'13 Day 1: Hapuna Beach and North Kohala exploration

This trip has already been a blur.  Taking advantage of the time change (meaning that I woke up at 3 am Hawaii time on Thursday and Friday) by managing work email / dealing with a few work-related things for the first 3-4 hours each day eased my corporate conscience but resulted in me falling way behind on this vacation record.  The whole reason to capture detail is so I don't forget (which I do way too easily these... what?).  Anyway, I'll try.  Kids are going crazy wanting Shave Ice so I may stop before I even start in this sitting.

Our first day on Thursday we hit Hapuna Beach early.  Guidebooks say this is consistently ranked as the best beach in the entire country.  It's often described as the "perfect" beach.  We liked it a lot, but read too many of these comments before setting foot on the beach to be totally satisfied upon arrival (you know how when you hear great things about a movie before seeing it, or laugh out loud at the commercials only to be disappointed to find those are the only funny parts?  or something like that).  It was a great beach.  We built a great sandcastle (SC1):

We just went where the castlebuilding took us with this one.  To the left is a football stadium (Ford says the Ravens are playing) and to the right is just your classic pile of sand sculpted to look like something more than a pile of sand.

Wave riding was really good (particularly for Ford, they broke in a bit close to shore for those taller), and the setting was really cool.  Our sandcastle was outdone by a guy who sculpted an over-sized muscle man sunbathing on his back - double life size.  Really cool.

After Hapuna we hit "Just Tacos" for a late lunch.  Then we enjoyed the pool at Mauna Lani Point, got orientated to our resort, and had a really great "transition" afternoon.  We finished off the first full day with a great dinner at (sorry for starting with a chain) Tommy Bahama's here in Mauna Lani resort.  Open air on the upper floor was great, but we were glad when they closed the shutters after a bit because the winds really picked up.  Great first night.

Oh yeah.  The kids had a spectacular time goofing around with this miniature pickle.  I can't remember who ended up eating it, but it entertained at least two of them for all of 10 minutes.

Oh yeah.  The kids had a spectacular time goofing around with this miniature pickle.  I can't remember who ended up eating it, but it entertained at least two of them for all of 10 minutes.