Makapuu Beach, Lighthouse & The Windward Coast

This post should officially bring us up to date. We've only done a small bit of exploring of the island but as we've now gotten most of our shopping & setting up house stuff done, we were able to get out yesterday and explore part of the island. Our plan would be to take each Saturday to do something touristy in the way of exploring, hiking, driving, snorkeling, seeing something new & exciting this island has to offer!

We drove east towards the windward side of the island to hike up Makapuu Lighthouse Trail. It was an easy hike because it was paved but hard because it was uphill and we had 3 kids in tow! Thankfully, it was all so beautiful and of course, all downhill on the way back! The drive towards the windward coast was fantastic and we stopped at one scenic view to do a bit of hiking down some rocks towards the beach. (I am a huge "Lost" fan- the tv show- and love exploring and seeing places that were used in filming this show! The place we stopped along the road just looked so familiar to me that I knew it had to be used in the show- and I was right! It's so fun!)

After getting all hot hiking, what better to do then to hit Makapuu Beach Park right down the road. This is a great body surfing beach and though the water was fairly rough so the kids didn't get in too far, Derek had quite a good time in the water. Mia even tried out a few smaller waves in the shallows and was loving it! She has really turned an adventurous corner- loving the body surfing and every time we turned around she was trying to climb up or down some rocks to explore everywhere! Ella started off this day very timid- freaking out unless she was holding someones hand and refusing to go anywhere that looked the least bit scary! But, something clicked about half way through this day and then she was off like her sister doing it on her own and generally starting to scare Mommy! Jett meanwhile seems to think that we're going to leave him and pretty much won't walk anywhere on his own. He is fine being pushed in the stroller or being carried or hanging out near us if we set up to stay somewhere but if we're walking and try to set him down to walk on his own- whether in the hallway, elevator, along the beach, etc... oh my... we've gotten our fair share of temper tantrums! We're working on these and hopefully we'll have a break for our arms soon once he realizes that we have no babysitters here! :)

So, check out the pictures below! What an amazing beach to be on! I just sat there enjoying the sun and white sand of a totally different texture and amazed at how gorgeous it all was!