Ah, Christmas in the sand...
We were pretty chill on Christmas morning. We hung out on the beach, called and texted family and friends, and did some FaceTime with Karlee's family. That was fun. I'm sure they were missing her. I told her that if you have to spend your first Christmas away from home, at least you get to spend it in Hawaii! We wanted to do some snorkeling in the afternoon, but the surf was really huge this day!
We ended up at Waimea Bay, where the surf was REALLY huge! Every other time we passed Waimea, it was beautiful and calm, but on this day it was a crazy scene. The beach was caution taped with warning signs everywhere. The lifeguards were shouting warnings on the loudspeaker the whole time: "Welcome to one of the most dangerous beaches in the world." "If you have no fins and no experience, stay out of the water." "Keep your kids away from the berm, they could be washed out to sea." Even with all those warnings, there were still lots of insane people getting in the water. The lifeguards would point people out: "Swimmer on the right side, you're getting too close to the rocks." "All you swimmers out there, start paddling now, swim to the beach." "Do not go past the tower, you won't be able to get back." There were some surfers and boogie boarders who were experienced and, no doubt, were having some sweet rides on those waves!
At one point, we saw a dramatic sea rescue. Some surfers were waving their arms out by the big waves, and the lifeguards sent out a jet ski. When they came in, they put the surfer on a stretcher and hauled her up toward the parking lot. When we could see her up close, we recognized her! She had passed us as we were walking on to the sand, and Wes had even told her group to have fun. She had a big gash in her leg. Pretty soon we heard the ambulance coming to pick her up. The whole thing was a little unnerving, like something from a movie. I'm glad no one in my family wanted to brave the water. And have I mentioned how nice it is to travel with adults?
No comments:
Post a Comment