Hawaii 2010- Day 2

Day 2 I woke up to this (I took this picture laying on the bed)

I wish you could hear the birds and the ocean, and smell the flowers- no noisy elevator here!

Day two's first mission: Get snorkel gear!

We started at Miller's Surf and Sport where an awesome guy set us up with everything we needed and was kind enough to show us the best places to go, and the secrets of getting into the "private" beaches, and other suggestions. It was great.

We also picked up a new version of "The Bible", aka: "Big Island Revealed" while we were there and set out to a beach just down the road for some snorkelling.

I can't tell you how many hours I spent pouring over this book!! I read a good portion of it on our flight over to the island (an older version Brad's colleague lent him) Then once we got there I wanted to make the most of our time there and didn't want to miss anything. So I studied and studied it until by the end of the trip I had this interesting love/hate relationship with it... I loved all the places it sent us and all the great tips and suggestions, but by the end I was sooo tired of checking the book... I didn't care if we missed something. It is a MUST though, if you ever go!! Our first snorkelling experience was at Kahalu'u bay. It was a great fist stop. There was a LOT of coral and a LOT of fish. It was the strangest feeling to be swimming with the fish. I was surprised at how oblivious they are to you swimming around in their territory and that they aren't really afraid of you. One really fun thing about this bay is the plethora of sea turtles. I think Disney got "Crush" just perfect. They really do just kindof float around without much care. It was really cool to be able to swim with them and have them brush up against you as they floated by. Very cool! As you can see they came in to the really shallow areas We snorkelled a little, had lunch, then went out again. Once we'd had our fill for the day we decided to head back up to the market on Ali'i Drive. Lots of different fruits I had never seen before.

On the top shelf there you can see the bag of macadamian nuts... we ended up eating 3 bags of those while we were in Hawaii!! There was lots to see and shop around and look at. You can see the chalk writing on the road... that is left from the Iron Man triathalon race the week before we got there. We found the best spot for a sunset supper at Kona Inn Restaurant. It is right off the ocean.

My handsome hubby
A yummy strawberry daiquiri (virgin, of course)
As the sun went down the lit torches led to an awesome "ambiance"
The evenings there are so perfect!
A little more shopping at the board walk after supper.
And this WEIRD painting at a gallery.
A great first full day in paradise!!