west coast, east coast

We can go weeks with never leaving the west side of the island, but occasionally we feel like a cruise to one or more of the other sides. Yesterday was one of those days. We made plans to meet friends in Waimae Bay for a little paddle boarding, rock climbing, snorkeling, and rock jumping and figured the Fourth of July party goers would be long gone from the beach and back at work…….we couldn’t have been more wrong. Hawaii had Furlough Friday last week so I never expected them to also have monday off. It was quite possibly the busiest I have ever seen the island. It was crazy! Haleiwa had lines fifty people long waiting for shaved ice. SHAVED. ICE. The traffic was also at a crawl, and every parking lot along the North Shore was overflowing with three cars waiting for one parking space. We basically went from Shark’s Cove to Waiamae and back, and then repeated, and then circled again, then popped into Foodland for some fresh fruit and poke, then searched some more for a parking spot. Our friends decided to turn around and head home before they even caught up with us, but we figured we’re in this mess, we can’t give up now.

Only we did give up on the North Shore. We headed east to Kailua where we did find parking, but for what..?

A friend of ours took his kids to the beach on Father’s Day and when I commented that we didn’t go because it was so crowded that day, he called us spoiled.

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West side beach:

I guess we are.