Visiting Hawaii's North Shore

The waves on Hawaii's North Shore are legendary. As luck would have it, we just happened to come on one of the rare days when the ocean was displaying it's full potential, the biggest waves in 40 years. 40-50ft waves were coming in, so the Eddie Aikau surf competition was on! (Named for the famous Hawaiian lifeguard who worked this beach and saved over 500 people before dying during a rescue at age 31.) This  We drove by as it was wrapping up, so while we saw surfers in the water, we didn't get to see anyone riding a wave. It's so hard to show the magnitude in a photo, you'll just have to believe me that it was INSANE! HERE are some better photos of the competition.

All of the beaches on this side of the island were closed because of the surf. I asked the lifeguard here how tall the waves were and he pointed to this tall skinny tree. "That high." Yikes! My kids are standing next to the base of the tree for reference. Hard to imagine anyone braved those waves today!

Afterwards we stopped for dinner at Giovanni's shrimp truck. We were told you absolutely must try the garlic shrimp when on Oahu, so we did and it was delicious.

A few days later we returned to the North Shore to see the monster waves once again. We were hoping to see people attempting to surf them, but I guess no one was up to the challenge today.

I have been following the work of photographer, Clark Little, for years. He somehow manages to defy death while capturing the most amazing images of waves crashing on the beaches of Hawaii. I couldn't come this far and not visit his gallery. Here the kids are checking out his work.

Journey holding a postcard featuring Clark with his camera in front of an enormous wave towering over him. I seriously don't know how he does it! If you are unfamiliar with his work, I urge you to take a few minutes to browse his site now, Clark Little Photography.

On our way back home to the northeast side of the island, we found this gorgeous beach 

and figured it was the perfect spot for a garlic shrimp picnic dinner.

Cartwheels!