Home Sweet Home and Exploring the Neighborhood

 We picked our vacation rental from the VRBO website because we had such good luck with it last year on the East Coast.

 It is a little studio, right on the beach, very reasonably priced.  Above you see the Murphy bed that drops down - we just leave it down.

 It has a nice large bathroom; everything is immaculately clean.  We chose this place based on its location, its price, and the overwhelming positive reviews (over 500 positive reviews, with just one negative if I remember correctly).

 If we come back to this island, we will probably rent this same unit - for our needs, it is perfect.

 This is the terrace just outside the sliding door.  A jutting point of land forms a protective cove where it is safe to swim no matter what the surf conditions.

 Down a few steps there is a lanai with two comfy lounging chairs and a built-in charcoal grill.  Goldfish quickly settled in to the one on the right, along with a friendly cat named Chester.

 Chester had a little alien look to him, but he is such a sweet loving cat.  If you sit down outside, he just appears and settles in.

 This duck blew in on a storm 6 months ago and never left - can't say as I blame him . . . .

 This is the private stairs heading to the beach.

 Goldfish's "Vacation Feet" - I think it is part of a numbered series, collect the whole set . . .

 Chester setting in while I am blogging outside.  Dangerous activities such as these no doubt contributed to that kinked tail . . . .

 Just down the street there is a Mormon temple.  There is a branch of BYU in town, so things are pretty quiet, considering the North Shore location.

 Random beauty on  drive North.

 This is a view of the rental from the beach.

 I'm happy to report decent snorkeling right at the rental.  I love floating and watching fish, I always have, dating back to years growing up in Maine and summers at my parents camp on Weber Pond.  After badly burning my back in Maui snorkeling for hours, I have added a t-shirt.  To be able to roll out of bed, walk down a few stairs, and be snorkeling is heaven for me . . . you can see it is almost getting dark when I finally made my way back to the beach where Goldfish was reading.  This picture is out of sequence, and actually should be last.

 Goldfish took a walk on the beach while I was having coffee and blogging . . .

 I shot a few photos from the terrace of the kite boarders.

 We took a drive further North where they were having the 2010 Billabong Pipe Masters, part of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.  Surfing is a very big deal here on the North Shore, and the crowds were crazy!  I've never surfed, but we had fun watching and I also saw lots of whale activity further out, with one coming all the way out of the water.

 Another surfing shot (no surprise, I took a lot of them).

We ended the day back on the terrace with a shaved ice from the local ice cream store . . . this place is tough to take I tell ya!  Cheers!