Kailua Beach Park & Lanikai

This morning after loading our boards and checking out Makaha and Rest Camp we decided to forget surfing today and instead spend it sight-seeing, people-watching, road-tripping with some kid-playing. Jewel came along for the ride, and continued the vibe of having “an only” child. I used to be sad for her since the boys almost always team up, leaving her the odd man out. But now, In my selfishness, it’s been a blessing. If she had someone to always play with her, she wouldn’t need me as much.

Normally we’d stop 3.5 times before finding the right spot but today we hit it first park.

This fine white sandy beach is in Kailua Beach park, and it is pure turquoise heaven.

The stream coming from the ocean makes a natural lazy river, that Jewel and I floated down to this bridge.

Under the bridge were hundreds of fish and dozens of pigeons, each sitting on their respective nests.

After thoroughly enjoying ourselves on the lazy river and body surfing in the ocean we packed it up and went down a mile or two to Lanikai Beach. Here is no big beach park. Here you have to park in front of people’s houses, nice houses, houses that contain the rich and famous, and walk down a small public right of way pathway.

  (Doesn’t showing you the picture make you almost feel you’re here with me?)

Travel Channel named Lanikai One of Hawaii’s Top Ten Beaches, but today…it was just okay. It was very choppy and we had a dark grey cloud over us the whole time, plus the sand was very coarse. I instantly felt like we should have stayed in Kailua. Normally the crowds there would have turned us off, but we were so busy having fun in our own little world that we hardly noticed the dozens of kayakers, boogie boards and small kids. Here in Lanikai it’s quiet, and quite frankly….a bore. The highlight was the jewel of a shell she found. 

Today also involved a millipede, jungles, tunnels, low clouds, dark clouds, Cajun food from a van by a man that was once hit on by Bob Marley’s widow, Salvation Army and wild roosters on the side of the freeway. We couldn’t have planned a better day if we tried.

Lanikai on Dwellable