shave ice & gelato

I am always so mesmerized by the colors and the beauty of the ocean in Hawaii.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

I could spend an entire day watching the ocean foam. How beautiful nature can be.

Laniakea Beach, more commonly now known as "turtle beach", which is located on the North Shore of Oahu, is known for the Hawaiian green sea turtles that hang out on the beach on most days. They have been hanging out there during the afternoon and early evenings for about 10 years now that I am aware of. At first, only a few people knew of the turtles. Then the massive tour groups started to arrive. Now tour buses stop at the beach and the traffic near this beach is often almost as bad as a high surf day.

The first time I saw the turtles, I was pretty alarmed with how some of the visitors were treating the turtles. They were touching them, crowding them, and some were even trying to sit on their shells. Now thankfully there are daily volunteers that keep the crowds under control and try to educate the visitors so that the turtles are able to have some peace.

I have been lucky to be at this beach a few times when there were only a few other people hanging out. It is pretty amazing watching the turtles "just be" on the beach. If you are ever visiting Oahu, I would definitely recommend a visit to this beach, but go on a weekday to avoid the larger crowds.

Here are some of my favorite turtle pictures:

For everyone who needs a little beach right now:

I went to have blood drawn this morning (had to go first thing before I ate) and decided to stop at White Plains beach on my way home to hang out and read my book for a while. White Plains beach used to be a private military beach. It is now open to the public and is about 4 or 5 miles from my house. I parked my car, set up my chair, and started to notice a few people with cameras walking towards a spot a little bit to the left of my chair. I walked over to see what was going on. There, below a little mound of sand was a cute Hawaiian monk seal. I was so happy I remembered to bring my camera. I moved here 25 years ago and this is only the second time I have ever seen a seal on the beach (post on my first seal sighting). I talked to the lifeguard to find out if this was the first sighting of this seal. He said there have been 4 seals hanging out in the area for a while now.

After about an hour or so at the beach, I headed on home. I made a major change regarding my trip...no more Switzerland, and then checked the progress of the "where oh where my new camera could be". After clicking on 4 links to get to the progress of the shipment page, I was thrilled to see that my camera was finally delivered to my school. I jumped in my car and went to pick it up. I am really happy I chose this camera! Of course I just finished charging up the battery and have only taken a few practice shots in my house so far. I am thinking of going back to the same beach tomorrow to see if the seal returns to try out my new camera.

Anyways, here are a few cute photos of the seal on the beach. He or she was inching his/her way up and finally rolled over to snooze for the day.

I would recommend watching the videos full screen video mode to get the full effect. To view full screen, click on the little box on the far right after clicking on the arrow to play (click escape to exit full screen video mode).

Important tip: Never, never, never stand where the foolish people at the edge of the water are standing if you ever get a chance to see these big waves in person. It IS very dangerous! You can get swept away in a blink of an eye.

I was really stumped this week and almost gave up. I was ready to post this:

But then...

last night, when I mentioned this week's theme to a friend, in less than
a minute, she came up with this idea:

(I took this photo of the wide blue Pacific Ocean in August 2007 up on the North Shore of Oahu.)

Crowded Space:

Empty Space: