Saturday, December 13, 2014

Big Waves, Beautiful Trails




















A beautiful Friday meant fun in the sun, the sand on the Oahu's North Shore and along the trails at Kualoa Ranch for us yesterday. 

We watched world renowned surfers catch waves in Bonsai Bay during official competiton called the billabong Pipemasters.  

We watched and photographed photographers who were watching the surfers with their mega lenses.  

We learned some of the basics of surfing as daring athletes would swim out from shore and decide which waves were the best for riding and earning points.  The top four scores earned within a designated period of time determined the winners. 

Kelly Slater, a world famous legend among surfers, caught some good waves but not good enough to win his heats today.  He's the one in the photos above. 

Whenever surfing competitors came ashore, huge swarms of admiring fans swelled around them to take pictures of their wave-catching heroes.

From Bonsai Bay, we moved on to Kualoa Ranch, the setting for many movies (Jurassic Park and Godzilla) and TV shows (Lost).  

We listened to a short orientation about how to steer and stop our horses and to keep them from stealing bites of grass along the way and then plodded along our way up and down beautiful trails along hillsides and through beautiful valleys on the 4,000-plus acre working cattle ranch. 

Our guide, Janessa Greenleaf, provided interesting tidbits along the way about the bunkers established during WWII and the settings used for movies.  She opened and closed 23 gates during the two-hour ride. 

Horses didn't get too excited; after all, they're pros at transporting dudes.  We moved along in seemingly slow motion, but that was okay cuz the beauty deserved ample time to be appreciated. 

Twas another fun day in Hawaii. Tomorrow we head off on a geocaching adventure with Annie's caching friends.  

Full days.  Fun stuff.  

Happy Saturday.  GO ZAGS!!

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