MEMORIAL DAY!We got up pretty early so that we would reach our destination at low tide. Our first adventure was an expedition to Goat Island. We actually walked through the ocean’s rocky floor to reach the island that isn’t too far off shore. It is supposed to be a bird preserve, but we only saw a couple of birds on the island. The fascinating thing about Goat Island were the tide pools. There were hundreds of small tide pools filled with coral on one side of the island. We enjoyed looking in each and trying to find interesting creatures and shells. We found lots of sea cucumbers (that is what I am holding in the picture I posted while in Hawaii) and collected lots of shells and pieces of coral.
We walked around to the beach side of the island. The boys went out to try spear fishing. Suzy and I tried to snorkel, but the visibility was poor so we headed back to the beach. Barry did manage to spear the state fish of Hawaii. (If you can’t remember the Hawaiian name, it is also referred to as a triggerfish.) This thing was tough. It didn’t want to die. Sadly, Barry later determined that he had damaged it too badly in the struggle to be able to cook it up for us. Jared didn’t mind.
The tide was higher for the walk back to shore. We got tossed around a bit in the rocks. We came back to the house, took care of the fish/shells, and changed (dried off).
We stopped at Ted’s Bakery for lunch and their famous chocolate/Haupai (coconut) pies. We took our food to a beach. This is the area where some of “Lost” and the most recent version of “The Bachelor” were filmed. Right off the beach is a dense forested area where The “Turtle Bay Resort” brings people on horseback rides. We walked out to an old military bunker on the beach, and through the forest to the most enormous banyan tree/trees? I’ve ever seen.
The boys wanted to surf again, but the waves just weren't there. One fun thing came of our excursion to search for waves. As we drove by one of the beaches, Jared could see that there was a turtle on the beach. We walked down to see it. There was a conservation group that had placed a rope in the sand around the turtle to make sure none of us tourists got too close. The turtle on the beach hardly moved, but there were two big ones in the shore thinking about coming up on the sand. We got some good pictures before we were asked to back away and give them some space.
When we got back to the house the boys wanted to rest, but I was still dissatisfied with my snorkeling experiences, so far and was hoping to improve my luck, so Suzy and I went to Shark’s Cove. The surrounding rocks are very jagged and it was difficult to get fins on and get in the water. As soon as I put my face in the water I realized there were fish everywhere. It is a protected reef area so there were fish of all shapes and sizes. We swam out pretty far and had to fight a strong current to get back. The only problem was that I kept getting water in my tube, somehow, which was pretty frustrating, but all in all, this was pretty good snorkeling. At one point I swam into the middle of two HUGE schools of fish. They were everywhere! I guess it wasn’t quite as breathtaking as my experiences in the Galapagos Island, but I don’t expect anything ever will be.
We got some laundry going, then headed into Haliewa for dinner by way of Jared & Suzy’s favorite surfing store (Surf & Sea?) that was having a sale. We went to their favorite place for Thai food. The food was very good, but I think they made my curry medium instead of mild like I asked and I couldn't eat it all in my wimpy pregnant state.
The boys got ready for their trip to the big island while I fell asleep. I have been so tired each night by bedtime!
No comments:
Post a Comment