Category Archives: Kaaawa

Throwback Thursday: It could have been life-changing

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In retrospect, this was one of those moments that could have changed our lives.

It was early 2002 when Lucy, a sweet little Shih Tzu who lived with friends of ours in Kaaawa, had puppies. Of course, I went over to take some pictures. We could have had our choice of the litter, and they were all great choices! But we had a bunch of cats at home–probably six or seven at that time–and we felt we weren’t up to the challenge of integrating a puppy, especially since we knew a lot about cats at that point, but virtually nothing about living with a dog.

So we chickened out. But looking back, I realize what a difference it would have made in the long run.

Shifting sands in Kaaawa

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We walked on the beach in Kaaawa this morning after an evening with good friends up mauka.

There’s a good deal of new erosion along the beach from Kaaawa Beach Park across in front of Kaaawa Elementary School.

But it looks like at least some of that sand has migrated just a little farther down the beach to the area in front of Kalae Oio Beach Park.

Here are two photos. The top was taken in February 2016. You can see that the sand has all been washed away, exposing the roots of the tree on the right of the photo. It appeared the future of that tree was in doubt.

But the bottom picture shows the same tree, now over on the left, as it appeared this morning. The sand has returned, and the roots are again covered.

So at least in this one small area, the migration of sand has temporarily reversed the impact of the ongoing erosion.

February 2016
At Kalae Oio Beach Park, Kaaawa, Hawaii

July 2017
The same tree today

Another morning in Kaaawa

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It started hereThis was where our long love affair with Kaaawa started. It was about this time of year in 1988, and we had been shopping for a house. At the time, we were living in a two-story townhouse in Tropic Gardens, on the other side of the freeway above Kahala Mall. It was nice, but we hoped to find something we could afford that didn’t feature a large ground-level parking lot right outside the living room window. We had this silly idea that we might be happy just with a place we would go for summers, vacations, and long weekends. So we looked along the north shore and along the windward coast.

One day, we were driving back with our realtor and stopped at Swanzy Beach Park. As we left, we were in the driveway looking toward the mountains. Behind the 7-11 store, you could see this A-frame home just up the hill. We both looked at that house, and its prime location with both mountain and ocean views. “We could live there,” we both said.

And, as it turned out, there was another house for sale just a little bit farther up the hill. We saw it and immediately made an offer. The rest is history. We loved every minute of the next 27 years living in Kaaawa. And we still enjoy visiting good friends, staying overnight, and walking the beach and the back roads the next morning.

Yesterday was another of those mornings.

Just click on the photo to see a few more.