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Panorama by Rabbett
Lanikai Beach, Kailua, O'ahu, Hawai'i
New Year's Day - 1/1/2000 - wow!I made it!
It is actually the year 2000.
I remember as a kid thinking about the year 2000 and how far away it was, how "old" I figured I might be, especially if I even got to live "that long". As a young man growing up in cold Connecticut on the east coast of the U.S. Mainland, I knew nothing of places like this. I'd never even seen pictures. To me, the ocean was gray and cold and always rather dangerous. I never once even dreamed about being here.
Isn't life amazing?
This is Kailua's Lanikai Beach on O'ahu's Windward (eastern) shore. The time is 1:19 p.m. Hawaiian Standard Time. This is my 21st New Years Day here in Hawai`i and as of January 15th I have been here 22 years.
I've loved every day of it.
The loud rushing noise you hear as the waves break along the shore is not the water - it is the sand. Yes, we're hearing the sand falling back onto itself after being picked up and rolled in by small waves of less than a foot in height. The rain-spattering-like sounds are the splatter of the wave foam off the little irregular curls of water sliding by us. Sometimes as the wave rolls the sand on down the beach you'll even hear little snapping sounds made by the sand and water mix slapping inside the curls. Other times you'll hear distinct loud cracks, like wood timbers breaking. No, it's just water slapping back on itself inside the little rushing sand filled tubes.
Millions and millions of years of this sand grinding process is how Mother Ocean makes this fluffy white sand. Easy to walk on, wonderful to lie down on, hard to get out of the pockets and seams of your shorts.
No matter...The guy with his back to us is wrapping up another lean fishing adventure. At this point in time he has already taken down one of three poles he had lined up on the beach since mid morning. I ask him if he'd had any nibbles and he just laughs.
Fishing down Lanikai is never really about fishing. It's really just all about being down here, shorecasting and enjoying the warm sun, the endless surf and the sound of the sand and the waves. It's about hearing the dull endless howl of the wind pushing water over the top of the outside reef not too far off in the distance. It's about taking a swim every so often in the warm friendly water. It's about sitting in the sand enjoying a snack and a cold drink, watching the locals and malihinis alike wandering on by. It's about standing in the water and feeling your feet get buried down in the sand a little bit as the ocean pulls even more sand out from under you and then piles it back up over your ankles.Yeah! This is New Year's Day 2000...and a mighty nice once at that.
Rabbett
Hot Spots Hawai`i
rabbett@wrinkleintime.org
wrinkleintime.org
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