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When I was in Hawaii with my girl friend in March 2007, I actually said the ocean looked and felt like a really deep bed of turquoise Jell-O. Only I can ‘degrade’ one of the most-prized beaches of the USA to a gelatinous substance. Believe me when I say that I only meant that with (deep) love for the ocean.

As a child I’ve always looked forward to summers because that meant we went on “outings” — take a 3-5 hour drive to a beach or pool resort and burn our skins till the sun descends the horizon. I love the beach. I remember being no older than a tween and racing to the sandbar far away in one of the beaches in Philippines. Since we did love the water, our parents made sure we took our swimming lessons one summer and I went from a drowning 8-year old to a girl who was told by the coach that I could compete (I totally balked, just like when I walked out of ballet class before our instructor could even finish saying “Time for splits!”). But that’s another story. However, since I learned to swim well, not even our mother’s stern voice could keep us from the water. One of the following summers we spent a few months in Bangkok and from which our return proved to be traumatic for our dad who deemed his kids unrecognizable from our severely tanned skinned. That’s what you get from swimming daily from morning till evening for weeks on end. You’d be lucky if you could see us in the dark!

When we moved to Vancouver, BC a decade ago, my endless days of summer beaches were far-fetched. I love my sunshine. I love my salty water. And here, although you technically do get both, you will freeze in the latter. It’s not for the faint Asian tolerance to the cold. Seven years later, I did get to play again in my beloved ocean, but in Hawaii. I couldn’t complain much about it, could I? My friend and I were beach bums for 10 days and we had the best time ever. What can I say? I’m just a li’l ol’ gypsy from the tropical islands who will always long to have her beaches and dip in them, too.

Photo notes: Taken at one of the beaches along Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii (if I remember it right) at sunset with a Nikon Coolpix5200.