Hawaii '17: Day Two of Snorkeling

We declared Wednesday another snorkeling day and checking out a few beaches along the Kona coast. Adam was snorkeled-out, so I went out at Kahuluu Beach while Adam people watched on the beach. Wednesday is cruise ship day in Kona. As we were driving up the coast, we saw a lot of tour buses headed for Volcano, but it wasn't until we were at Kahuluu, where we could see the cruise ship docked, that we realized why we saw so many tour buses. And then the tour buses showed up at Kahuluu to go snorkeling. We didn't stay much longer after the crowds came. But, I still got to see lots of awesome fish and coral! 

Hawaii '17: Mauna Kea - The Milky Way

We didn't realize it was a full moon until we got to the summit of Mauna Kea. With the full moon, it made getting good pictures of the Milky Way difficult, but I still gave it a try. I got some decent ones, and even got a shooting star! 

Hawaii '17: Mauna Kea - The Moonrise

As I was taking pictures of the sun set, Adam looking in the rear view mirror and said, 'Oh wow!' I turned from the sunset to the east and the full moon was rising over the clouds. It was awesome! 

Hawaii '17: Mauna Kea - The Sunset

The sun setting into the clouds. Not quite at the top, but pretty close to it!

Hawaii '17: Mauna Kea - Up to the Top!

After a morning of snorkeling, we went back to the house and took a rest before heading out to Mauna Kea for the sunset and star gazing. It was about a 2 hour drive though the ranch and military parts of the island. 

It was cloudy on the drive up to the mountain, but once you get high enough, you are above the clouds

At 10,000 feet they make you stop at the visitors center for at least 20 minutes to acclimate to the elevation. And the cold. It was probably 50° at the visitors center, as compared to the 85° we had left at the house. After eating some dinner and getting used to the elevation, we headed up the road for the last 4,000 feet to the top!

Lots of clouds and pu u's on the way up

The Keck Observatories

At the top! It was like being on Mars. It was extremely windy and about 35°. There is a Mars mission habitat at the top of the mountain, too. 

Adam wasn't ever keen on the elevation. We both were a little dizzy and head headaches at 14,000 feet. So we didn't stay at the top long. He wanted to head down before the sun set. So I didn't get sunset pictures from the sumit, but we still got some good ones on the way down. 

Hawaii '17: Two Step

After brunch, we went on to the next top spot for snorkeling. This one did not require any transportation. All you had to do was step off the rocks and you were surrounded by coral and tons of fish. The nick name is Two Step, but it part of the Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park. We will just call it Two Step. The snorkeling was amazing! We even saw a puffer fish!

Hawaii '17: Above and Below Water Pictures

This summer I got a new underwater housing for my GoPro, one that has a huge dome so you can do above and below water pictures. It takes a little getting used to, but here are some of the ones we got. 

Hawaii '17: Our Brunch Friends

After our kayaking adventure, we hit up The Coffee Shack, as recommended by the girl who helped us with our kayak. It was quite tasty, after an early morning workout. We had some little friends next to us, little geckos. They put out guava jelly and they come up and like the jelly out of the containers. It's pretty cute to see their little tongues go to work on that jelly!

Hawaii '17: Spinner Dolphins

When we were talking to the kayak guy, he said the spinner dolphins usually showed up around 9 in the bay. We didn't take phones with us and didn't really know what time it was as we were paddling back. I was a little sad we hadn't seen any dolphins, when in the middle of the bay, the dolphins showed up! They swam right next to us, but of course I didn't get a picture of that. They did a few jumps and there was a tiny baby. The video isn't super great (my case started to get hot and had condensation), but you can see them a few times. So, as we were watching the dolphins, I could hear this noise. At first I thought maybe it was the dolphins, but then I listened closer, and it was goats from the cliff side! I asked the girl about it when we got back to shore. She said there were a ton of goats, but also cows. One time a cow fell right off the cliff and into the bay. The sharks had a hay day...Glad I heard that story AFTER the kayaking excursion.