Tuesday, North Shore

The waves were high today. Way high. Sunset and Banzai Pipeline were closed altogether. They were taped off like a crime scene. Waimea Bay was closed to swimmers. There were only a few surfing gurus out there, but still the lifeguards were on their bullhorns. Shark's Cove was all froth. The Young Amphibians were a little disappointed because they couldn't go in the water.

The surfers coming in said it was "different." They didn't seem to have had much fun.

The waves out on the reef in front of our rental were also high. The water gets shallow there; it's only about five or six feet deep even a few hundred yards away from shore. The waves don't break on the beach, but way out on the reef. I don't think people surf there at all. If they go under (and the waves can hold you under for a while, like minutes,) you could get torn up. It's great for snorkeling and splashing around, though, and safe for the Y.A.'s because it's calm from the sea-wall on out to the reef.

We cooked up food that we bought at the roadside places. The best things to eat here are not found in stores or restaurants, but from trucks. There are shrimp ponds on the northeast corner of the island at Kahuku and we passed them several times as we went back and forth from the famous beaches on the north shore. Open stands sell fresh fruit, too.



I have seen no Hispanic nor native southwestern faces here like you do in Phoenix but there's a great mix of people out and about. There have been several waves of immigration to Hawaii; from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and the mainland. I've read that there are only about 9,000 people on the islands who are of original Hawaiian descent. As in Phoenix you hear a variety of languages; but unlike there, no Spanish.

Signage tends to be hand-painted.





Much of the housing here is in some mild state of disrepair upon close inspection. It's not an upscale area. As I mentioned before: think "chickens in the road." The climate must be rough on wooden homes, which is what they're almost all made of. Peeling paint, rusty vehicles, mud, but with lush tropical greenery. The beaches are immaculate.



Lava stones are used for outside walls that function as fences, but not as walls for homes. That's too bad because it's obviously a plentiful local material and quite beautiful.

There's a cute little medical center nearby. It has eleven(!) acute-care beds and ten long-term care beds. I currently work in a hospital roughly thirty times bigger than that. I don't think they need my services as a nurse here anyways.

I'd have better luck opening up a professional sign shop.