Today we were going to take it a little easier – not! We headed to one of our favorite spots on Hawaii, Kekaha Kei Beach. Unfortunately, it has been discovered by the world. When we explored it years ago, we had the place to ourselves. This year we and about a hundred of our closest friends (or lots of strangers) had it to ourselves. Oh well, it is still wild and beautiful. After a quick hike to the beach through a very cool primeval woods,

we walked down to “The Queen’s Bath” – a lava tube in the woods that opens to the surface and winds back underground about a hundred feet.

Tom climbed down into it and waded through the numbingly cold water to explore.

I, on the other hand, did not. I climbed about half way down until I hit the water and decided – Not Happening!!! So I stayed above and took pictures.

Next we hiked farther down the beach to the Bali House. It is an awesome house built by the guy who use to do the TV ads for Paul Mitchell hair care products.  He had the house built first in Bali because labor was cheaper. Once it was complete, he had it disassembled and brought here to be reassembled. However, the humidity is much lower here and the wood planks shrank. It cost him more to take care of the problems than it would have to build it here in the first place.

Non-the-less, it is

an unbelievably amazing house.

Moving right along we continued our hike down the beach – just a note: hiking on the beach in soft sand is like hiking through glue – exhausting! Be that as it may, we trudged on to Turtle Island – a favorite sunning place for sea turtles. On the way we came across a King Fisher  taking in the scenery – very cool! It’s hard to tell, but he is about twice the size of a large sea gull.

 

We made it to Turtle Island and  swam across to check it out. Sure enough, there they were snoozing in the sun. We remained the requisite 20 feet away, but still managed to get a good shot

.

After a brisk swim in the bay, it was time to head back. It was a long hike back, but we had Mai Tais waiting at the house which encouraged us on.

Mai Tias and a beautiful sunset – another perfect end to another great day.