Beaches Open, People Come

Made in the shade at Anini Beach

The beaches of Kauai opened over the weekend attracting 14,000 people, according to Lifeguard counts.

Many families took advantage of the relaxed ordinance, posting up with canopies and gear including fishing poles, rafts and mats, snorkel equipment and just about anything they could throw in the back of the family pickup.

Sunday was certainly family day at Anini Beach and near Black Pot Beach in Hanalei.

Families were asked not to exceed groups of 10 people, and to not hold cook-outs, for fear of passing food around at the risk of spreading Covid. The cook-out restriction was a difficult call for some, causing the Mayor to re-evaluate the temporary open-beach ruling.

We watched a young wahine of about 6-years-old cast a line into the shallows off Anini. Her small arms and hands moved skillfully while she stood firmly on the shoreline, throwing out lines and reeling them back. Her pole was three times her height.

Bored with repetition of casting, she hung her line on the the beach, attracting small crabs with her gently bouncing sinker. We were as amused as she was watching the crabs chase her line across the sand.

The beach is the people's playground. Following weeks of pristine emptiness, the people returned.

To reach the beach, we hiked down the steep path to Wyllie's. The path is now covered with a carpet of leaves, a centipede's delight. The little critters with the sharp bite love to crawl into the dark, moist under-leaf world.

We passed over their resort without incident, joking along the way.

"Don't disturb the centipedes."

"They feel good crawling beneath my toes."

We walked across a newly formed sandbar at the mouth of Anini Stream and onward down Anini Beach, ducking under fishing lines, passing family groups and finding a shady area below a spreading tree canopy where we lay and listened to the churning surf beyond the reef.

Shade is key to relaxing on a beach in Kauai. A dip in the clear water is the coup de grace.

All was not perfect, however. Barbara slipped on a small rock or piece of coral and bent her middle toe. It swelled to a deeper shade of purple. It didn't keep her from climbing up the path to get back home.

She rested the injured toe last night. Thankfully, it didn't appear to be broken. I offered her an anti-inflammatory that she refused.

"We both have injured a toe on this trip," I said.

"Mine is worse than yours," she answered.

"Of course it is," Honey.