Day Two, 4/13

Day 2, Sunday, 4/13

It was an early morning for me and John. My phone started ringing around 3a Hawaii time with a client emergency. Luckily my team is awesome and took care of it and I didn’t hear anymore from them the rest of the day! But the damage was done as it was really 8a OK time and it didn’t take much for us to be up for the day. We finally rose from bed around 5:30a.

We made a trip to McD’s (I know, I know…can’t escape it!) to fuel up for the morning. We started by heading to the area known as the Spitting Cave….for those of you keeping up, it’s where my Dad, DeAnna and their friend Kevin had their ocean “incident” a few months ago. While it was quite a hike to see it, we stayed well above the cave…not venturing past the cliff overlooking it, far from the water’s reach. It was beautiful, so I can see where people want to explore more…but we knew better.

In fact, we would be very careful the rest of the week. The incident had left a mark in everyone’s mind and we wouldn’t try to tempt the ocean.

After seeing the spitting cave we headed to Hanauma Bay—one of the most well-known snorkeling areas in the world. It was stunning from above, and proved to be a great place for our first snorkeling experience. I jumped in (water was freezing since it was overcast that day) and saw hundreds of brightly-colored fish and even several sea turtles!

John, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as excited as I was about snorkeling. He didn’t like the idea of open water (even in the protected bay waters), the water was cold, and it just wasn’t his thing. After trying for a while to make it work and get used to it, he headed for the sand and relaxed until Dad and I were finally ready to leave. I’d hoped we’d go back later in the week, but there wasn’t enough time.

By this time the sun was out and we were warming up. We decided to stop at the Halona Blowhole, a hole in the cliffs that, when the ocean is fired up, spouts water high into the air like a fountain. We got as close as possible (so we wouldn’t be sucked in) and felt the ocean mist. Afterwards we hiked down to Halona Beach for photo ops (beautiful water).

The day wasn’t over yet. We then drove to the Eastern and North Shore following Kamehameha Highway. It was a lovely ride, though I was quite sleepy and dozed in and out. I woke up pretty quickly when we stopped at La’ie Point, where a tsunami had punched a hole through the small rock island back in the 1940s. The waves were crashing hard, and it made for great pictures. We finished up a drive on the North shore with a stop at Sunset Beach.

We went to pick up DeAnna at the airport coming back from Minnesota, then headed home. Attempted to snorkel at Kailua Beach that evening but the air was cold and windy so we decided against it. Walked, talked, relaxed and hit the bed before 8p that night!

You can already see why I didn’t blog…