while. I was all for riding the waves so we switched our trip to Hanauma to Sunday and walked to the beach.
As we were on our way, Ben and Rob took the opportunity to scare the you-know-what out of me by giving me all these tips about getting smashed around by waves, what to do if I got washing-machined (rolled under a huge wave near shore around and around, over and over, etc), and how to avoid breaking my neck, back, or other essential body parts. Apparently the beach we were going to has the highest rate of back and neck injuries on the whole island when the waves are high. Thankfully enough, the waves were incredibly tame in comparison to what they usually are.
To get out in the water I had to wrestle a few breaking waves but it wasn't as hard as it could've been. Once I was out there I just waited for the waves to come and roll under me. One minute I was touching the sand, the next a huge swell would pick me off my feet and I'd be floating like I was on air. The water was so clean and you could see the sand and bits of dead coral and small stones underneath you very clearly. I wish my digital camera had a waterproof casing because those would've been some amazing shots.
After floating around for a little bit, I looked towards shore and noticed I'd drifted pretty far to the left towards those rocks pictured above. However I was nowhere near them so I was still safe. But then, then all of a sudden I realized that I was really close to shore and that the water was getting shallow. So I stood up intending to make it back out to the deeper part of the ocean but I was looking straight out at a rather large breaking wave that was about to smash me to pieces. This wave was too large to stand against and it was way too shallow for me to go under it face first, so my only option was to lie down flat and get ready to rumble. I had about a fraction of a second for these thoughts to go through my mind so I threw myself down, held my breath and was totally enveloped in said wave. If you look at the picture with the rocks again and notice that rolling crashing mass of water and sand, that's what I got caught up in except it was a little higher and more violent. I got totally washing-machined, my arms were flung out to make sure I didn't smack my face on the sand or break my neck, and I basically got a skin resurfacing from being rolled across the beach underwater. Nice. When it ended, I tried to stand up and make a run for the shore but the current was pulling me backwards too fast. I managed to crawl to my knees only in time to see yet another wave coming straight at me. So I figured I'd play dead again and pray that this ride ended soon. This time I got really smooshed against the sand and the washing machine cycle took a little longer. When I finally was done getting all close and personal with the underwater beach I stood up, glanced behind me, saw another wave coming, and ran like hell! I managed to make it to shore this time without getting sucked back but my neck hurt, my hair was a rat's nest, and I was covered from head to foot in sand. I had sand where sand had no right to be!
If you take a close look at this photo, maybe open it in another window, read the signs and get a good laugh.
When the boys were done riding the waves we hit the showers to rinse off. That cold water had never felt soooo good as it did when I rinsed off the little grains that were stuck to me all over. I didn't get everything but I'd managed to make myself presentable for dinner. By this time we were all starving so we decided that a run to the Kona Brew Pub in Hawai'i Kai was a fantastic idea, which it ended up being.
Kona Brew Pub is right on the bay of water with a small boat harbour out in front, tiki torches lining the outdoor deck, and the mountains with a great sunset in the background. We ordered,pigged out on their food which was incredibly good, and then proceeded to demolish a dessert! If anyone comes out this way, I highly recommend the restaurant.
We must've killed a good 2 hours at the place talking, laughing, stuffing our faces. I got up in the middle to go use the restroom (yes this has a point) and when I pulled down my bikini bottoms I heard a splat. This was confusing in itself so when I looked down to see the problem, a pile of sand had dropped out. I'm talking at least 2 cups worth of sand had been stored in my bottoms all the way from when I got munched in the water to a couple of hours later at the restaurant. How did I not know it was there?!
Here I am with Rob enjoying my food, drink, and the warm, tropical breeze blowing...Jealous yet? Haha! You can kind of see the boats in the background and the tiki torches lining the deck. Close to when we were getting ready to leave they started up some live music inside and left the doors to the deck open so we could hear it.
It was a great ending to a great day once again, and the headache I have now still can't spoil it :)