Waimea Bay

Last weekend on Sunday, the day after I almost drowned in the torrential downpour of rain on the hike, the same group plus one, Juanita, went to Shark's Cove and Waimea Bay on the North Shore. It was my very first trip out that way and it was very beautiful!
We started out at Shark's cove for a little swimming and snorkeling but since I didn't have any gear I tried to get Juanita in the water past her knees :)
To the right is a picture of Shark's cove, apparently named for its shape. I don't see it but who am I to say? As you can tell it is very very rocky and shallow. Not an ideal swimming or snorkeling area so we got a ride with some friends that met us there with a car and drove over to Waimea Bay. The weather was really warm, as usual, and the water was perfect, not too cold, not too hot. It was also very deep and the waves were pretty big. They were fun to ride into shore because they gave you enough of a push to set you up on your feet before dragging backwards over the sand almost sucking you back in through the process.
There was also a nice large rock that stuck out into the ocean and everyone was jumping off of it into the water. It was really high but there was a lower ledge that the kids were jumping off of so I decided I'd give it a try. Now I hate heights, and when I say hate, I mean that I get a queasy feeling in my stomach like I'm about to fall over and no one will be able to stop me from plunging to my death. Not pretty. So the higher ledge was very much out of the question, although when I go back I'll jump it, I just didn't want to lose my top when I hit the water because it really is high. At least to me.
This is the rock that everyone was jumping off. You can't really see the ledge I braved but it's right below where the sun is, just set back a little. Getting up on the back side was a little complicated because the rocks were really slippery and the waves swelled really high and detached your pathetic grip in an instant. I definitely got banged around a little but I made it up and jumped a few times.
On the other side of that huge rock the waves were really crashing so we decided to have some fun and swim up over them to another bunch of rocks and climb up. Bad idea. The tide sucks you back and forth like you're driftwood and you have to time your strokes right or you don't get anywhere fast. When we got to the rocks I tried to climb up but I stuck my hand right where a herd of sea urchins had made their homes and got a fist full of spikes. When the next wave hit I got ripped away from my perch, pulled away from the rock, and then squashed right up next to it. I got away with a bleeding elbow and knee, but nothing major. I gave up since I didn't want to fight the urchins for their territory.
Here I am with Jennifer being very dorky, but don't we look so cool?! We thought so! Everyone was just hanging around, relaxing and the sand was so soft and warm that we just wanted to hang out for a while.







Rob and Ben were slave drivers and we decided to hit the road and get some food at Brew Moon, a local brewery at Ward Center in Waikiki. I highly recommend it, the food was great! Speaking of slave drivers, here they are! Rob is on the left and Ben is on the right (by default, duh). They're both really great guys and everyone had a fantastic day with all the sun, surf, and sand.


















Here is a picture of the river leading out to the bay. I have this thing for sunsets as some of you already know and I take millions of pictures of the same sunset. However, this makes it possible for me to torture people with 300 pictures of the same thing :) You can kind of see the lighthouse in the background, we didn't make it over there to check it out but maybe next time. The water is so peaceful here in the river compared to the huge waves crashing on the shore in the bay.














Here is the group on the way to the bus stop. We took the bus to Pearl Islands and then transfered to get to Ward Center and food. We got there around 9.30pm so they weren't serving the full menu but they had some appetizers and all of their pizzas. I got the Mediterranean pizza and it was really really good! At 10pm the place turned into a sort of club with some music, artists, and live poetry readings. It was the perfect ending to a fantastic day! Everyone was satisfied with the way the day had turned out, even though Shark's Cove was kind of a flop, Waimea Bay more than made up for it! Next time, we're gonna go out for Pipeline :)