Neap Tide

We have been walking on Kailua Beach this week, and Brook spent Saturday there babysitting her grandnephews.

There has been a neap tide, so it has been unnecessary to check the tides --- beach is much better for walking at low tide. (in case you didn't know it, a neap tide is a tide that occurs when the difference between high and low tide is least; the lowest level of high tide. Neap tide comes twice a month, in the first and third quarters of the moon.)

The beach is as beautiful as ever, busy on weekends, but pretty much wide open during the week. With the hot, humid weather we have been having, a walk on the beach guarantees at least an hour with the ocean breezes -- as cooling and miraculous as ever.

Want to know how hot it has been? A year ago, our friends at SunTechHawaii installed 14 photovoltaic panels on our roof so that our swimming pool would be warm in the "winter". Okay, we know that mainland folks are LOL. We forgot to turn the unit off, and on Sunday, our pool was 105 degrees. Plenty of sunshine = giant outdoor bathtub.

Kailua is becoming more and more of a walking town, and more and more visitors are discovering us. This is good news for Lanikai Bath and Body and all of the other local retailers (and the nationals as well -- Kailua Town Center has the only ASAP by California Pizza Kitchen in Hawaii -- some kind of first, we guess).

We're all set for a great summer, and hoping the tradewinds return to favor us most of the time.

P.S. News on tv says the Atlantic Hurricane season is going to be bad, and the Pacific Hurricane season is going to be less active than usual. Hope they're wrong on the first count, and right on the second.