A day off

Friday was a day off, another day of use-or-lose vacation time. I had a routine doctor appointment to review routine new patient blood tests and am happy to report I am a picture of health with cholesterol of 171 and other similar numbers. I don't understand the entire list of items on the results sheet, but I was pretty much smack in the middle of most of 'em.

Of course, the doctor was an hour late, but that seems to be the norm around here. Funny how I never had to wait that long in the three other countries we've lived...

Since it was a day off, I hated to spend the whole thing on chores, so after lunch, I headed up towards the North Shore again to see the big waves those beaches get this time of year. On the way there, I saw a sign for "Wahiawa Botanical Gardens," so impulsively made a right turn.

I was glad I had! These gardens were really nice, well laid-out, nice walking paths, and I explored part of them, enough to know it would be a nice spot to return to. There were mostly a lot of large green plants with a few informational signs, including that there was only one species of palm native to Hawaii, and no, it's not the coconut. I will have to return sometime and explore it more detail.

Then I kept heading up the Kamehameha Highway. I almost stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation to search for possible souvenirs, but the parking lot was too crowded, so just kept heading towards the beaches.

You climb for a few minutes with fairly flat land on either side of the highway, and then you start to descend and you can see mountains on your left with the ocean straight ahead. The sky near the horizon was a pale baby blue, increasing in gradient until it was a bright royal blue overhead. Fluffy white clouds completed the picture. It's a view that makes you want to sing Bali Hai.

I took a right on the bypass that circumvents Haleiwa (historic North Shore town) and kept heading east. The infrastructure up there is pretty minimal, and not many of the beaches have much in the way of parking lots. When I saw an empty spot of dirt, I pulled in, and walked along one beach. There were a lot of waves, but they didn't look like 20, 25 or 30 footers to me. Maybe 10. Dramatic, beautiful, soothing, but not huge.

Next place I found a parking lot was Pupukea Beach Park. There was even a red light to help you get in and out! I walked along that beach for a bit, feeling sand in my toes, and sat down on some volcanic rocks and just watched more waves rise, curl, crash and start all over again.

I drove next past Sunset Beach, where they'd just completed a surfing competition, and were in the process of removing stuff. What exactly, I couldn't tell, but looked like it might have been some kind of temporary bleachers. As famous as Sunset Beach is, that was one place I expected to see a significant parking lot, but no.

I drove past that a bit, stopped one more time, and then headed back. Walking in the sand gave me plenty of time to philosophize on disappearing footprints and so on. But mostly it was just a great time to relax, enjoy the ocean smell and the sound of the waves. Not think too much.

At this point, I was ready for a snack, but no luck. No entrepreneurs selling hot dogs. One stand had tropical fruit, but I wanted something bad for me. My cholesterol could take it.

I pulled in one more place, at the Waimea Beach Park, which has a parking lot and bathrooms, AND they had a stand selling chips and cookies! My kind of place. But no empty spots, so I was saved from myself and kept driving home.

A little after 3pm, I was home again, and went out to sit and read by the pool. We've had a lot of nice days since that beautiful Thanksgiving Day, and it's been a welcome relief from six weeks of mostly cloud and rain in Oct/Nov. We'll have plenty of both in the next couple of months, so I'm treasuring these moments of fluffy cloud and blue sky.