November 24, 2016 (Thanksgiving)

Day started in the early morning (4:00am) with my good photography friends Brandon and Stanley in hopes to catch the great sunrise at Āwawamalu (a.k.a Sandys Beach) on the Eastside of the island of O’ahu.

Since this was just a couple days in the planning, we decided to go early enough to find a spot where we could set up our cameras. Yes we had concerns about the weather.  We asked ourselves, will it be too cloudy, too rainy or perhaps the surf would be too large for us to get to great spot?  Upon arriving at our destination, it looked like it may be all of the above.

We sat in the car talking our “what ifs” for what was perhaps 10 minutes when the rain stopped.  We were happy to finally get out of car and was feeling good as looked up to see the stars which meant, the rains and clouds have cleared… for now.  The surf was up just a little bit, but with the tide going down it looked okay for us head out and find our spot to set up and wait.

And it was worth the wait…

Āwawamalu first light

The Glow

Admiring the beauty from the protection of the rocky shelves

The sun rises from the east

The beauty of the sunrise and the power of the sea

And the sun has risen

It was definitely just a great early morning adventure! Thanks to great friends Brandon and Stanley for making this day possible.  We are so lucky to live in a place so full of beautiful places and people in the middle of the wide pacific ocean… a place we are happy to call home, a place called Hawai’i.  Most call it Paradise and I am sure a lot will agree!  Aloha