Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 2

Friday morning, George was off work, and it was pretty much the only morning he'd have available to snorkel with us, so Dad and I and George got up early (granted, I always get up early my first few days there with the time change) and headed over to Hanauma.

The water was a little rougher than usual there, probably due to it being "winter" or something, but not horrible.  Saw lots of bigger fish there than I remember, including a few groups of larger fish. Dad found a turtle and called us over to see it. George found a giant snail, but when I followed him out to see it, it took him a while to find it and I had given up and swam off again by the time he found it. In the shallows, the rough water was pretty murky and it was overcast so not a lot of great light for taking pictures, at least with a cheap disposable camera. George bought a real underwater camera and he probably has some good photos, not that he has a blog or a facebook page or anything to share them on, though. :)  In any case, I did get a few salvageable photos:

Large group of big ringtail surgeonfish

Decent shot of a moorish idol

Nice green shot of a turtle (that's George in the background)

Turtle up close

Anyway, I always love Hanauma and all the beautiful and interesting fish you can see there, and I think I've seen a turtle every time I've been, too, so that's always fun.

After we were done, we headed back home and spent some time hanging out and packing up a night's worth of stuff for a little vacation-in-a-vacation that George and family had put together for us. They got us reservations at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki. It's owned and/or run by the military or something, so we were able to get a fairly reasonable rate, I imagine. We headed over in the afternoon.


Waiting for the grownups to check us in.

Once we were checked in, we changed into our swim trunks and headed down to the swimming pools.  Yes, we were right by the ocean, but the kiddie pool was probably more fun for the kids. I know I had a good time playing with Elise and Austin. At one point, I was just floating in the foot and a half of water and they were having a great time slowing spinning me in a circle. Must have done at least 20 revolutions. :)


View from the room

After some swimming time (and with an unheated pool on an overcast evening, it gets cold after a while) we got changed, watched some TV -- since George and Kimi don't have TV per se, the kids get super excited to watch Spongebob and other cartoons at the hotel. Talk about managing expectations. :) --, and headed off in search of some dinner. We ended up at a deli of sorts that was quite good. I got a reuben that was pretty tasty.

Finally, we walked down to the beach by the Hilton where we'd been told that they do a fireworks show every Friday night.  And the rumors were true. They put on quite a show and with it being so close to the hotels there was quite an echo ringing back in my ears. Especially on the big explosions. Made for a great end to Day 2.