Quite the adventure

Today we had quite an adventure! It is our last day in hawaii so we tried to make it a good one. There is a great snorkeling spot right near captain cooks monument (Its where he died if you are wondering). Its such a great spot that the locals want to restrict access to it so that it does not becone overrun with "causual tourists".
Now that ash and i have spent some time on the island, we think this is a good idea. For instance, there is a very popular snorkeling spot on alii drive in kona (referred to as "snorkel beach"). This reef is easily accessable to anyone and it seems like pretty much every tourist and sight seer come to snorkel at this reef. The problem with this is that  its very shallow so everyone steps on the coral, sun screen gets on (and kills) the coral and if a wave comes a long you'll land on the coral and break it etc. Because its so popular the reef is dying and there's not that much beauty left. There's still some, but its nothing compared to our two other favorite snorkeling spots. Needless to say, no one wants any of the snorkeling spots to end up like this one.

In an attempt to keep the massive crowds away from captain cook no maintained roads lead there. So a popular way to get there is by a mile kayak ride and that is how ash and i intended to get there.

We rented a double kayak at "kona boys" and strapped it to the top of our jeep. After arriving at the boat ramp we loaded up our gear and put in the seats to the kayak. A gentleman kindly informed us that we put the seats facong the wrong way and we were about to kayak "backwards" (whoops).

The kayak trip was a hoot. The bay is often used as a place of rest and nursery for a pod of spinner dolphins. I hoped we would see some but we did not. When we arrived at the monument i promptly stepped on a bee which stung my foot. We put on our snorkel gear, trief to avoid stepping on the purple sea urchins, and jumped into the ocean.

I have to say, that ashley was being very courageous during this time. After our first snorkel trip the last thing i thought we would be doing was kayaking our into the ocean to jump in with the fish. Earlier in the trip she was nearly in tears for being within a yard of a puffer fish and now she was dragging me along into schools of them. I thinks shes finally over her fear of fish.

The ocean was warm, the coral beautiful, and the fish fishy. We swam and took pictures and admired God's beautiful creation of the coral reef.

As we kayaked back i announced that we were not leaving until i spotted a dolphin (or we reached the other side). We reached the other side first, so i guess ill just have something to look forward to for the next trip to paradise.