Hawaii Five-Lowe Part VII

Our last full day in paradise!

We planned on making it special!  We left our home early and headed to Hanauma Bay to play and go snorkeling at that beach.

The Big Guy Lowe and I initially were disappointed when we realized that good snorkeling wasn't as accessible as when we were in Maui, but through a bit of research we found that Hanauma Bay was supposed to be the best spot to snorkel in Oahu.  We were excited to give it a shot!  Looks promising, eh?

It was fun hearing stories from my mom and dad about the time they had been there back in the mid-80s.  They talked about walking out in the water and seeing tons of brilliantly colored fish.  They also talked about feeding the fish pieces of bread and that Uncle Steve was bit by a fish when he reached in the water trying to retrieve a large piece of bread that had fallen into the water.  None of that is allowed these days, but it was fun to think what it might have been like back then.

I'm so glad that Grammie Lowe decided to take pictures this day, as I didn't get my camera out once!  Things started out a bit rough with the little boys.  D was irritated with just about everything--after almost a week of being on the go can get most kids frustrated, haha and parents too!  We got down to the beach, found our spot for the day and then tried to get the kids situated!

G wasted no time in getting ready to snorkel!

J decided to sit on the beach.

D was still struggling though!!

Gratefully, he calmed down with a little love and some quiet time with Mommy.  The Grammies then told The Big Guy Lowe, G, Grandpa and me to head out snorkeling and between the two of them they would take care of the little boys.  We didn't hesitate to take them up on their offer.  Thank you so much!!!

We had a great time snorkeling!  The biggest difference we noticed from what we had experienced in Maui was the size of the fish--THEY WERE HUGE here!!  It was nice to be out snorkeling when we could actually see something!

The Grammies found what worked for the little boys and they all ended up having fun too!

Give a boy a bucket + fill it with water = Happy Boys!

After we were finished snorkeling, we decided to head out back towards our beach in Kailua.  This is when things got interesting...in a not-so-fun kind of way.  Up at the parking lot J took a fall and hit his head on the rough blacktop.  There was instant blood, and lots of it!  I picked him up and headed over to a grassy area where I poured water over his head trying to discover the extent of the injury.  There was just so much blood.  Two kind on-lookers came over with ice and other first-aid items.  We discovered that the injury wasn't as bad as the blood had made it look and we were able to calm J down, get him cleaned up, and head back to Kailua.  Whew!

We decided to pick up some Happy Meals for the boys on the drive back and for the adults we picked up some Fish Tacos from Maui Tacos.  Soooo Good!  Maybe we'll check out franchise opportunities in Washington/Oregon.  Hmmmmm. 

After getting home, everyone was pretty tired.  All the boys either took naps or had some quiet time.  Looking around, The Big Guy Lowe and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to the beach for a bit of time while all the boys were down.  Grammy HB said she'd keep an eye on things so we could head over.  Thank you SO much Mom!

I don't have any pictures of the hour and a half that we spent at the beach, but it was truly AWESOME!  We were in the water the entire time, body surfing jumping waves and just enjoying how wonderful everything was!  We had decided to check out the beach a bit farther north than we had all been together the other days.  Ahhhhhhh, just thinking about that time makes me smile and I feel instant relaxation.  We were so grateful for that last bit of ocean appreciation we enjoyed. 

When we knew we should be heading back to the house, we left the beach with such good feelings and good memories.  We will definitely be back to this area many more times in the future!  What a wonderful place to have such incredible family memories.  We are so grateful!



Snorkeling Maui

Our first full day in Maui was perfect!  But, come on, it's Hawaii and things would have to be pretty bad for it not to be good.  So like I said, perfect!

Ka'anapali beach is known for beautiful white sand, friendly swimming and great snorkeling up by black rock.  Our friends, Russ and Karen, had given us a great travel guide with many of their favorite places and activities.  This was one of them and we were not disappointed!!  (Thanks Karen!!)

We set up on the beach with our towels and just soaked in the beautiful sun!  After a short time, we decided to splurge and rent a cabana for the day--again, spendy, but hey, we're in Hawaii!!  The cabana was perfect for a comfortable crash in the sun with the option of pulling the back up to provide shade once we'd had enough beautiful, glorious, warming sun for a bit.

While lying on the beach was one of our goals, another was snorkeling--and we were successful in that regard too.  On Ka'anapali Beach our snorkeling took place by the black rock seen the in the background. 

So much fun!

Part human, part frog.

The Big Guy Lowe is in the background as we look back on Ka'anapali beach.  The spray of water is coming from a turtle that had surfaced right by us!

We followed him for a while as he, or she for all I know, casually meandered back towards the ocean floor.  It was exciting and peaceful all at the same time as we observed how graceful they were swimming.  A little later in the day we swam with four more turtles.  Not a bad way to begin our snorkeling experience!  Just amazing!

After a full day of snorkeling, we headed to explore Whaler's Village, also known as the barefoot mall.  The nick name makes sense as the outdoor mall is located just up from the beach.  We had dinner at Leilani's and quickly fell in love with virgin mago-collatas!  We made a habit of ordering one as often as we could from that night on!

There were many other beaches we visited in West Maui.  Others that made the top of our list are as follows:  *Honolua Bay*

To get to the bay you have to hike down a trail through lush, jungle-like foilage.  The Big Guy Lowe and I kept saying we felt like we were on the show "Lost".

Gratefully, no smoke monsters were spotted, but we couldn't help but make those noises.  We're a couple of goof-balls when we're together...but that was probably already obvious.  Oh well!

The beach here is definitely not a sun-tanning beach.  Rocks are everywhere.  But people don't come here to get a tan.  In the summer it's to snorkel and in the winter it's to surf.

Beautiful corals

and fish.

Tons of them!

 *Mokule'ia Bay* (also known as slaughterhouse bay)

To get to this bay, you have to walk down stairs and over rocks before getting to the secluded white sand beach.  This is a view from the road above--you can't even see that a sandy beach exists.  That might explain why there weren't many people enjoying it with us.

More turtles,

and fish.

*Napili beach*

No pictures but perfect for swimming.

*Mile marker 14 (-ish)*

I'm sure there's a name for this beach, but we just pulled off the road when we thought we saw an area that might be good to snorkel.  How awesome is that?!

All beaches are free to use, if you can find public access to them.  Nice.

So fun!!

 

And guess what we saw here?  Yep, more fish.  It might sound redundant on paper, but I don't think we ever got borded of seeing those beautiful fish!

 

In addition to West Maui, we also headed down to South Maui around Wailea for a day and had a great time too.  During our next trip to Maui we will most likely try to stay in this area so we can explore more!!  We were pretty impressed with the locals at Big Beach--you could sure tell the locals from the visitors by the way boards were handled in the waves.  Made for great entertainment!!  We did choose to stay away from Little Beach after it was explained that "clothing was optional".  How about that for a shocker?!  

Snorkeling in Maui was all we hoped it would be.  Now that The big Guy Lowe and I have had such wonderful adventures together, we're excited to head back to the islands with our snorkeling boys!!  August seems so far away, but I think we can stand it...YAHOO!!