Kailua

The first weekend after we moved into our new place was ruined by rain and vog: volcanic fog that had drifted over from the Big Island when the winds shifted away from their normal direction. It was pretty bad but everyone told us that it doesn’t happen very often – good thing! After a day or too in our miniscule (and very expensive) apartment I was going crazy! Nick couldn’t even find any football on the TV!!! And yes, this is the extent of the apartment - told you it was miniscule!!!!

The Monday however dawned with gorgeous blue skies, light trade winds and a need for us to get out! We chose to head for Kailua, a small town over the ‘pali’ (apparently translated as “sheer sided cliff). It was our first time out of Honolulu. The mountains were beautiful – covered in green, green foliage that was so thick, you couldn’t even see a few feet through it at the side of the road. And so steep! They just go up and down – no way we will be hiking over any of those mountains! We were also surprised at how high they are – they just rise up form the ocean. Very impressive…

We arrived in Kailua and happened to jump of the bus outside a Mexican restaurant! What luck! We had been told there weren’t any out here (wrong Marci!!!) so we had to go in and have lunch! After that we wondered down to the beach. A few of my students had told me it was one of the best beaches on the island and our local guidebook said the same thing. Judge for yourself – here are some of the photos!

We had a nice lazy afternoon swimming and laying out and just enjoying the warmth. The water was a little too cloudy for snorkeling, but Tamara, the head teacher at the school who lives in Kailua, said next time we should head out to the island or Lanikai Beach and the water is much clearer for snorkeling out that way. Lanikai is supposed to be lovely as well, so we will def do that one of these days.