Had a lazy morning — we’ve finally learned how to relax into vacationing (just in time to go, sadly).  T had an amazing massage with Angela Babcock (can’t recommend her highly enough!) while J and Dusty went to Small Town Coffee and took a walk along the Kapa’a shoreline.

The three of us spent about an hour shopping, then had shave ice at Hee Fat (wonderful, though they were out of their natural syrups) and lunch at Art Hemmingway (Dusty had duck with arugula and caramalized poha berries — pretty cool).

Drove to Anahola Beach Park, which is part of a Hawaiian Homestead (Hawaii’s version of a Native American Reservation).  The waves were large and very feisty, but also polite (a quick translation:  they were huge and crashed often, but never so much that we felt like they were going to smack us into nothingness).  They were probably the biggest waves J & T tried to ride (Dusty & Pres had gone for even bigger fare at Kalia).  We found ourselves getting shellacked much of the time.  Had fun jumping around, but didn’t get many rides.

Finally took respite building sand sculptures.  In J’s word, “I’ve finally found my medium” — she quickly advanced beyond her first attempt (piling sand on Tina) to an elegantly-crafted gecko.  Dusty worked on the Loch Ness monster, while T made a crocodile head and then lounged under a palm tree.

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This beach lacked only one thing:  shade (at least where we were swimming).

Took a nice walk down the beach back to our car.

Went back into Kapa’a for a last ice cream stop at Tropical Dreams, a final visit to Long’s Drugs, and a stop at Kapa’a Beach Park to see the monk seal (her name is “K13” — not a very good name, in our opinion).  Apparently, this seal has been living at this beach for several years.

Home for a shower, snooze (to get the tens of pounds of sand out of our bathing suits), and dinner.  Tonight we’re playing games of clear out the fridge (successfully begun with a cucumber-avocado salad and ginger-carrot fried rice — now we just have about ten pounds of fruit left to eat), start packing, Bananagrams, and one final round of Oh Hell!