Monday, August 15
Today was our second day at the glorious, fantastic, breathtakingly beautiful Fairmont Orchid. We spent our morning swimming at the giant twisting pool, ordered us some cocktails poolside courtesy of the Hale Kai restaurant.
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| A green sea turtle (Honu) in Pauoa Bay |
On our way to the Fairmont, Michelle was perusing our trusty Lonely Planet guide to learn more about where we would be staying and discovered that the Pauoa Bay, which is the bay on the grounds of the hotel, happened to have great snorkeling. Unlike the Kealakekua Bay snorkeling trip we had planned, getting to Pauoa Bay wouldn't require any hiking (Michelle was done hiking on this trip). We rented our snorkeling equipment from the hotel activities counter for way too much money and trekked into the bay.
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| Honu grazing on the reef |
Jerry began swimming toward the fish right away while Michelle fiddled with her snorkeling equipment for an obscene amount of time, only to eventually crack and get a life jacket from the counter so she could feel comfortable snorkeling. She is really glad she got over her snorkeling issues and found a breathing rhythm because the fish in the bay were stunning to behold. We saw a giant green sea turtle and were so excited, we swam back to shore, bought an underwater camera, and snorkled back out. Luckily, we saw the turtle again, not far from where we had previously been snorkeling, and Jerry eagerly began snapping photos. The turtle, for himself (or herself) seemed genuinely interested in figuring us out, following us around and swimming right below Michelle, so close that Michelle was afraid to kick her legs and swim, lest she kick the turtle in the process.
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| A pair of Sailfin Tangs (Mane'one'o) grazing on the reef |
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| Threadfin Butterflyfish (Kikakapu) |
Our turtle friend provided us with some great shots, as well as the name for this blog. We also saw plenty of other fish, including brightly colored angler fish, yellow tangs, wrasses that looked almost neon, and the striped, brightly-colored Humuhumununkunukuuapa'a - the Hawaiian state fish. For her first time snorkeling, Michelle thought she had a great experience.
Shortly after snorkeling we returned to the hotel to change for our sunset glass-bottomed boat dinner cruise. The cruise left from Kailua-Kona, which is about a 45 minute drive from our hotel on the Kohala Coast. We almost, true to form, missed the boat (ha!) but luckily parked and boarded just in time. Sadly we missed the spinner dolphins which, according to our boat crew, sometimes swim alongside the boat as it pulls out of dock. We did however catch a beautiful Hawaiian sunset as we headed out to sea. We had a nice buffet dinner followed by watching the fish swim underneath the glass at the bottom of the boat. We didn't see anything too exciting but it was neat to be able to see underneath our boat. After that the party really got started. We had a hula dancer and a Hawaiian musician on board to entertain us and though the interactive dances were Jerry's worst nightmare, he was a good sport, and Michelle had a great time, despite her injury to her foot.
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| Michelle and Jerry on an all-you-can-eat sunset dinner booze cruise in Kona |
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| Hula dancer |
