I spent Thursday and Friday in the water all day practically! Thursday morning we got up at 4:30 a.m. which was extremely difficult since I am NOT an early riser. However I must admit Elena and I have been going to bed at 8 every night and waking up by 7 basically every day so I'm proud of myself! After we packed the car we hit the road around 5:20 for a 2 hour drive to Kona. First we snorkeled with dolphins!!! They weren't near the shore so after considering snorkeling almost a mile out to where they were, we decided to rent a kayak for the morning. I'm glad we did!! It took a bit to get out where they were roaming but it was SO worth it. There was at least 20 dolphins, maybe more, and even babies just swimming along. I didn't touch any of them, but they were pretty close! Some even swam up to the surface, jumped in the air twirling and then diving down again. By far the coolest thing ever!!!!
After we followed the dolphins around for a while and getting called a "dolphin magnet", we continued kayaking further to where a monument was for captain cook. The guy who rented us the kayak said Kealakeua Bay is one of the best snorkeling places so we were excited. It was indeed pretty awesome! As soon as we hit the water there were fish everywhere. We saw rainbow fish, bright yellow fish, Nemo's friend Gill, (I have no idea of what their actual names are) a few needle fish, and so many more! It was definitely worth paying for the kayak.
Once we were done snorkeling we kayaked back to shore where Elena's dad was waiting. After eating lunch and resting for a little while, we hit the water again, but this time in scuba gear. I still had a couple other skills to master, mostly clearing my mask of water and taking it off and putting it back on underwater. A little nerve-racking but I did it! We didn't stay very long diving at this place because we needed to set up camp which was an hour away and it was getting late. We got dinner, made a stop at a gas station and after AAA came and unlocked our truck since the key was inside (not my fault, just throwing that out there), we made it to camp and set up our tents. It was a nice beautiful drive because the sun was setting as we drove the coast. A great site to end a great day!
We went to bed by 8 p.m. and got up around 6:30 for breakfast and packing up. Luckily we spent the day diving at the same place we camped so we didn't have to go far at all. We did a total of 3 dives today and some surface basic skills such as swimming 200 yards, treading water for 10 minutes, and practicing diving with our snorkel gear on. It was really fun! We saw a ton more fish, part of a crash site, and lots and lots of coral! I even found a cool shell as a souvenir.
To top the day off we got shave ice! A Hawaiian specialty and it tasted wicked good after being in the sun all day. My face got burnt a little from kayaking and my hands, JUST my hands, are darker than my arms from being in a wet-suit. I also have a tan from wearing the booties from kayaking so I have some weird tan lines. Not to mention my hair was frosty with me for having it in a braid the last two days enduring so much saltwater. It took me a good 5 minutes to untangle that mess! Oh well, part of the experience!
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