Hawaii Day 7-Our last day :-(

For our last full day on the island we (enjoyed our Christmas present from mom and Karl and) went on a cruise aboard the Fairwind II at Keauhou Bay to Kealakekua Bay.

We started out early and they served us breakfast on the boat as we cruised out to the Bay.

We started chatting up the 2 older couples sitting beside us to find out one of the couples was from BEND!! Crazy!!

Captain Cook monument at Kealkekua Bay
We snorkeled for an hour or so, came back on the boat for our BBQ then went back out to snorkel for another hour.

Somehow a burger cooked on a boat out on the ocean after a snorkel dive can not be described. It just tastes better because well.... you're BBQing on a boat in the ocean!!

PERFECT!

The coral reef here was AMAZING. Awesome clear water, and beautiful fish.
Yes, I know he's snorkeling, not scuba diving ;-)

I had to try this slide off the boat

As we were leaving the bay we got to see this pod of spinner dolphins. It's too bad the couple times they actually jumped and spun out of the water were off camera.
Really neat to see this too!

Rugged coast line

It was a great trip and I would recommend the trip to anyone... very family friendly too.

Merry Christmas to us!

We had a couple hours to kill before our Manta Ray snorkel so we walked along some beaches and the shoreline in Kona and enjoyed a yummy shaved ice!!

Harbor before our Manta Ray snorkel

On our way out to see the Mantas with "Sunlight on Water" tour group

Our group headed out

While the video below is not of our group it is very much the same as what we saw. It was a very surreal experience. At first it is a little frightening as these large creatures come swimming belly to belly with you. Then you realize they aren't something to fear, but it is so strange that they are not afraid of you.

Divers shine their bright lights up from the bottom and the snorkelers float on top and shine lights down from the surface and attract the plankton the Manta rays love to eat. The manta rays have learned that people coming and attracting plankton has made for a good evening feeding site and typically show up every night.

The night we went there were 12 different manta rays!!

These rays are about 14 feet across and move gracefully through the water. While there were many groups out there that evening, I felt like every Manta Ray came to our group. For a full 30 min our group had ray after ray feeding below us. The time seemed to pass quickly.

Truly an unforgettable experience!!

Sadly our Hawaiian trip had to come to an end. Brad really wanted to take this fruit home for the kids to try, and although I warned him he wasn't supposed to take fruit back, he decided to try and stash it away. But, guess who got caught at the airport trying to smuggle fruit!!!

They let us have it back, but we had to eat it before we left Hawaii, so here is Brad savoring his fruit at the airport.

We had SUCH wonderful time! I've been trying to figure out a way to get back ever since we've been home!! Hopefully soon! We'd love to take the kids too.

I can't wait.

While cruising around the island we always listened to the "feel good island" radio station and found some fun songs we like, so I've been streaming the audio every few nights, just to reminisce.

Here are a couple of our favorites

Who wants to sponsor our next trip??