The U.S. and Hawaiian flags. It was interesting to see a state flag with the union jack on it; there was little (if any) sense on the islands of a particular bond with the rest of the country. Indeed, the mainland seemed to be considered a totally separate entity in most respects. However, I would have expected the primary sense of heritage stemmed from the indigenous Hawaiian rulers than with the British.




Later that day we went down to spend some time lounging on the beachfront of the hotel. There were, of course, people surfing but not a lot of swimmers. Most of the beaches in Hawaii are rough-water and there are often a lot of rocks, owing mainly to the islands being so exposed to the open ocean and so 'new' geographically, respectively.




The rope fenceline is used to mark the end of the beach and the start of the private hotel property. In an unusually populist move, Hawaiian law requires public access to all beaches, even in front of major resorts. They don't always make it easy to get to the shore from the road, but once you're on the shoreline you can usually walk unfettered for miles up and down the coast. There is no 'your beach' vs 'my beach' territoriality, unlike what we saw in the Bahamas.




I'm not sure why Emma is so tipsy at this point, but at least the photo sort of shows what our hotel building was like. This is the back side of it, away from the ocean, with the open-air hallways. All the units in the building face the ocean, and many (if not all) of the units are actually condos that are rented out when the owners aren't around.

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