Hawaii Day 4

We were up and out the door early again. It really was fine because no one was able to sleep in. This time David, Wendy, Jeremy and I started our day by driving to Waianae on  the west side of Oahu.  It was nice to see this side of the island and no traffic. We arrived early at Dolphin Excursions Snorkel Adventure. One nice thing about this excursion is that they gave us a 10% discount for driving ourselves. All the excursions we did offered free transportation from Waikiki hotels, but because we were staying at a beach house we had to drive ourselves anyway. This is the only place that gave us a discount for not using their transportation. We had to check in by 6:30 a.m., order lunch, and get our snorkel gear, so that we could leave by 7 a.m. I had plenty of time to lather on the sunscreen and get it in my eye. Let me tell you that hurts! I am glad that by the time we left most of the sunscreen was out of my eye and I could see. 

The water was so calm as we took off. Kind of like a Idaho lake in the morning. We drove along the west coast looking for Spinner Dolphins. 

It did not take us too long before our captain (Jenna)  thought she saw a splash. I am glad she has a better eye than the rest of us because I did not see anything. We slowed down and started looking. Just when we were ready to move on and thought it must have just  been a fish we found them. Hundreds of them with their baby's. So Amazing! Spinner Dolphins average 6 feet in length and 175 pounds. This is a lot smaller than the bottle nose dolphins that most people think of. I keep hearing that bottle nose dolphins are crazy and kind of like a big bully. You don't want to swim with them. Spinner Dolphins are also the only dolphins that naturally spin not just jump. It is cool to see. Spinner dolphins travel off shore at night to feed and then return to the shallow coast line during the day to rest and nurse their babies. I think we went on this excursion at the perfect time of year. They were just at the end of their birthing season, so lots of babies. It was also the perfect time of day. They had just gotten back from feeding and really active. Lots of spinning and jumping, but they go really fast and it is hard to get a good picture of them spinning out of the water. We learned all of this from our deck hand/naturalist Tamar. She was so knowledgeable. 

The dolphins were really moving and not staying around. They dropped us in the water with them, but they were gone before anyone could see them dolphin. It was okay. They simply picked us up and took us to snorkel with some fish and green sea turtles while we waited for the dolphins to find a place they wanted to rest in. As soon as we got in the water we saw a sea turtle. We followed it for a little bit. I kept felling like the plankton in the water was stinging my arms. I thought I was going crazy until I heard others say the same thing. After following the sea turtle for a while Jeremy and I swam around looking at the fish. Then I spotted another sea turtle. It was at the bottom, but swam right up at us. Really cool. They let us snorkel as long as we wanted. Then it was back on the boat to go find the dolphins. 

I feel bad because David got sick again. He stayed on the boat the rest of the time. Not fun to be so sick and stuck on a boat for three hours. On our way to try and swim with the dolphins we saw three spotted eagle rays that we got out and swam with. I loved following them, but it took me by surprise when they turned around and started swimming my way. They never really got close. Some people saw a flying fish while they were on the boat, but we did not see it. 

We found the dolphins again. Let me explain what they mean by swim with the dolphins. They put you in front of the dolphins in the direction they are swimming and if your are lucky they will swim past you. One, they are way too fast to try and swim with and two it is illegal to swim with wild dolphins. The water here was not as clear, but we jumped in. It was funny because I could hear them under water talking to each other and when I would look up out of the water I could see their dorsal fin sticking up out of the water not that far from them, but I would not see them under water. Lots of people did including Jeremy and Wendy. They were quickly gone and we got back on the boat to try again for those of us who did not see any. This time in the water I could hear them again and after waiting patiently five adults and one baby dolphin swam right under me. So cool, but you can only see them for a little bit then they are gone. 

We got back on the boat and were able to watch more dolphins, but because of time we could not get in. The dolphins were still swimming along our boat and you could see them really well, but not as much jumping and spinning as in the morning. I think they were starting to rest. You can really see the different a few hours can make in their activity and the color of water just a few hours makes. The first picture was first thing in the morning and the bottom picture is just before we returned. 

After we docked they had lunch all ready for us at Spinners cafe. I think I must have really been hungry because I devoured the food. We ordered kalua tacos before we left and it was all ready for us. 

Our next adventure for the day was to meet up with David's sister Andrea and her husband Peter to hike Monoa Falls. The water fall is 150 feet tall and beautiful. (Because Pearl Harbor was closed the whole time we were there everything else was more crowded, so for those of you who have hiked to Monoa Falls and are shocked to see so many people that is why.) It was a nice hike through the rain forest. A little muddy and slippery. I slipped on the way down and fell on my behind. The good news is that it got rid of the hiccups and there was also a hose to wash our shoes off at the end of the hike.  

We did not carve this, but we saw it in a tree and took a picture of it for Ethan. We did not see James or Grace's names and did not want to carve their names into one.

Monoa Falls was nice, but we could not swim in its small pool because of the risk of rock slides, so we went to find a place called the Jackass Ginger Pool. I was a little worried about finding it because I don't known anyone who has been there and Andrea's friends that live in Oahu have never heard of it. It was a little tricky, but after asking a few people that were in the area we found it. I don't know if we could call it a hike. It was just down the hill from the road. At first it was a little cool compared to the warm ocean water, but nothing like our glacier runoff lakes in Idaho. It did not take us long to get use to it, and the fresh water felt great after all the salt water. This is like a local swimming hole that not everyone knows about. We swam around for a while. Peter went down this natural rock water slide that was there and Jeremy, Wendy and I followed. It was such a fun little place.

There is not place to change around this pool so Andrea took us to Kawaikui Beach Park to change. We walked along the beach there and I found a few black sea shells before we rinsed off and changed. Then it was off to Rainbows Drive-In for dinner. This place was on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives if you happen to ever watch that show. The food was okay. 

After dinner Andrea, Peter, David and Wendy decided to go pick up somethings they needed from Walmart. Jeremy and I stayed to walk around Waikiki and went to the free torch lighting ceremony and hula show at the Kuhio Beach Hula Mound. They said the show varies each night, but the night we went they blew the conch shell to open, welcomed us, and then they had some older ladies sing and play the stories of each of the Hawaiian islands while different girls performed the hula. They had very young girls, teenagers and adult ladies dancing at different times. I liked that they had one lady singing the Hawaiian songs in the native language and then another lady speaking in English telling us what the song and dance was saying.   

After the show we bought a few things at one of the many, many ABC stores and enjoyed walking along the beach parks back to our car. Then back to our beach house.