Day 2

Since we went to bed so early on Friday night, we were up at 4 am on Saturday. Since Hanauma Bay is open at 6 and it gets crowded, we headed over there before 6 am. We got to the park to find out that if you arrive before 7 that you can park for free and get in for free. Music to my frugal ears! We got down there and got our snorkel gear on and headed out into the water. DH was nervous about going snorkeling because he is not a strong swimmer. I had no fears and was ready to go. I put my face in the water and had what I can only describe as the start of a panic attack. I started breathing so fast and couldn't stop until I stood up and calmed myself down. Then I put my mask back on and couldn't breathe because I was trying to breathe through my nose, so I started to panic again. Meanwhile DH is already snorkeling away from me. I finally got myself calmed down and learned that if I immediately put my face in the water that I would breathe through my mouth with no problems. Everything is fine and I start to catch up with DH to find that he was over the reef. I freaked out and went back to the sand. Something about being over the rocks and not knowing what was underneath them scared me! I got myself squared away at this point and finally managed to snorkel without any problems. I am going along next to DH and an eel comes out from a rock and I take off out of there! I was ready to quit, but Dh was having the time of his life so I headed back out again. This time Dh found a green sea turtle having breakfast and so we got to be about two feet away from him/her and just watch for a long while. Then the sea turtle decided to swim right towards me so I took off again. We had back to the center of the bay and everything was going great again till I saw another eel. I was done. We had been there for over two hours though, so we were waterlogged and ready for breakfast.

We stopped off and checked out the Japanese Fishing Shrine and the Lana'i Lookout after snorkeling and got some great pictures but I wanted to come back with my camera. Next on the list was the view of Halona Beach and the blowhole. Apparently people have been killed by getting too close to the blowhole and getting knocked in, so we opted for a few quick photos and were on our way back to the hotel.

After we showered and got ready to go, we took off for Diamond Head. We stopped off at a farmer's market for a quick snack and then walked 1.5 miles to the entrance of Diamond Head. You could park in their parking lot, but cheap me wanted to save $8. What was I thinking??? The hike was nice, tons of people and very rocky. It was worth it though for the view from the top.

Of course we couldn't stop there and took off for the Lana'i lookout again so that we could get some better shots. Afterwards we headed to a hike up to the 647 foot summit near Makap'u. It wasn't a bad hike but we were running low on water after doing Diamond Head in the middle of the day. We checked out the Marine Base while we were up in the area, and they are so nice there! We got our tickets for the Polynesian Cultural Center while we were there and hit the px for a few things that we were missing. From there we went to the Pali Lookout--it really is cold there! We searched for a waterfall off the road but I think we went the wrong way, so we got back in our car and left. We were tired and our feet hurt!

We got back to the hotel and were hungry so we strapped on our chaco's and headed out again. (I think we had walked about 7 miles by this point if not more!) We ventured down to the shopping district and hunted for a restaurant that wasn't totally overrun with tourists and we could find a reasonably priced meal. Finally I was so tired and hungry that we stopped at Chili's and had an overly expensive hamburger! It will make the Chili's back home look inexpensive! We walked back to the hotel taking the time to watch all of the performers and interesting people that were all over the place. If I hadn't been so tired we would have people watched a little while longer!