It was destiny...take a beautiful Hawaiian day and mix it with two parents who needed that moment to go snorkel in the clear blue Hawaiian waters and you get Hanauma Bay moments. I adore visiting Hanauma Bay. Yes. It is a tourist destination, and if you go to late in the morning the crowds overtake the beach and clutter the waters scaring the fish away with all their splashin' and tatoo riddled bodies, but it is still one of the calmest places to view some very spectacular reef dwellers. Chompers need not try to get into this bay...the coral is a massive tangle of beautiful white and brown. Perfect. Shallow water, mask, snorkel, colorful fish, and no chompers. Heaven for an anti-deep water gal such as myself.
Mom and I snorkeled first while Papa stayed on the shore with LD. Give her sand and dig a little sand pool for her to sit in and she'll be happy for hours. Mom was a snorkeling champ. She may not be able to see without her glasses, but give her a snorkel and mask and she'll see some great fish! She adored the views of the Hawaiian state fish and just about came nose to nose with a very noisy parrot fish. We glided over the coral together for a while before heading back to encourage papa to have a turn. Her hardest moment...getting out gracefully...we giggled our way out!
Papa and I headed out in a different direction than mom and I. We got to see some puffers who weren't yet alarmed by the wierd masked fish with no gills (i.e. humans)and like mom, even though glasses are a must for seeing the world, the goggles still allowed him to view the colors and shapes of the sea. We also staye out for a while, but then our tummies began to growl signifing that it was time to head back to shore. Mom enjoyed playing with LD as she floated energically (little legs a kickin' arms a flappin') in her little innertube ensuring that her tummy was just as ready as ours for lunch.
A picnic on the beach always sounds like a great idea when I'm getting ready for a voyage to the beach. However, I forget about the sand. Luckily, Hanauma Bay has an excellent shoal of grass that is shaded by waving palm trees. So, with sandwiches and chips to enjoy, the occassional gritty crunch didn't seem as bad with the incredible view of the bay.
The fish aren't the only ones that made the day special...a feral chicken (remember...chickens roam free here....everywhere...) clucked merrily over to where we were picnicing. She scanned out the best palm tree, happily pecked at the grassy edge, turned about, fluffed up, and then...laid an egg. Yes. An egg. We have chalked that up to something we never thought we'd see before at the beach!
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