Beachin' on the Big Island - Day 6

It was another glorious day in Hawaii. Today started out quite similar to yesterday. Our alarm went off at 4:30am and we were up and working before the sun rose. Alison opened the curtains in our room so we could watch the sun illuminate the beautiful landscape around us. I took a mid-morning break to whip up some breakfast - crepes, eggs, sausage, and bacon. Having a kitchen is so convenient on this type of vacation. Sometimes the little things can elevate a trip - having an ice maker in the freezer or the washer and dryer in the room. These things just make life a little bit easier. 

We worked until the early afternoon with another quick break to make another chicken Cobb salad. We made a double batch of most ingredients yesterday so it came together quickly today. 

As we were wrapping up work discussed our plans for today. Or actually or lack of plans. We had a few ideas of what we might want to do - we were thinking about hanging out at a hotel pool or finding a beach. There was going to be live music at the pool this afternoon, which sounded appealing. However, after a brief discussion, we chose the beach.

We packed a beach bag and drove ~15 minutes to Hāpuna beach. Hāpuna beach is a large white sand beach. We took our chairs (once again they came in clutch) and set up on this beautiful beach. 

Alison read and napped in the sand while I relaxed. 

It was a hot day (ideal beach weather) so we eventually made our way into the water. One of the things we loved about this beach is that the sand was soft, especially when we played in the ocean. We spent a lot of time out in the water today. It was a fun place to spend an afternoon. 

The waves were huge today. We would stand in the water and watch for upcoming waves. We would then maneuver through the wave. Sometimes a wave wouldn’t break in the distance. It would come in close making a beautiful rolling cylinder and break nearly on top of us - these were Alison’s least favorite waves. These waves could nearly take you out if you were not careful. The ocean felt great today. 

We made our way back to our chairs. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing. We stayed late into the evening while the majority of the crowds around us slowly dispersed. We watched a beautiful sunset before also deciding it was time to leave. 

Back at our hotel, we rinsed off the salt and sweat. We also discovered we were both a little sunburned. We probably should have reapplied sunscreen, but it seemed late enough in the afternoon that we weren’t too worried about it. Oh well, at least neither sunburn was particularly severe. 

We had made dinner reservations near Hāpuna beach, but we didn’t feel like driving back that way. We canceled those reservations and stayed closer to our hotel. We ate at a restaurant called A Bay. It was great. We enjoyed the food and the service. By the time we finished dinner, it was late. Since we got up so early to work it had been a long day and also a good day.