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Spencer Beach Park

Started: 2025-01-30 20:34:17

Submitted: 2025-01-30 22:06:50

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Visiting another beach, a close encounter with a sea urchin, more Hawaiian history, shaved ice, and a movie night

On Saturday, the 4th of January, we went to Spencer Beach Park, a short drive from our condo in Waikola Village.

Spencer Beach Park
Spencer Beach Park

This beach was a small piece of sand facing calm water. We arrived in the middle of the morning while large trees on the beach shaded much of the sand. It was almost chilly in the shade. Kiesa camped out in the shade and I walked around the park, past campsites on the lawn and a large picnic shelter that looked like it could accommodate at least 50 people. I followed a dusty trail a short distance down the coast, then turned around and headed back to the beach.

I headed down to the water, past Caleb building a large pile of sand, and happened to find Julian in distress because he had stepped on a sea urchin in the murky water. (This was another reminder of the lesson we first learned on Monday: water shoes in the water, to protect one's feet in the water.) He had a couple of long black spines sticking out of his big toe. I pulled them out but the ends broke off, stuck under the skin like a splinter. I helped Julian across the sand to our base camp on the sand under one of the large shade trees. Kiesa flagged down the lifeguard, who pulled out a wrap with vinegar (to start dissolving the spines, though it stung as it was applied) and field-dressed Julian's toe.

Julian was done with the beach for the day (and swore off beaches for all time, which I presume won't last forever). Calvin was ready to leave the beach at any moment; he spent the morning lurking in the shade of another tree with his phone. Kiesa took the kids back to the condo, and checked with Kaiser to get their opinion about Julian's urchin encounter. They said the best thing to do was to let it dissolve on its own; but if it started bothering Julian or he developed an allergic reaction we could go to urgent care. After the initial shock (and the extra trauma of the vinegar dressing) Julian's toe didn't require any additional attention.

Nene at Spencer Beach Park
Nene at Spencer Beach Park

I stayed on the beach with Tristan, Jessica, and Caleb and took a swim in the water. There wasn't really anywhere to go in the water so I walked out in the murky water until it was deep enough to swim, then swam the length of the beach and returned to shore.

Looking at the ocean from Pu'ukohola Heiau NHS
Looking at the ocean from Pu'ukohola Heiau NHS

When I got out of the water I walked to the next door Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site on the side of a low hill. The site included some displays of Hawaiian culture and history and warfare, with examples of traditional Hawaiian weapons in a small museum — and a replica British four-pound naval gun, mounted on a sled to convert it into field artillery. Kamehameha acquired guns like this one and used them in his campaign to unify the Hawaiian islands under his rule. The guns originally fired cannon shot, but the Hawaiians used small volcanic stones, which were presumably just as effective as anti-personnel ordinance.

Replica four-pound British naval gun on a Hawaiian sled
Replica four-pound British naval gun on a Hawaiian sled

The highlight of the site was Pu'ukohola Heiau itself. Like the similar structures we saw the day before, this was a large platform built from dry-stacked volcanic rocks that was used as a temple and for other ceremonial uses. Only the platform remained; any buildings that had been built on top had long since disintegrated. Standing on the hillside, surrounded by dry grass, looking up at the rock wall, under the hot mid-day sun, my viewing angle kept me from seeing the top of the platform or any of the structure inside. It was hard to get a sense of how big it was, and even harder to imagine what it would have looked like when it was built.

Pu'ukohola Heiau
Pu'ukohola Heiau

By the time I got back my ride was ready to leave the beach. We drove north along the highway, past a dock piled high with Matson containers, to the town of Kawaihae, where we found a tiny shaved ice shop. As we were pulling out of the parking after eating we waited for a car in front of us to pull out, which seemed to be taking a long time to do so, pulling out of their parking space and then heading back into the parking space multiple times in a row, as if they were repositioning themselves in the space itself, while we watched and waited for them. (The parking lot was cozy, but there ought to have been plenty of room to pull out of their space and make whatever turn they intended.) Finally they figured out how to pull out of the space, and then backed all the way into the highway to continue on their journey. We saw the driver of another car in the parking lot who was also waiting for this slow-moving car; he was clearly just as bemused as we were by the antics of this vehicle. Jessica was driving our car, and she made some gesture of acknowledgement to the other waiting driver, and he laughed in acknowledgement.

We returned to the condo by mid-afternoon with no further plans for the day. I looked at everything I might do with the half of the afternoon I had left, but it turned out that many of the interesting things we hadn't done yet were closed on the weekends, and there seemed to be a profound shortage of credible hikes in the vicinity. I ended up walking down the street to the nearest grocery store to buy my own Kona coffee to take home. (It turns out that US-grown coffee is not inexpensive; it cost twice as much as the specialty single-origin coffee I get from Verve at home.) As I drink the coffee I'll taste the terroir of the Kona coffee belt, or at least remember visiting the coffee groves on the island.

Lizards on the wall outside
Lizards on the wall outside

In the evening I confirmed that I could in fact rent movies on my laptop (running Chrome on Linux), which I could plug straight into the HDMI cable dangling down from the giant TV mounted to the wall of the living room. (I recall having trouble with this the last time I tried, though that may have been because I was visiting Canada at the time and Google Play was confused by my US-based account with a US credit card in Canada.) We watched The Mitchells Versus The Machines, which was great fun, even as I'm slightly nervous about working in the tech industry so clearly skewered by the movie.