Thursday

Thursday morning of the Brooke, Amy, and Sarah visiting adventure sent Amy and myself to Hanauma Bay and Brooke and Sarah biking riding 5 miles downhill. Amy and I had a blast. We started off being picked up by "Big Daddy" (that is what his shirt said and that is what everyone called him) in a 1980 church van lookalike. kind of scary...smelly...and you weren't sure it was going to make it:) We then went to a parking lot and received our gear...snorkle, mask, and fins. ohhh...wait...we got a paper on the way to the parking lot that gave us black and white photos of the colorful fish we would see, a map of the bay and appropriate swimming areas, ideas for best photo's, and rules. Upon arriving to the bay we walked a mile to the entrance and then waited 20 min to see a 9 min video on how to help preserve the bay. Did i mention that this package that we payed for was from 10am to 2:45pm. By the time we had done all of the above mentioned....it was 11:45am. that only left until 2:00 because we had to hike up the giant mountain side (or take the trolley:)hehehe) and meet our church van at 2:15pm.

So amy and i decide that we are strong enough swimmers to make it into section two which you get to my a channel that has a somewhat strong current in it. we go in on the right and make our way toward the middle where the channel is and we swim through and holy cow...wave over my head..not good for the snorkle...you swim 10 feet and get pushed back 8 feet into the coral reef you are trying to swim away from.... after about 5 minutes of this amy and i turned around and swam back section one. whooweyyyy. that was enough to make you tired fighting all that fun stuff. so we swam for 2 hours all around the bay and took lots of pictures. we did see a sea turtle eating. we were maybe 2 feet away from it and had to do frantic swim strokes to keep from touching it because it is illegal. that was very cool! We also saw a lot of the state fish of hawaii... the humuhumunukunukuapua'a. now...if you can properly pronounce that you are on your way to being a hawaiian! humu (hoo-moo) x2, nuku (noo-koo) x2, a (ah), pu, a'a (ah-ah). try it, it's lots of fun and work on saying it fast...even more fun! we got out of the water and were so tired...what a great workout! we got back to the hotel and brooke and sarah got back shortly after us from their bike ride that they said was easy a pie. Amy and I showed our battle scars from the reef attack that we experienced from the waves:)

Amy and I decided to take the car and drive this road that the guide book said is a not to miss. it was absolutely gorgeous! the tantalus and Round Top drive. 10 miles of the curvies and spectacular views. on this road we were driving along and saw a sign for a state park called Pu'u Ualaka'a State Wayside Park. Amy remembered reading something about a fantastic lookout...so we pulled in and stayed left at both intersections then walked out after parking to see this 180 degree view of the southern part of Island of Oahu. from the west coast to the east coast. you could see everything. Way better than diamond head! holy cow what a view. When i get the picture thing worked out I will put pictures up.

That night Zeraline had invited the girls over for a BBQ and had also invited some of Chris's buddies and families. we had fun and they enjoyed meeting my sister-in-law and family! it was great having them in the house!