Hawaii - Day 2

Since we were still on AZ time we woke at 5:00Am and were quickly out the door looking for a breakfast place. It was still dark and parking sucks in Waikiki so we decided to head to Pali Lookout, a tip from our niece Brye. We saw the turn out but decided to continue north to Kailua to try to find breakfast, still too early. I know we are nerds. So we turned around to watch the sun come up over Pali Lookout and came in from the opposite direction which was so cool. The turn off was a road with big big trees on either side so it looked like a tunnel. The lookout was amazing, there was a view of the valley below, the ocean and the mountains. The wind was blowing like crazy but we were the only ones there and the beauty of this island confirms that there is a God. I loved it.

After Pali we finally had breakfast at a little shop Kimos and Boot's, bought some snorkeling gear and headed to Hanauma Bay. This was my favorite part of the trip. I have never understood snorkeling, probably because I had never been. Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve so we had to watch a movie about it and protecting it and as I am watching I am thinking, I hope we get lucky to see a few fish. We jumped in and not more than one minute there were fish everywhere. So neat, rainbow ones, black ones with an orange stripe, a school of white and yellow ones, sea anemones, big fish little fish, red fish blue fish he he. I loved it, the sun even came out for a bit so I could warm up. Loren and I had a blast I wish my children were there, although Wyatt used the snorkeling gear in the bath tub when we got home.

After snorkeling we headed to the North Shore again and found a spot and sat and watched the surfers for a long time. The waves were pretty big, not 30 feet but probably 15 feet or so. I wish I had learned to surf a long time ago, but the water in California was always so cold when we went in the summer. We saw a sea turtle pop it head up to get air (although at the time we did not know it was sea turtle). On our way home we drove by the temple it is beautiful, there is so much to see off the beaten path. I loved our rental car, I feel like it really gave us a feel of the island.

On our way home we stopped at another cool looking beach. I am amazed how few people were on the beaches we went to. This beach, I don't remember its name had a river that ran out to the sea. We started walking along and we found a coconut, after looking around we found the tree where it came from. It was off the river probably fell off floated down the river then the ocean washed it up to shore. We brought it home and all the kids had a taste of pure coconut milk and fresh coconut, so cool.

We headed home and our GPS took us through the mountains so cool, the tunnels were huge and they went through the entire mountain. I am glad we saw those in the light but hit rush hour traffic. We ditched the freeway and drove through China town and down town Honolulu - I guess even Paradise has to have its ghettos.