Hawaii has a Open Beach Access law that provides the public access to “all” Hawaii beaches. But over the years different land owners have done there very best to make it very hard for Hawaii residents to get access to some of the premium beach locations.

Over the past month my family and I have tried no less than 10 times to gain access to the public beach at the private resort Ko Olina.  In order to get access you gain entry to the resort by showing a ID to the resort gate sentry and then proceed to the highly limited public parking area.  But over the last two months we have tried multiple times to go to that beach but have been turned away at the gate.  On Sunday I pulled off the road from the entrance and we watched as Ko Olina Resort security turned away 23 cars in a row.

Something is really amiss at Ko Olina. While I know the beach is popular turning away that many people, including us time after time makes me wonder if they do not have a internal policy that has been put in place making to make it harder for the public to gain access. You used to be able to at least scout the parking lot and wait in your car until someone left. But they are not even allowing this. Plus with the number of signs warning people they will be towed if they park anyplace but the designated public parking spots shows they are play hard ball and more games being played. If they would have really wanted to work with the public they would have allocated more parking.

As a resident of Hawaii at this point I feel my rights are being violated and that the Ko Olina resort has some explaining to do.

Even sadder most of the public beaches in the Kapolei area have been over-run by homeless, and personally its pretty sad when I do not feel it safe to take my family to some of the other beaches in Hawaii that are not located on private resorts.

Shortly after my grandfathers death my 97 soon to be 98 year grandmother started to slip fast. Like couples who have spent literally a lifetime together this was no surprise.

Early last month Grandma joined Grandpa and they now are both in a better place looking down on us seeing the things health had prevented them from seeing for so long.

In my moms latest podcast over on CherieCast.com she talks about feeling a weight being lifted when grandma passed and while the event was sad the experience she had with the weight lifting from her really caused some chicken skin when she told me about it.

I still have my grandparents on my dads side, and at my age that is a pretty amazing feat considering that I am fast approaching 45.