Hawaii, Day Five

Hang in there, we are almost done!

Or, if you are enjoying this peek into our trip and, like us, never wanted it to come to an end, well, brace yourself, we're almost done (sad face).

So, Day Five saw us on a tour bus, listening to a driver speak in the weirdest cadence that I have ever heard in my life; I can't even explain it, it was so odd. Despite that, the information he had to share was good; we learned about some of the sea life that we would encounter while snorkeling the reefs at Hanauma Bay, which was where we were headed.

I first snorkeled the bay back in 1987, when I visited with my parents. That time, Mom basically told my younger sister and me to pull up our big girl panties and get our asses in the water' she and Dad hadn't paid all that money for us to sit on our asses on the beach. She said that just before she, herself, adjusted her mask and waddled into the water in her flippers. In our defense, the reef was sharp! The water was salty! We loved to swim, but, our experience had always been in chlorine! But, we obeyed our parent and we were so glad we did, it was amazing, and, once we got in and got started, we didn't want to stop.

On Day Five, I was really excited to re-live that experience. Mom? Yeah, not so much; she was completely content to sun herself on the beach, keeping watch over our gear and liberally applying sunscreen to us as we rested in between swims.

And, how did it go? Was it as awesome as I remembered? Absolutely! I saw so many colorful fish, including a number of Parrot Fish, who (that?), spend their day knocking their teeth against the reef, swallowing whatever they manage to dislodge and then digesting it before crapping it back out as sand.

I'm serious. Look it up.

I also saw a large number of reef Tiger Fish, and, immediately deduced that the Tiger Fish is my spirit animal, why else would one keep pace with me everywhere I went?

The rest of the family saw amazing sea life as well, Hugh and the Man-Cub, who spent more time in the water than the rest of us (who are firm believers in rest and snacking on the beach), saw a shark, or, more accurately, the Man-Cub saw the shark from a rock, alerting his father-who was in the water-to it's existence and causing him to panic in a way that the Cub described hilariously once they returned to land.

Spoiler: No one got eaten, it was a small shark with no blood lust, apparently.

The Cub also saw a seal at one point, catching the image of it on his GoPro for the rest of us to enjoy, later (we didn't have an underwater camera, so, I don't have any fish photos to share).

It was an amazing day! So beautiful and relaxing.

Later that night, the girls insisted on taking us out for dinner at Cheeseburger in Waikiki, for a hamburger so tasty, I had to mention it in last week's Friday Favorites. Then, we returned to the resort, where we watched the fireworks that had been rescheduled after being cancelled the previous Friday.

It was a great way to end a great day.

Tomorrow: Pearl Harbor!