13 Shots: Sea and Land

Back from this year's vacation!!! We went to Hawaii again, this time for a few days on Oahu and a few on the Big Island. I took a lot of good pictures, so here's a sampling.

First up is from the first morning. Waikiki beach, just outside of the hotel we were staying at there. It literally had steps out directly onto the beach!!!

Next up is a couple of shots from Kailua beach on the West side of the island. I'd heard it was picked as one of the world's most beautiful beaches, so I decided to make that a stop. It truly was.

Fine, powdery sand, warm water, and surrounded by towering ironwood trees. Only thing, since it was Hawaii, it was raining on and off while we were there. A lot of it was just a little drizzle, blowing in sideways from the onshore breeze.

The next couple of shots are from Diamond Head. All the times I've been to Oahu, I've never been there before. It's a nice hike, with a great view!!!

I would have liked to have stayed somewhere not in Honolulu, but in typical fashion I booked late, and most everything else was not available. You can see, it's a lot like any other metropolitan area.

On over to the Big Island!!! This was on the evening we arrived there. On the way from the airport to our lodging, there was a scenic overlook point, and we pulled in just before the sun was setting!!!

The Big Island has a lot of areas of the black lava rock. We pulled off on the way to visit Volcanoes Park.

That was just as we were getting to the East side of the island.

The next day, we had headed up to the Northern area of the island, in search of a barbecue place, that turned out to be a guy who sets up his trailer there on Thursday nights. Sad trombone. Anyway, on the way back, we pulled off on one of the side roads marked coastal access. Not really beachy, but it was cool nonetheless.

Looked like you could possibly launch a boat there, or could have at some point anyway. In the second picture, you can see some yellow in the water, those were yellow tang.

Finally, we went to a beach just north of our lodging. It is called 49 Black Sand Beach, and the name is why we headed there. It was a really nice beach, but the sand wasn't all that black. It was more like pepper, some black, a lot of light to white grains. In the first shot, you can see Maui across the channel from it!!!

There is a lot of broken up lava stones in the water, and off to the sides. Given enough time, the sand will be more black.

Hopefully, there will be more from our adventures to follow!!!