Kaena Point State Park

Continuing on up Farrington Highway the next sandy beach after Barking Sands is Kaena Point State Park, or Yokohama Beach or Yokes, as the locals call it. Here we’re at the very start of the Park, looking back south to Barking Sands Beach.  Then North up to Kaena Point.

This is as far as we can go on the west side of the island. Well, we can park and walk all the way around the point, but there’s no way to drive it. When we want to get to the North Shore we have to drive all the way to the south end of the island before taking another highway up to the north, which is about an hour drive. (It’d only be a few miles if this went all the way around). We hiked it a long time ago, but not yet this trip. The kids are rebelling against me with the hiking lately, so I’m patiently waiting for them to get re-inspired.

Now you see the reef.

 

Now you don’t.

 

 

 

This beach is another popular family spot, mostly locals, and usually on the weekends. It brings tourists out here that drive up the coast and back, but I rarely see any of them get out and enjoy it.

Maybe a quick snapshot, or two.

Our neighbors like to come out here, saying it’s their favorite spot for collecting shells, but we like it best for the tide pools…especially it’s creatures.

We looked this one up today and learned it’s a Ha’uke’uke or Helmet Urchin.

 

 

 

The reef is always crawling with crabs. Can you spot them in this picture?

Wherever there’s good reef, there’s usually someone fishing it.

 

The pools on this side of  the park are teeming with algae, seaweed, anemone, crabs, helmet urchin, spiky urchin, snails, and countless varieties of fish.

 

 

 

Farther north up the beach the reef is a lot higher and drier, but we spotted fish jumping from pool to pool, so that was pretty exciting.

 

This is the end of the road. Literally.

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*aaaand one vintage shot from Yokohama*

(note little Jonas’ “hang loose”)

Vintage Barking Sands

I had to do it. I found a few old pictures from Barking Sands beach and I just had to do it.

Notice Jewel’s hands? She must have gotten sand on them..oh no!

Jonas snorkeled for the first time using a boogie board with a specially made snorkeling cut out.

Notice the practically empty beach? I wonder what Jonas is pondering?

He’s probably wondering how I screwed up the sunscreen that day!

Even his eyeballs looked sunburned.

Maybe that explains why he took his skincare into his own hands!

Vintage Makaha

Seeing that old picture of the kids on the beach got me to reminiscing. Reminiscing got me to shuffle through old CD-R’s. Shuffling through old CD-R’s got me to reminiscing some more.

We had friends that lived in a house right on Makaha Beach where the boys once threw a Frisbee and hit their very first piñata. The boys also tried out their first surfboard on Makaha Beach….unconventionally, of course.

 

 

Jacob was about five here, back when he used to let me give him bowl cuts.

This was one of our favorite Christmas’s. We had just gotten to the island and didn’t have a lot of money so we took the gift money my mom sent us and we decked the kids out in all the must have beach gear we could imagine. We put the presents under our wooden palm tree and were on the beach by ten in the morning.  I stayed on the beach with the kids while Joey and his friend walked into the deep blue for some scuba diving. Makaha Beach has such good surfing because there is a large underwater “wall” out there. The water forces up against it and since it can’t keep going towards shore it forces all the water up, created the large waves. This wall is a popular diving spot usually reached by boat, but the strong (and thrifty) can swim out to it.

  One of my best days was when we were at our friend’s house on the beach and we spotted a large pod of dolphins. We always carried our snorkeling gear in the beach cruiser and since we had plenty of adult friends around, Joey and I were able to leave the kids and swim out to the dolphins. We swam and swam, even when the other two guys that swam out with us gave up, we swam some more. And just when we gave up on finding them, there they all were…dozens of them…..circling around us! They would never come close enough for us to touch them, they just kept circling around us. It was AMAZING! Then just as fast as they appeared, they were gone.

Jewel spent her entire time during this stay (five months)….not touching the sand with her hands. She hated the sand. Despised the sand. She wouldn’t go anywhere near the water either. Boy has she changed……..

**All these photos were taken between Dec ‘02 & Apr ‘03 on an old Sony Mavica CD, my very first digital camera that was maybe 4 MP, but I only saved the pictures e-mail size. Yes, I am still kicking myself.**

****I had so much fun going down memory lane! expect more of it!****