Snorkeling in Hawaii

During our trip to Hawaii we wanted to get away from Waikiki and experience Hawaii on the water. We booked a Dolphin Snorkel Adventure.  First we made a quick stop at Pearl Harbor on our way up the coast.

On the snorkel adventure we snorkeled at two different locations and saw tropical fish, sea turtles, and sting rays. I was a little nervous about it. I thought I had to hold my breath and dive down to the bottom of the ocean to see anything. When I found I just had to float on the top with my face in the water and let the fish come to me I was all for it! It was so fun. The fish came right up to us and ate food right out of our hands. My California Boy was not timid. Steve is a practiced snorkeler and dove to the bottom and swam with a turtle. He was totally in his element and even did a back flip off the top of the boat.

Waiting for the boat. It was a beautiful day.

You have to get a goofy snorkel mask picture, right?!?

I did not have glow sticks under the water. Those are in fact my legs.

I wish we would have bought an underwater camera but we didn't. I found this picture on a website. This is exactly what it was like!

We also attempted to swim with the wild spinner dolphins. I say attempted because we tried four times to get the dolphins to come up us and they always swam down about 20 feet under us. We would get back in the boat and circle around, wait for the dolphins to come back around again and quickly and quietly get in the water. The boat captain felt bad that we didn't get to have a close encounter but we were happy about the trip. The best part was when we finally gave up trying to swim with the dolphins the Captain flipped the boat around and sped up and the dolphins started following us and jumping in the wake. It was so cool! 

For the record that wasn't me yelling "We love you!" to the dolphins. We had a pretty fun group on the boat! It was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful we had the opportunity to do it!