Dora Ruins Day at Beach

One of my favorite things to do on the Leeward side of the island is to head to a small, local beach down the road from Kapolei and look for turtles in the water. It’s actually about a mile down from a fairly popular local surf spot, but this particular beach isn’t surfable and the current is strong so whoever ventures in doesn’t go too far. So the waters are not too crowded and the turtles are easy to spot pretty close to the shore. A lot of local folks also like the location for their beach parties. And when the locals party on the beach it’s an all-day thing and they go all out. Vanloads of supplies, coolers, food, toys, you name it. Beach parties are a big operation.
On a recent Sunday morning my fave activity crossed paths with this other local fave activity…and in addition to the food and music, they set up a bounce house near the beach. There’s actually plenty of room to do it and in the past they never bothered me, but this family chose to set up a Dora the Explorer bounce house and then keep the generator on the whole time I was there. (In the picture, you can see the generator between the house and the utility pole.) It was loud and I have a hunch that the sound and vibration scared away the turtles. The tide was pretty high that day and the current stronger than I’ve seen in a while, so it wasn’t prime turtle watching conditions anyway, but I still think the generator played a part. I did see turtles come up farther out than usual, but the water was murky and you couldn’t track where they went very well. I sat for a while watching, but got kind of dizzy scanning the water and I gave up on getting any turtle pictures. I’ll check the surf report before I head out next time and avoid heavy currents.

I did take two shots that morning that I found interesting. The two kind of sum up the Leeward side for me. Looking to my left (shown above), I saw a pretty stretch of coastline, complete with blue water and palm trees. From the same spot to my right (shown below) I saw industrial facilities and a working smoke stack!