Turtle Beach, Waimea Bay, Banzai Pipeline and Sunset Beach

Today is one of those ideal, dreamlike fantasy days here in Hawaii. It's exactly like I'd been imagining it would be.

It's Labor Day weekend, so we slept in... everyone waking up when they were ready. Eating breakfasts of cereal, fresh pineapple, muffins and juice. Lazily getting ready, getting suits on and into the car finally, having loaded all the snorkling gear and towels.

We headed west out of Wahiawa, towards Haleiwa. Our house is only a few minutes away, and it turns out Haleiwa is an AWESOME little surf town with nice shops and restaurants.

What a cool place!!

We turned north along highway 99 (Kameahamea Highway) and stopped at 4 beaches along the way. Turtle Beach was first, as we've heard a lot about the masses of turtles who swim there. We didn't see anything there except one large, dead puffer fish. Tourists were gawking and pointing at it.

Next on the tour was Waimea Bay. I'd heard so much about this place, and couldn't wait to check it out. It's got a lot more sandy beach than the other beaches... you walk across a lot of beach, by people playing beach volleyball, a huge surfing class, lifeguard stations, etc.

Here you go Alison, these are for you:

Third stop for the day was Ehukai Beach... better known as the Banzai Pipeline! Since it's summertime, the waves aren't massive, but they were still bigger than any others we've seen on the island! The beach here is very steep! I hope some of the effect comes across in the pictures! We'll be coming back here in the winter time when the huge surfing competitions are being held!

Our final playing/resting spot for the day's fun was Sunset Beach. It's the second day we've spent there (the pictures from the first day are below in this diary).

After we'd been there for a while, all of a sudden, we noticed a sea turtle swimming near the shore! So E got her mask and snorkle real quick and went out to get a better look. I couldn't get that great of a shot... but here it is: the turtle is the shadowy spot above the label.

We left Sunset Beach and went south back towards Haleiwa... and stopped along several surf shops, surfboard shops, etc. Lots of cool places to see and shop. Then we ate lunch at Pizza Bob's. Mmmmm Pizza...