Blissfully Ignorant - June 11, 2012 Part I

Today (June 11, 2012) Chris and I decided to head down to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling.  We got down to the bay and the parking lot was full.  So instead we decided to try renting scooters for the day.  I had never ridden scooters, but Chris had and he was always talking about how fun it was.  We went to this place called Hawaiian Style Rentals & Tours in Waikiki. 

TELLING ME TO STOP TAKING PICTURES AND SIGN THE WAIVER

The company was really great at orienting me and soon we were off.  We scooted around Diamond Head until I was comfortable and then it was off to try Hanauma Bay again.  We had stopped off in Ewa before we headed down to town and loaded up on snacks and drinks for Hanauma, but totally left them in the car when we rented the mopeds...oops! So we stopped at the Koko Marina Shopping Center and got Subways, drinks and sunscreen.

When we got to Hanauma the parking lot was open.  Yippee!  Parking is a $1, but it's FREE if you are on a bike or moped.  Score! Then admissions is $7.50, but it's FREE if you are kama'aina. 

HANAUMA BAY

They have a trolley that shuttles people up and down the hill since it's pretty steep.  I thought it was interesting that it's only $0.75 for the ride down, but it's $1.00 to take it up!  I'm totally cheap (and we're healthy and able) so we walked down, picked up some rental snorkel and fins, put our stuff in a locker and then we were off to enjoy the bay. 

I was hungry and promptly inhaled probably about 8 inches of my footlong sub.  Chris immediately headed off into the water to go out the channel to snorkel around back (where I'm too chicken to go unless I'm in a dive outfit).

When I went out with Chris, but it was really hard because it was really shallow and it sucked trying to float over the reef without bumping into it.  I felt like I was sucking in my stomach the whole time I was snorkeling and that was really obnoxious.  I did get to finally try out my camera that I bought specifically because it had a dive housing. (Actually I bought the underwater housing BEFORE I got the camera...silly me since the camera was discontinued by Canon!) 

THE FISH JUST LET YOU GET LIKETHISCLOSE TO THEM :)

I think that since I've gotten spoiled snorkeling at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau that everywhere else is just not as good.  I definitely want to go back and do some diving if we can.

Chris was also over snorkeling, so we read our magazines/book while we dried out a little and then headed out to do some more scooting :)

US AT HANAUMA BAY (WE LOOK RED BECAUSE IT'S THE UNDERWATER SETTING - OOPS)

In the parking lot, we noticed some college aged girls were having trouble starting up their mopeds.  Chris swooped in to rescue them (although one of the girls actually did some damage to her bike and she had to call the company).  We then scooted off...little did I know what was to come

GIRLS THAT CHRIS HAD TO HELP START THEIR MOPEDS :)