"Rest" Day - Wednesday

Wednesday morning Ryan and I got up and ate a good breakfast once again then headed for the best snorkeling spot on the island…which just so happened to be connected to our hotel! The gate to the beach had not been opened yet so we hopped over then headed out into the water. We sat our stuff down on a ramp where I noticed a small little black thing crawling. It was about half the size of my pinky nail. It was a little bitty black crab! Too cute! The beach was salt and pepper colored so the crab blended right in. Too funny! I got my flippers on and scooted out into the water. Lots of very slippery rocks in this area. Which is why there are so many green sea turtles in that area as well. Lots of algae to feed on. I put my head in the water and immediately forgot about how miserably cold the water was. Tons of color! All sorts of beautiful fish, coral, and lots of sea urchins. I saw all but two of the fish on the chart mom had laminated for me then decided I had a pretty good morning and would head back in. By this time the rest of the family had made it down and Howard had Kayla out snorkeling already. In fact, a sea turtle had made his way up right next to where we had put our things so we all got great pictures with a turtle up close! I sat at the water’s edge with Wesley and helped him find little crabs on the rocks and try to catch the little fish swimming around in the shallow area. We played there for about a couple hours. We rinsed off our things then headed out to find lunch (which ended up being at Bongo Ben’s once again). After lunch we went out to Hapuna Beach.

Larry and Rita rested under a palm tree, while the rest of us played in the sand and in the water. Such a gorgeous beach! Wes and Uncle Ryan tried to build a little sand tunnel while Kayla played in Hapuna’s surf. Talk about body surfing! It was amazing to see such golden sand so close to the black sand we had seen at Kiholo Bay days before. We convinced everyone we needed to stop there on our way back to the hotel. Hapuna was pretty crowded (at least compared to the beach we had been to the day before) so we packed up after a couple hours and headed back up the road. As promised we stopped at Kiholo and took several pictures.

At this point, most all of us were ready for our next Scandinavian Shaved Ice. This time Howard and Krystal got their family a large to split (it’s only thrity pounds). Ryan and I couldn’t agree on what we wanted to split so we each got our own.

Ryan even got ice cream in the middle of his! You had the option of getting sweetened condensed milk on top of it as well, but the kid before us did and it made both of us nauseated so we refrained. Larry opted to just go with the ice cream by itself without any shaved ice (which was a nice choice too…caramel macadamia nut…yum!). Howard got sooooo many stares when he came out of the shop with the enormous shaved ice!

They even told him that he could come back halfway through to get more syrup because they couldn’t put it all on at one time!
After we were done…wait, let me clarify, none of us “finished” them so much as couldn’t eat anymore…we went back to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner. David O had recommended Jameson’s By the Sea, so we called and made our reservation. We had the most incredible table. It was out on the porch watching the waves and surfers. It was too cool! You could see the ocean spray in the air. The waves were beautiful. The sunset while we were there and I got yelled at for climbing onto a rock wall to try to take a picture…come on people, why build a rock wall at perfect stepping height if you don’t want me to climb on it ;o) After dinner, Wesley had fallen asleep, so Krystal and Howard left to take him back to the hotel. The rest of our group decided we would go see the manta rays at the Sheraton. Just as we were standing up to leave, we noticed the staff feeding something below and it was drawing a crowd of guests. Rita, Kayla and I went to observe. Eels…lots and lots and lots of eels…slinky, slippery, creepy eels…yuck! Made all of us uneasy…I mean…we swim near lots of rocks…gives me the shivers even thinking about it now! We watched for a little while until the waiter was out of bread for them, then headed off for the Sheraton. Sweet Kayla was getting really sleepy. But, the manta rays were worth seeing. The Sheraton (in Keahou Bay where we kayaked a couple days before) has two large spot lights set up on the water.

The light attracts plankton…and manta rays come out to eat them. We saw about ten. All probably eight to twelve feet in width. They were beautiful and so graceful. They would all get in a single file line behind one another, see their mouths open, swimming right toward you, then they would turn, swim around a bit then get back in line. We were told you can dive at night with them and they won’t harm you. Unlike sting rays, manta rays apparently don’t have the strike. I still don’t know if I could do it though….they were huge. I can’t imagine being in the water with them…in the dark. We only stayed for about twenty minutes then went back to our hotel. Kayla was exhausted. Now…I think this happened Wednesday night, but it might have been Tuesday…since I stopped writing in the journal out of sheer exhaustion, I lose track. Ryan and I changed into our swimming suits and decided to go for a night swim while we did a load of laundry…that is, we tried. The pool closed at 9:00! We laid in the hammocks while waiting for the laundry to dry. We were leaving on Thursday morning and had had such a nice time while in Kona. As soon as the laundry was done we headed back upstairs, folded and got pretty well packed. We put our volcano clothes in one bag and all the rest of our clothes in another. That way we’d only have to take in one bag to the Volcano House the next day. Again…completely exhausted after such a full day…we were asleep as soon as the heads hit the pillow.