!i! Third Day in Hawaii !i!

We spent our third morning snorkeling Hanauma Bay. We were so excited because if you sign a paper, you can come back within 1 yr and you can bypass the educational video. We signed the list last year when we were there and it hadn't quite been a year yet. However, they lost our names and we had to watch the video anyway. It's not a very long video and it's not too terrible, but the music is pretty interesting. "Don't step on me" is one of the songs (referring to the rock and coral). I asked A.J. if we could purchase the soundtrack.

You have to get to Hanauma Bay early otherwise there will be nowhere to park. We got there around the 8:00 hr and, of course, I was worried about sharks. Sharks attack in the morning and evening hours. A.J. had to coach me into the water.

Before we got in the water, I spotted a disposable underwater camera. Despite the photo bust the day before, I couldn't resist buying it. These pictures, however turned out much better. You can actually see that there are fish in the pictures! And thanks to our handy dandy fish guide brought to us by Snorkel Bob's, I can name some of them.

Eye-Stripe Surgeonfish

Some sort of parrotfish

Orangespine Surgeonfish




Blue-Stripe Snapper

Threadfin Butterfly Fish

And then we had one more picture. We saught out to find the coolest sea creature for the final photo. And then A.J. spotted it: A Unicorn fish!

Hanauma Bay is an awesome place to snorkel. It is pretty protected and the fish aren't afraid of people. They will swim right under you or even right up to your face. And I reassure myself that it's too shallow that sharks can't get in which could be a blatant lie, but don't tell me otherwise!

After snorkeling, we drove the Nu'uanu Pali Highway up to the Nu'uanu Pali lookout. The highway is set right in the middle of the rainforest and there are tall trees with hanging vines everywhere.
Eventually we got to the lookout. We had to pay to park and the parking meter only took coins or credit cards...and it cost like 3 dollars to park! What about dollar bills? So I had to put the measly amount on my credit card.

View from the top

We had to practically beg some guy to take our picture after his wife pawned us off on him.

It was so windy at the top. A.J. was being blown away.

I tried to be blown away too: the prep

...and at the apex of my jump

And then we got a call from some of our new favorite people: Ashley and Tim. Turns out they booked their trip to Hawaii at the same time as us! It was so fun to have people to play with in Hawaii! ...And to trade off taking pictures of each other instead of begging people to take our pictures! We picked them up were planning to go to a Botanical Garden, but when we got there, the whole hillside looked dead. We figured we could find prettier things driving around the island so we got on the main road and drove around almost the entire island stopping anywhere and everywhere...including 3 different McDonalds. Diet Coke is an essential commodity! ...Although Hawaii McDonalds diet coke is not as good as Utah McDonalds Diet Coke.

This is honestly one of my favorite things about Hawaii. Look at the color of that water! This place is truly paradise!

We ended up at Hale'iwa town for sunset.