Thursday: Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head

We spent Thursday morning at Hanauma Bay, which is known as a world-class snorkeling site.  Something that I learned on this trip is that I LOVE snorkeling, which was a little surprising to me considering I don't love to swim.  I seriously wish we lived close enough to a place where I could go all the time; it would definitely become a favorite hobby of mine if that were the case.  It also made me think it might be worthwhile to get scuba certified.  If I love snorkeling this much, I think scuba diving would be absolutely thrilling for me.  

Anyway, Hanauma Bay was lovely.  It was a perfect place for us, really, because there were practically no waves at all, which made it an ideal beach for the kids.  They played on boogie boards and had fun together while the adults and some of the older kids took turns snorkeling.  

The dark spots in the water are coral reef, and it was absolutely teeming with all sorts of tropical fish.

Sean had a waterproof case that you could put your camera in to take underwater photos, and he was kind enough to let me borrow it.  So I snapped all these photos on one of my excursions out to the corral.  It was nearly impossible to see what you were photographing through the case, but I felt fortunate that I got so many decent shots, anyway. 

That iridescent-rainbow fish on the right was (in person) the most beautiful type of fish I saw all day

And Greg took these two:

"Erik's Turtle"

"Emma's Shark"

I didn't see any turtles or sharks, (I did see an eel!), but I was happy that my niece and nephew did!

After becoming excessively sunburned, hungry, and exhausted, we took off.

It took McKay all of about 10 seconds to zonk in his carseat.

Even though we were tired, we didn't feel like we could go all the way to Hawaii and not hike Diamond Head.  It's very close to Hanauma Bay, so we decided to check it out before heading home.  We left the sleeping McKay in the air-conditioned car with Susan (who also had sleeping children), and Adam, Ty, Greg, Bryan, and I made the hike.

Right at the end, there was a ridiculously steep staircase leading to the summit.

This is how Bry felt about it:

But it was well worth it.  The view from the top was breath-taking.

Honolulu

It was a fabulous day.  It was utterly exhausting, and I went to bed way early that night, but we made some awesome memories at Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head.