Waikoloa, HI - Day 6

Tuesday, March 23

Today is our last full day at the Hali’i Kai resort property in Waikoloa before we move to another condo location south of Kona. Andi and I decided a trip to the beach was in order this morning as some of the Big Island’s top-rated beaches are located here on the northwest side of the island.

I was surprised to learn that there aren’t a ton of white sand beaches on Hawaii’s Big Island. The typical beaches you’d see in Mexico or the Caribbean where sand stretches on for miles and miles. That’s because the Big Island is the youngest of the Hawaiian Islands and has a fairly constant volcanic activity making its coastline much rockier. Beaches here range in color from white to black to green formed from volcanic material and lava fragments. Today, we visited Waialea Bay Beach (nicknamed Beach 69) which is one of the few white sand beaches on the Kohala coast. Oddly, Waialea Beach gets its name from the number 69 utility pole close to the parking lot.

Right away, Andi and I took a liking to Beach 69 because of its calm, crystal-clear waters and shade cover provided by kiawe trees. The sun is so strong here in Hawaii, even in the morning hours, that it’s nice to visit a beach with some shade protection. Beach 69 was already busy by 10:00am, but we were able to find a semi-private spot tucked under the trees.

The four of us laid on the white sand for quite a while watching people snorkel in the bay and a few paddle boarders out on the water. After a while, Aden decided to try his hand at snorkeling, so Andi waded into the water with him. I packed our snorkels for this trip, but didn’t even consider that Tory and Aden (and honestly, myself) would need life jackets to hold ourselves afloat while we did it. Since we didn’t have any floatation devices with us at the beach today, Andi kept Aden in shallow water where he was still able to see a few fish swimming by without getting himself into too much trouble.

Beach 69 was so relaxing! We felt the perfect balance between warm and cool laying in the shade of the trees. Tory and Aden sat under a tree playing games and drawing pictures in a notebook for quite a while together. Because we’re visiting Hawaii for more than a few days, none of us feel the need to soak up every second in the sun. It’s perfectly OK to lay in the shade and read a book, write or draw. I know I was enjoying it.

While observing others on the beach, Tory brainstormed a new invention to keep people’s shoes clean while walking on the sand. She called her idea “Sand Stops” & was pretty proud of herself! “What slogan do you like better, Mom?” she asked. “Stop the sand & make it grand -or- stop the sand on the land?”

Around 1:00pm, Andi and I decided to pack up and head back to the condo for lunch. I could have stayed at the beach all day, but we were all getting hungry. For lunch, Andi made salads with leftover chicken for he and I while I made Tory and Aden spaghetti and pineapple papaya smoothies.

It was too hot to do school on the outdoor patio, so Tory, Aden and I did our math and reading lessons on the couch while Andi ran to the grocery store to pick up a few things for a picnic dinner. We planned to drive to the top of MaunaKea, one of the Big Island’s five volcanoes, to watch the sunset tonight.

It’s took us about 90 minutes to drive from our condo in Waikoloa on the northwest side of the island to the top of MaunaKea. Our ears popped repeatedly as we drove along Highway 190. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed in elevation. In hindsight, we probably should have stopped at the MaunaKea Visitor’s Center to give our bodies time to acclimate to the drastic change in altitude, but the building was closed (darn COVID) and we didn’t leave ourselves a ton of extra time to get to the top before sunset.

Always a bad sign GPS tells you it’ll take 40 minutes to drive 15 miles…

A park ranger sat in his pickup truck blocking the roadway up to the summit. I’m sure he saw us whip into the visitor’s center parking lot without stopping to acclimate ourselves to the change in elevation. As we approached him, he rolled down his window to ask how many people were in our vehicle and if we had any children with us. When I responded, “Two kids, ages 9 and 7” he advised me to watch them. I kinda laughed. Watch them? Like, so they don’t fall off the top of the mountain, or what? Well, turns out, the joke was on us!

Just past the visitor center, our bodies started to feel the effects of altitude sickness. Naively, Andi and I were not expecting that, but I guess we did just drive directly from sea level to 13,803 feet in under two hours. Aden was the first to turn seven-shades-of-green in the backseat, complaining that his belly hurt. I rummaged around our car looking for a trusty ziploc bag and luckily found one holding the snacks. The plastic bag was completely puffed-out from the change in atmospheric pressure.

At the summit, Andi hopped out of the car to take Aden to the porta-potty nearby. They returned a few seconds later and Andi said he physically couldn’t do it. “I can’t walk up there. My legs are shaking so badly right now,” he said. I was feeling pretty good actually, except for one small problem — I couldn’t stop farting. Seriously! It was like all the air bubbles inside my tummy were suddenly screaming to escape.

I took Aden to the bathroom, and he seemed to feel better afterwards. Andi was still in rough shape though. He said he felt really woozy. Tory seemed OK at first, but then she complained of having a headache. We all tried to eat some crackers and croissants to settle our bellies, but none of us really felt like eating. Tory and Aden wanted to leave without much interest in watching the sunset, but Andi and I urged them to hang in there a little longer.

The sunset was breathtaking and totally worth our pain & suffering. (That’s easy for me to say since I felt the best out of all of us!) As the sun went down on the day, it lit up the clouds in shades of yellow, orange and red contrasting the black snow-capped mountaintop in the foreground. Yes, there’s snow at the top of MaunaKea & quite a bit of it! The air temperature was a chilly 29 degrees at the summit which is hard to believe since it was 82 degrees when we left our condo just a few hours earlier.

Andi and I planned to hang around above the clouds for a while to look at the stars, but Tory really wanted to leave. And, honestly, Andi still wasn’t feeling so hot himself. The top of MaunaKea is one of the best places in the world to stargaze because there’s zero light pollution.

By the time we returned to our condo around 9:00pm, everyone was feeling back to normal. Wow! What a trip. Altitude sickness is no joke. We never ate our sunset picnic dinner at the top of MaunaKea, so the four of us crowded around the dining room table at our condo and ate a late meal.

Another fun, adventurous day on Hawaii’s Big Island! Tomorrow, we’re packing up and moving to a new condo on the southwest side of the island. Stay tuned…