HANAUMA BAY! HURRAY

DAY FIVE: Monday

Hanauma Bay was greatly anticipated and well worth the wait! We loved our day there. The only problem was that it was cloudy and a little cold. When the sun did come out...you wanted to soak it all in just to get warm. Snorkling was a little scary at first for some. Like me, Brin, Sydnie, Grace and Sara. It is a little clastraphobic at first and the idea of seeing so many fish kinda freaked us out a little. Right off the bat when we were trying to get our nerve up to go in with all of our gear, Lyndsie found an eel. It was a big one too. After that, Brinley and Grace and Sydnie would not get in for a while. We all took a break and then later on we all tried again and every one of us did it and went exploring. It was spectactular! Sam had a great time with the under water camera...check out our pictures!

Pictures of us waiting...

Pictures of us all getting ready...(what? how does all this stuff work?)

Here we go...

SIGHT SEEING and BEACH

DAY FOUR: Sunday

Since today was Sunday, we tried to make it a quieter day. We started off by doing a little sight seeing. Well actually...Steve, Sam and Brinley started off the day by going on a walk and watching the sun rise. They walked out on the pier and a man was standing there feeding some birds. The birds would come and land on Sam and Brinley's arms. They would just line up along the length of their arms. They thought it was so cool, the birds were called Zebra Doves. Later, we went to the Palace, which is the only palace on U.S. soil. It was closed for the day so we could only walk around the grounds and admire the beauty of the buildings. I would have loved to been able to have learned more about the history though. After, we went back to the hotel and made ourselves some lunch and then went on a walk to the beach. We ended up just going to the Waikiki beach. Stockton and Lyndsie learned how to surf. It was awesome! Today was just a quiet and relaxing day in paradise.

TEMPLE, BEACH and DOLE PLANTATION

DAY THREE: Saturday

Today we set out to go to Hanauma Bay but couldn't get in because it was full so we had to change our plans. We decided to go up and around the island to the north side and see the temple. It was a beautiful trip, so scenic. I actually loved this part of Hawaii, it was so beautiful. We passed the Kualoa Ranch that Lost was filmed on and the mountains looked just like the ones in the show. The ocean was beautiful and you could see other islands of rock that were so pretty. The temple was beautiful. I loved seeing it, the only problem was that we were all dressed for Hanauma Bay so we were all in our swimming suits. We were not feeling appropriately dressed for the temple grounds but we went anyways and we were warmly welcomed. We decided to take our picture behind the bushes to hide our immodesty! Haha! We thought we were funny! After the temple we had a fun little picnic and then made our way up and around to the funnest beach. I think that it was the Waimea Bay Beach. It had the hugest waves and as soon as we got there, Grace and Brinley ripped off there clothes and ran to the water. Lyndsie got stung by this funny looking insect and we had to go get the Life Guard to make sure she was going to live. And then we all got into the water and had the best time ever. The waves actually knocked you around like crazy, sweeping you off your feet! We laughed at each other so hard, Kim of course laughed so hard she peed her swimming suit. By the end of the afternoon, all of us were covered completely in sand. I mean handfuls of sand were everywhere you wouldn't want it to be! It took us forever to clean it off and when you thought you had it all taken care of you would find more. The sand was like cornmeal!

We traveled to the Dole Plantation, learned how pineapples grew and froze to death! By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were all exhausted and ready for bed. But we all had yet another fabulous day in Hawaii!

Every day we took a picture of Stockton and Sydnie for Mr. Wilson. For their Geography class, Mr. Wilson wanted them to keep a journal for each day and have a picture of the days events. Here is a picture of Lyndsie applying ice on the insect sting! And below are pictures of Stockton and what we called his Hawaiin tan: