I tried to get out early again to get some pictures on Summer’s run, but got there after she had finished. We walked around the harbor a bit and took some pictures of crabs and fish along the dock, and then came back up to get ready for the day. Dad made breakfast this time since Julie didn’t wake up until much later. Mom stayed up all night, wired on coffee ice cream.
Dad and Summer picked up snorkeling gear, and eventually we got everyone downstairs for Susan to take us to the Makai Research Pier. She stopped in a few scenic places along the way and showed us around, and even took some pictures for us. Dad took a spill at one of them and scraped up his knees pretty badly, but Susan came to the rescue again and patched him right up.
The research center itself was closed to the public, but there was a pretty good beach with lots of live coral for snorkeling. Julie was upset that there were clouds out for part of the day, and didn’t feel like the snorkeling was as good, but I felt like it was quite a bit better than Hanauma Bay and the skeleton of its reef. I don’t remember seeing tons of great fish there – mostly giant parrot fish, which I guess was interesting too, but this time I felt more like we were in a real ecosystem. We also didn’t have to camp out tickets at 7 in the morning, and there were WAY fewer people there.
Dad, Summer, and I spent the most time out in the water, and we kept getting spread out. Dad and Julie saw a sea turtle at one point, but I never did. I spotted a seahorse and showed Summer, and we think Dad saw the same one just a little earlier based on where we saw it. It was super hard not to just touch the little guy. He was bright yellow, and had hitched himself to some seaweed relatively near the shore.
Mom never even got in the water, and stood in the shade to play on her phone the whole time. Julie tanned for a while, then made us sandwiches for lunch. When we were finally ready to leave, Susan had to send her boyfriend, Kevin, over to get us since she was on the opposite end of the island. He was pretty cool too, though.
On the way back, we stopped and picked up a bunch of fresh donuts from a Leonard’s Bakery truck. Both Susan and Kevin kept telling us about it, and we figured we wouldn’t have a better chance to pull off the road to get some. Kevin insisted that we eat in the car, but I was the only one that did. I kind of regretted it because they were pretty messy, but they were also way better fresh than when we got back to the room.
After cleaning up and resting a bit, Dad, Summer, and I went to return the snorkeling gear. Just as we got there, Susan said she could take us out to eat, so we hustled back and met Mom and Julie out front. We went to Nico’s Pier 38 after Susan’s suggestion earlier in the week, and after a bit of a wait, we got a table. The food was pretty great, but my mojito hit me super hard and I felt like I had a midget sitting on my shoulders the rest of the night.
Kevin was the one to take us back to the room after dinner, and from there it was straight to bed for us.
See horse?