The sea was a lot calmer this morning. Our neighbors weren’t however and we could hear a couple of women loudly laughing away at 5:30am outside our window. It was a draw of trying to stay asleep and ignore them, or go downstairs to the pool and tell them how loud they were. Eventually they went for a walk and we woke up. This was our last full day. Coffee time.
Yulia and I walked for coffee again. We also bought some beans and cookies as gifts for the folks watching our house and dog back home. Winter (our dog) has been taken well care of this trip – that’s been one level of stress we haven’t had to deal with. We brought these back with some pastries and had half a croissant stolen by a pretty clever Hawaiian bird of some sort. Damn birds, but good taste in pastries I must say. Yulia grabbed a mask and went down to the beach to snorkel. I could see here from our balcony where I remained to write what you are reading because that has to happen during some time in the damn day. Just read and stop asking so many damn questions!
I could see Yulia sticking around the same spot the whole time. She was floating in the shallow water and kept circling the same spot. She came up after a bit and wanted my to download what she took from our GoPro. She had some really nice shots from a single rock that was close to shore. it was all small fish but they were cute and darting about. We walked back together and waded out a bit to look at the same rock from shore. There really were a lot of fish swimming about in a small space. The rock provided cover and food so you didn’t have to snorkels as such, just look down.
We walked back over the sandbags. At low tide you could see how far down the went. It looked like it was close to 20 feet here. I can’t imagine that when this place was built the original dune was that high, so erosion has been crazy on this stretch of beach. I really wonder if even the sea wall will work long term. Crazy.
For lunch we went up to Fleming Beach. This is the famous (in my family) beach where my grandfather lost his car keys in the sand. To this day I am paranoid about losing car keys. But the beach is still here and it’s terrific. We parked and went to find a decent spot. There was some shade on the east end so we camped out and went for a swim. I double checked where I put my keys first.
The water was warm, and the waves were just right. this area can get pretty rough since it is on the north side of the island. But the wind and waves were perfect today, just enough to cool you down and keep it interesting. The big wave action also meant that this was really soft sand here. We floated a bit then Yulia wanted to go a bit further up the beach, towards the hotels. She walked the shore and I stayed out and swam to keep up. After a couple of weeks swimming I’m a lot stronger in the water. I really should keep this up when I get back. Restrictions have ended back home, so I’m running out of excuses to not get off my ass.
About halfway on my swim I was joined by a small sea Turtle (maybe 2 feet across). He was no more than an arm’s length away from me. He gave a brief nod then swam off in another direction. That was pretty cool. We went ashore and followed the turtles to the far end of the beach. a family of them were feeding off the rocks, so the were splashing about and getting flipped over by the waves. No matter what you can’t stop watching turtles. It’s hard to believe they are real. I’m very glad they are protected.
We swam a bit more then headed up to our stuff. The problem with a finer sand at the beach is that it sticks to everything. We took our things and walked over to the Beachside Burger bar. There was a shower at the entrance, but it barely got anything off. Eventually we settled to waiting for it to dry then brushing sand off. This also didn’t work, but it gave us a hobby. It was a 30 minute wait for a table – the last time we were here you could just walk up. Now, just like everywhere else, there’s a line. The crew lounged on the grass as another attempt to remove sand, and I went tot the takeout window to see if I could get some cocktails while we waited. By the time I got through that line, made our order, then walked over to the bar and waited there for our order to get up, our table was ready.
We had a nice spot – conveniently it came with a cat. His name was Murphy and he lived at the burger bar. Our drinks arrived, and to our benefit, the order was entered twice – so we got a 2-for-1 deal. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Or a gift cocktail. Although it doesn’t have a mouth – unless you count the mouth of the glass. But you kind of have to look at that or you will pour the cocktail on your shirt.
But I digress.
Our Burgers and tacos arrived, and we were sure to share with Murphy. He did a great job of chasing birds away, and begging for more food. Good cat. This bar is a perfect place to watch the waves. We polished off all the cocktails and the guys ordered a few more beers while the girls went for a last swim since they wanted to be covered with more sand. On the way out, we found another cat. He wasn’t as friendly, and just ran off. We didn’t even get his name. I’m sure a bribe of food would have helped.
Back at the condo we spent the rest of the day just laying out by the pool. Swimming a little, resting a lot. We actually hadn’t spent much time sitting poolside this trip, so we decided to have dinner at the pool in the evening. I tried to call Joey’s for some Hawaiian takeout, but they weren’t picking up their phones. This meant I had to drive and wait. Fortunately Joey’s wasn’t too busy, so I was back before the sun started going down.
I bought way too much food, but it was all excellent. Kaluha Pork, Pork Lumpia, Banana Lumpia, Loco Moco. Just something light for the evening. The turtles came back out and were feeding on the sea wall again. We pointed them out to some new arrivals, and just chatted away poolside and relaxed. The sunset lit up the sky over the islands. It was a great finish to our last day.
Tomorrow we fly.
Cognitive Dissonance 