This is Tricia, Mary and me waiting to see the orientation video that they make you watch so you don't kill the reefs.
Tricia the rebel tried to touch the fake reef. Bad biology teacher!
To get to the beach, you had to travel down a fairly big hill. This is a crowd of people doing so. There's also a cart that you can ride, which is what we did.
This is the view once we got to the beach.
The view from where we were sitting.
A very nice stranger offered to take our picture.
While we were sitting on the beach, we saw many tourists, including this one, who was wearing what might easily have been the most uncomfortable-looking life jacket I've ever seen.
They have snorkels that you can rent and go to see the fish in the reefs. Mary rented one, and we went fish hunting. 
I fared far better with the underwater camera than the last time I tried to use one. You can actually see the fish this time! This little striped one was called a convict fish, according to the "Don't Kill The Reef" video.
I'm sure this little fellow has a name too, but we just called him Purple Stripey Fish.
***Taryn - bird alert. Skip to the next picture!***There were other types of wildlife at Hanauma Bay too. For instance, the feral chickens that roamed the beach and surrounding grassy areas.
And a different kind of fish - the statue variety. This one and I got pretty friendly. He remembered me from the last time I'd visited.
There was also a tiled wall of fish. I decided I wanted to go swimming with them.
Next, we drove around the edge of the island in search of Giovanni's shrimp truck on the North Shore. On the way, we passed some interesting and photogenic places. For instance, we passed Coconut Island, footage of which was used in Gilligan's Island. I couldn't get any decent pictures because of the stupid trees in the way, but I promise we saw it. We also saw another island, the politically correctly named Chinaman's Hat.
We also passed the Kualoa Ranch, which is a huge mountainous area that you can pay to tour. Or you can take pictures from the window of a moving car for free. Lots of things have been filmed here, including Jurassic Park and a ton of scenes in Lost. Hurley's golf course is here, as is the place where they found the van with Roger the Workman's body and the Dharma beer.
We finally made our way to Giovanni's shrimp truck, home of the greatest shrimp in the world.
The shrimp scampi. They also had hot and spicy and lemon and butter varieties, but the garlic scampi was the best.
They also had a very nice tree there.
That evening, we attended the luau that the Hale Koa holds twice a week.
This is us in the luau garden. Katy befriended a very nice young Army couple who took our picture.
Katy had a Blue Hawaiian. It did nice things to her tongue.
The luau garden was full of pretty flowers.
And also pretty young men getting the pretty dinner out of the ground. This was our friend Kalua Pig. He was delicious.
After the cocktail hour in the garden, we went into the seating area for dinner.
This is poi. It tastes like a combination of applesauce and wallpaper paste.
And this is everything else, which tasted far better than the poi.
This was the emcee of the luau, Glenn Medeiros, who sang this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kybeq2dWBf8) back in the day. And also at the luau.
However, there was more to the luau than 80s love ballads. There were dancers,
and also a man who threw fire around. He was hot (pun intended).
We shared a table with a lovely couple from Oregon who were celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary, and a hot Army guy whose parents were visiting. This is him sitting next to Katy. The highlight of the evening came when Mary (who had just learned the word that morning) told him she was a cougar. He was amused.
Me and the cougar:
After the luau, we wandered next door to the Hilton Hawaiian Village, land of a million stores, where very pushy salespeople tried to sell us overpriced jewelry, and we were overrun by mobs of foreign tourists to the point that I had to check with Tricia to make sure that Hawaii was indeed still a state.
And a different kind of fish - the statue variety. This one and I got pretty friendly. He remembered me from the last time I'd visited.
There was also a tiled wall of fish. I decided I wanted to go swimming with them.
Next, we drove around the edge of the island in search of Giovanni's shrimp truck on the North Shore. On the way, we passed some interesting and photogenic places. For instance, we passed Coconut Island, footage of which was used in Gilligan's Island. I couldn't get any decent pictures because of the stupid trees in the way, but I promise we saw it. We also saw another island, the politically correctly named Chinaman's Hat. 
We also passed the Kualoa Ranch, which is a huge mountainous area that you can pay to tour. Or you can take pictures from the window of a moving car for free. Lots of things have been filmed here, including Jurassic Park and a ton of scenes in Lost. Hurley's golf course is here, as is the place where they found the van with Roger the Workman's body and the Dharma beer. 
We finally made our way to Giovanni's shrimp truck, home of the greatest shrimp in the world. 
The shrimp scampi. They also had hot and spicy and lemon and butter varieties, but the garlic scampi was the best.
They also had a very nice tree there.
That evening, we attended the luau that the Hale Koa holds twice a week.
This is us in the luau garden. Katy befriended a very nice young Army couple who took our picture. 
Katy had a Blue Hawaiian. It did nice things to her tongue. 
The luau garden was full of pretty flowers.
And also pretty young men getting the pretty dinner out of the ground. This was our friend Kalua Pig. He was delicious.
After the cocktail hour in the garden, we went into the seating area for dinner.
This is poi. It tastes like a combination of applesauce and wallpaper paste. 
And this is everything else, which tasted far better than the poi.
This was the emcee of the luau, Glenn Medeiros, who sang this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kybeq2dWBf8) back in the day. And also at the luau. 
However, there was more to the luau than 80s love ballads. There were dancers, 
and also a man who threw fire around. He was hot (pun intended).
We shared a table with a lovely couple from Oregon who were celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary, and a hot Army guy whose parents were visiting. This is him sitting next to Katy. The highlight of the evening came when Mary (who had just learned the word that morning) told him she was a cougar. He was amused.
Me and the cougar:
After the luau, we wandered next door to the Hilton Hawaiian Village, land of a million stores, where very pushy salespeople tried to sell us overpriced jewelry, and we were overrun by mobs of foreign tourists to the point that I had to check with Tricia to make sure that Hawaii was indeed still a state. 
5 comments:
Is it bad that as soon as I saw the picture of the mountains, I instantly thought "LOST!!!"
...I maintain that I am merely observant, not insane.
That video is awesome.
kissing the fish should be your next facebook pic
Haha, Sarah, if that was the only thing that made you insane, it would be a good day. I say that like the same principle doesn't apply to me. And I not only thought LOST!!!! the second I saw the mountains, but I also made everyone else in the car listen to a lecture about the scenes filmed there.
And Taryn, I can't get that stupid song out of my head now.
And Mary, if you think that one is bad, check out the one on Day 7 where the wall is tiled with fish and I tried to look like one, but it just looks like I'm kissing the fish's rear end.
Mmm hot army guy.
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