Day 2--Mammoth Fish and Tikis

Friday morning we woke up bright and early for snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. This happened to be both mine and Dave's favorite part of the trip!! We were told to arrive early because the beach gets congested, and the water turns murky later in the day. Waking up at 6:00am was a cinch for once! Utah time just happens to be 4 hours ahead of Hawaii, so we were quite the early birds for once.

Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve; thus, before snorkeling, we had to watch a film. It was a snoozer...I mean...informative film about the "do nots" when it comes to interacting with nature. Kate expressed her opposition to watching the film early on (imagine that). She and I, instead, went for walk outside until the film ended.

Afterwards, we walked down a hillside to the bay. It was beautiful! We laid out our towels on the beach and suited up. Kate and Sandra built sand castles and baked sand "cookies" while Reese, Dave, and I got in the water. At first I thought we would see only a handful of semi-plain fish, but that was not the case! There were just coves full of so many varieties of fish! They were all different colors and sizes and I even saw a baby eel (eesh!). Some of the very LARGE scary fish made me wonder, "Hmm...if we got in a fight, which one of us would come out alive?" I assumed the Mammoth Fish would and tried to keep some distance from those ones.

Dave got us a jenky underwater camera that captured some of our underwater adventures. The pictures did not turn out great, but will forever help us remember how much fun we had with the fish.

After snorkeling and soaking in some rays, we packed up and stopped for lunch at Romy's. It's a little roadside shrimp shack that always seemed to have a long line of customers. Dave and his dad got some shrimp, while Sandra and I choked down icky green salads (I'm not much of a shrimp connoisseur; and apparently not much of a salad connoisseur). The shrimp, however, got good reviews from Reese and Dave.

Next up...the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was a Disneyland of sort; complete with shows, boats rides, activities, and $4 bottled waters. It was a good time all except for the heat. Kate lost her bearings at one point in the day and made herself puke from over-crying. Kate's mom lost her cool, too. Does it count that I tried to remain patient? After a hot dog, an icy drink, and a sit in the shade, Kate (and her parents) calmed down.

Later, we went to the luau for some roasted pig, and then to the night-time performance. Kate crashed during the performance, and we ended up leaving at intermission. I know...we left before the best part, but we still got a good grasp of the place. I was really impressed that the LDS church could create such a big deal of tourist attraction. I guess they've had decades of perfecting the place, but I was certainly pleased!

Dinner at the luau; doesn't Kate look happy to be there?

The PIG!

***My favorite part of the Polynesian Cultural Center was the Tiki Statues. At one point, Dave discovered that they made Kate nervous; hence, he kept testing her fears anytime we'd see a statue. I reassured her repeatedly that they weren't scary. From then on whenever we'd pass a statue, Kate would say, "It's not scary" (although the fear in her eyes spoke louder than her words).