hawaii part 3 {beaches and homemade swimsuits}

for other hawaii posts:
part 1 - food
part 2 - hikes
part 4 - other activities

Can't go to Hawaii without hitting the beach!! And we hit six :) And we loved them all for different reason! :) Also, I was excited to wear some of the swimsuits I made in summer 2014 to the beautiful beaches of Hawaii :)

Ala Moana (free) - On our first full day, we went to this beach. It was quite eventful: Russ had had his phone in his swimshorts pocket all morning. He was walking into the ocean, the water just barely touching the hem of his shorts, when one of us realized it so he froze right there. His phone was safe! So he pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts talking about how close of a call that was and then drops it completely in the ocean! That was kind of a bummer, but also kind of awesome because he left it turned off for the whole rest of the trip! (He says the problem isn't a phone getting wet, but the electricity that goes through a phone when it is wet, so he kept it turned off as a precaution. It ended up working, but then he was paranoid that the salt would eventually corrode inside the phone so he opted to get a new one shortly after we returned from our trip.)

made this one :)

Waiamea Bay (free) - Waiamea was a crazy beach! It's on the North Shore, so the waves are a lot more wild. Russ loved playing around in there, but I got a headache real quick because the waves banged me around so much!

before and after the waves attacked us!

Haliwea Beach (free) - Haliwea was another beach on the North Shore, near Matsumoto. We didn't get in at this one, we just read a little bit :)

Goat Island (free) - So we didn't actually go to Goat Island either, but we sunbathed and got in the water on the beach that is across from Goat Island.

there's goat island!

first ever swimsuit i made--perfect for when i want a no-fuss suit :)

Haunama Bay ($7.50/person; closed every Tuesday) - We have no pictures, but Haunama Bay is where we went snorkeling. It's not amazing snorkeling, but it's not bad, either :) We saw lots of colorful fish and a stingray? manta ray? (are they the same or different??) If you're not a strong swimmer, you're supposed to stay on the beach side of the coral. Russ and I are both strong swimmers, so we decided to go out further than the coral. But guys. I'm kind of terrified of the ocean! I think drowning would be a terrible way to die, and all the shark movies I've seen have definitely given me a phobia. Russ kind of had to convince me to go out there, and he had to hold my hand the whole time. Getting through the coral was especially difficult, since that's where the waves are crashing all around, but once we got through that, the deeper water was nice and calm. But I was still pretty freaked out and very happy to return to the shallow water :)

Also at this beach, we almost lost the car keys! Which, we were borrowing the car of a family friend (who also owned the house we were staying at), so losing the keys would have been BAD. We both thought the other person had them, and by the time we got to the top of the long hill that leads down to the beach, we realized we didn't have them, so I had to run all the way back down to the beach. I looked where I thought I had left them, and they weren't there so I asked somebody in charge. They asked me what kind of car it was for and I momentarily forgot! So that was a scary moment, but luckily, I remembered, and they had our keys :)

Waikiki (free) - In Waikiki, we paddle boarded. Snorkeling and paddle boarding were two of the things for which we used our Oahu passes, which I will talk about more in a later Hawaii post. Paddle boarding was fun! But Russ was wayyy better at it haha :) I could never catch him when he'd get away from me! While we paddle boarded, we both saw a few sea turtles. One swam right under my board! This was cool for us, because we're weirdly obsessed with turtles. Russ randomly says "turtles" alllllll the time, and I'm not sure if he loved turtles first or said turtles first, but either way, we both think they're super cool now, so seeing them was definitely fun for us :)

Also at this beach, this old couple told me how much they loved my swimsuit. They said it was the only one-piece suit they'd seen their entire month-long trip, and that it was so nice to see someone cover up a little. Modesty is something I really value, and while different people have different standards of what they consider to be modest, my standards are pretty strict. So it made me feel pretty good to have non-Mormon strangers appreciate my modest choice :)

this was on our last day in hawaii . . . if you know how white i usually am,
please take a moment to appreciate how tan i am (for me) in this picture!! haha :)

Last Swimsuit - Though we went to so many beaches, I never got to wear my favorite swimsuit that I made! That's because it's my favorite and my least favorite--my favorite look-wise and my least favorite fit-wise. I never felt like there was a day when the fit wouldn't drive me crazy (it's a little short through the torso and the straps don't keep it up well enough, so I have to keep pulling it up all day long!). So though it didn't see the beach, it did see Hawaii! Haha I put it on and had Russ take a pic in the backyard of where we were staying :)

mermaid! :)