Saturday night on the west coast

I spent Saturday night on the west coast of Oahu, near Waianae. The Waianae side of Oahu doesn't have a great reputation - it's thought of being a little law-less, a little dangerous. Some of this comes from the large concentration of homeless people that populate the beaches with semi-permanent campsites, making it uncomfortable for many people to use those beaches for recreation. Also, the Waianae side isn't as commercially developed as the rest of Oahu, meaning that there aren't as many shiny chain stores and restaurants that make tourists feel comfortable spending money there. (It amazes me that people come to Hawaii and then seek out Denny's for breakfast, Chili's for lunch and Macaroni Grill for supper.)

One of the other drawbacks of the area is that it is a dead end. The road stops a few miles after Waianae, meaning that there isn't traffic moving through the area as people drive around the island. Most traffic turns north before it gets to Waianae since you can loop around the other 2/3 of the island if you go on a different route. As a result you don't get casual drivers coming through Waianae. People live in Waianae and commute out of it to Kapolei or Honolulu and then come back to their large-scale cul-de-sac. There has been some talk of maybe connecting the road on the west side to the north side of the island, but the cost would be high and I've heard that the people in Waianae shout down the idea. I guess they like the quiet of their neighborhood. I can't say I entirely disagree with their desire to keep it low-key and residential, since most of Oahu bends over backwards to appease tourists (sometimes at the expense of locals.)

Randomly, to me at least, there is a military recreation center in Waianae on the beach. There is a collection of cabins that military people can rent out for some R&R. They are staggered in distance from the shore, but the furthest one is only 100 feet from the beach. Not a bad location. Plus, being on the west side, you can watch the sun set over the Pacific. Not a bad way to spend an evening. Bernadette rented out one of the cabins for her birthday and then invited a handful of us to join her in relaxing at the beach and spending the night.

The beaches on the west side are beautiful. (For the record the state is moving the homeless people off of many of the beaches in the hopes that people will be more comfortable using them. Granted this simply means that the homeless have moved to other areas that haven't been reclaimed yet. Why solve a problem when you can just move it a half mile down the sand?) We spent the afternoon sunning ourselves and watching some surfers grab some small waves.

The most fun was watching one young father take his daughter (maybe about five years old) out on his longboard with him. Longboards are surf boards that are, um, well . . . long. I'd guess they're eight feet maybe. Taller than an average man for sure. They're not good for doing cool tricks, but they're nice and stable for riding waves. This father had his daughter kneeling near the front of the board while he kneeled in the middle and paddled out to the break. I think most parents would freak out at the idea of taking a five year old that far into the ocean, but not surfers. Pretty soon the dad had positioned the board to catch a wave and they were riding it back in. As he stood up on the board, his little girl stood up in front of him. Then the dad, in one amazing, swooping motion, scooped up his daughter and placed her on his shoulders. The two of them road in to shore, just like that. I was dumbfounded. I've seen parents paddle out and ride back in with their kids sitting on the boards, kneeling on the boards, and even standing on the boards with them. I had never seen a kid ride in on his or her dad's shoulders. Once they got close to shore he swept her down and they both hopped into the water with huge smiles on their faces. Then they went out and did it again. I really enjoyed watching them.

As it got close to supper time we decided to eat at the bar/restaurant that is located with the cabins. The food was adequate. Well, semi-adequate. Not the best. The bar closed at 9:00, which is fairly early as far as bars go, so we didn't spend much time there. We went back to the cabin and played games for the rest of the night and laughed a lot. I'm not sure if it was the amount of sun we got, or the soothing sounds of the waves crashing in the dark just outside our door or what, but we were pretty exhausted around 11 and headed for bed. That's how it goes on the west side, I guess. Nice and quiet, just like they want it.