Snorkeling, Down by the Bay....

After we made it to Sunset Beach, we cut down through Oahu past the Dole Pineapple Farm and made it back to the bay for snorkeling. The pictures that I took were on an underwater camera so I found some on the web for this blog. The bay is an old volcanic crater that broke away and allowed the ocean water to enter. You can easily see that in this photo. Look at all that coral! Before we could go down to the beach, we had to watch an educational video and then rent our snorkeling gear. We jumped right in, just to the left of Sandman's Patch and worked our way all the way towards Back Door Lagoon on the left. We saw fish right away and it was the highlight of our trip. If we ever come back here or to another area that has similar snorkeling we would plan a whole day around it. The water was kind of chilly at first but we got used to it. After about 90 mn we both were quite tired and cold and called it quits. We saw a huge variety of fish, but luckily no large squids or eel like fish. That would have freaked me out a little. A sea turtle would have been cool. Some people reported seeing them.

These beautiful fish were everywhere, often in schools. We were amazed by all the fish and how they basically just ignored us and went about their business.

Here's some volcanic rock on the shore north of Hanamau Bay. It's a spot called the Blowhole. I took this photo off the internet.
After we were done snorkeling, we had the formal dinner. I preferred the outdoor dining but we had a great meal. After the dinner we went back to the room to rest for about 30 mn and then went back for the Chris Isaac concert. He was very entertaining. Last year, they had Sheryl Crow, darn it. They had other entertainment going on for those who didn't want to attend the concert, karaoke, and a casino. We checked them out after the concert. The casino was winding down but the karaoke bar was still going strong. We didn't stick around there long as the singing was not very impressive and everyone seemed pretty sauced! We were so tired that we had to call it a day. The final day, our bus left the hotel at 2:45, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast, some souvenir shopping and then hung out by the pool area with our carry ons until it was time to go. We used our bracelets one last time for lunch, barbecues by the pool/ocean. I hated to take those bracelets off! :) We had an amazing ocean view for our last breakfast. It was a nice way to wrap up our trip.