We'd decided the night before that we would try out the snorkel place that Zach had found out from his friend in the hottub a couple nights ago. He'd said that a lot of the time there are turtles in the little lagoon that you snorkel in that you can swim with. All of us were pretty excited from the turtles the night before, so we really wanted to see some more, if not swim with them. So, we found the place by google maps in the morning (don't you love technology?) and marked it on our map.

Surprisingly, the drive was really long. So long, in fact, that we were driving along a narrow road and we were almost certain we had passed the turn-off point and needed to go back. But we found the turn off soon after that, and the road twisted down towards the ocean. We saw a pullout and stopped to take a couple pictures and look at where were going since it had a great view of the coastline. Over on the far side of the pullout, a gardener was trimming some trees that had fruit-type things on them. The fruit was Noni - a traditional Hawaiian food that apparently has 'healing' powers. The gardener opened one up and let a few people try it. It tasted horrible. Smelled worse.

We finally made it down to Kahalu'u Bay where we were supposed to be going. The parking lot there seemed to be full, so we found a spot on the road close-by. It seemed like a somewhat popular place as they had toilets, a bbq area, outdoor showers and a parking lot. But it didn't seem that busy. At least, there were people on the back with the palm trees and bbq-ing, but there weren't many people in the water. We found a good spot under the shade of some palm trees and set up our beach chairs and doused ourselves with sunscreen because it was a beautiful, clear day.

Walking bare-foot over the smoking hot sand to the even hotter black lava rocks was torture. Of course, since you're putting your fins on in the water (you do not want to have to walk all the way down to the water in your flippers) you can't bring shoes with you. The water was lovely, though. It wasn't hot, despite the area being lagoon-like. I say lagoon-like because it's not a lagoon that's big or really cut off from the sea, but it's bay-like with a reef farther out that cuts off big waves with an opening to the far left side so fish and turtles and swim in and out to the ocean freely. But that means that there's almost nothing for current or waves, so swimming was very easy. On top of that, the water was perfectly clear and shallow, so fish were so easy to watch.

It was a little difficult to get into the water, just because it was hard to walk in over the rocks, but there was a lot of sand to sit on and pull on your fins, which was nice. And then, almost as soon as you put your face in the water, there were fish swimming around. The most noticeable fish were the yellow tangs that stood out with their vibrant colour, and there were lots of them swimming around.

Some of the types of fish we had seen on our first snorkel day were around here too, but they looked so much more vibrant. There were much smaller fish here too, compared to some of the big ones that were at Puako. If you needed a rest, or to clear the fog out of your mask as Zach seemed to do on a regular basis, it was easy to just stand up and wash them out because the water came up to your waist, but not much deeper.

I was out swimming by myself for the most part because Zach always seemed to be busy with fixing his mask all the time. I'm positive he's breathing through his nose and just fogging the thing up. I even had him spit in the mask to keep it from fogging, but noooooo. I'm also a better swimmer, so I was darting all over the place, following fish as they swam along. As I was over on the far side, dodging the coral that was really high up and could give you some good scrapes, I came across a turtle! He was down under some coral, hiding out, but still watching. He didn't seem to care much that I was swimming around him. I tried to get Zach's or my parent's attention, but they all seemed to have traipsed out of the water and back onto the beach.

I finally came out to sit around for a while and dry off and have a bit of a snack. It was almost cliche, sitting in a bathing suit, just after snorkeling, and sitting on a white sand beach under big palm trees. Zach seemed to enjoy sunning himself just as much as watching the fish. I would rather be in the water, but it was really nice to bask in the sun when it's so scare at this time of year at home.

I finally convinced everyone to go back into the water for a bit before we left. I think Zach only went in for about 10 minutes. I spent another hour or so there, but that was because I'd managed to find a school of fish that was darting from one piece of coral to the next. It was beautiful and fascinating. I swam all the way out to the reef barrier, then over to where you could access the open ocean, and swam through the stronger current there. I managed to find a couple more puffer fish that were very cute. Eventually, though, we decided to head home. The sand still burned walking over it, and it was nice to use the showers there to sluce some of the salt off before packing back into the car. We drove back along the coast this time, looking at the ocean and the walkways along the road. Must be nice to live there.

As a fitting supper to the end of a very productive snorkeling day, we decided we wanted fish and chips, so after we'd had a good shower and dressed in dry clothes, we walked back up to King's court and went to the fish and chips place that Sue and Dave had suggested, eating beside the man-made lake that's part of the golf course next to us. Man, the fish and chips was fantastic, if a little weird because we'd just been cooing over how cool the fish were in the water. But they even had hot vinegar and tartar sauce that Zach really enjoyed. It was a lot of food to eat, though. Zach's nose and shoulders were bit pink, which I found kinda funny because I'd been after him to keep up with his sunscreen.

Zach and I ended up having the night to ourselves while everyone else went off to a piano concert they wanted to see. We hung around Queen's court and looked at a few things. Zach bought a couple souvenirs to bring back, because, why not. And eventually, once the sun had set, we put our cold, wet bathing suits back on and went out to the pool. Zach talked about the snorkeling place to the guy who'd suggested it in the first place while in the hot tub again. I spend a while just swimming laps and staring at the stars.