HAWAII DAY EIGHT: Polulu Valley and Dolphins!

Day Eight in Hawaii, on the big island, Hawaii started out with a bang! 

Some of us were up early and sitting on the couch in the living room. I saw Rustin get out of bed and head toward his bedroom door. He stopped when he got into the doorway and slowly tipped to the side and banged right into the open door as he 

PASSED OUT!

"Russ, Rustin just passed out!!" I yelled as we all jumped up off the couch and ran toward him.  Before we got there he hopped up and said, "It was just a REALLY BAD head rush. I'm OK!"

After what happened with Chloe it was just too much! 

Will my kids just stay conscious please??!!!

After a good breakfast and filling Olivia up with Motrin AGAIN, we headed out for a drive up the northwest tip of the Big Island to the Pololu beach.

This is the scenery as we headed out. Not much foliage to look at at first. This is why some people don't like the big island, but just wait!

Also along the way is this lava and coral type graffiti. People spell things out with the white coral along the side of the road. Fortunately there was nothing offensive. It would be pretty easy to get rid of bad words, just kick rocks!

Looks like someone messed this up or it's just older.

Ahh, isn't Hawaii beautiful?

Ah ha! I told you it got better! Here we have some serious tropical vegetation or should I say "Fruit~atation!"

Bananas, papayas and more all around!

Down to the water we go. This is the view from the top. We just drove and drove until the highway ended.

View on the other side. Love those foggy mountains!

Big collection of signs to love!

Some of our favorites. Love the pictures. 

Heading down to Polulu Beach.

About a 15 minute steep walk down. 

Liv being a trouper even though she woke up with a fever for the third day straight! We sponged her head with COLD wet paper towels the whole way in the car.

The happy couple.

Mom, hurry up!

Had to get a few pic's on the way down!

Chloe and Liv seeing what's down there.

I can't believe I'm taking pictures with my own camera just like the ones I've been staring at in our "Hawaii Revealed" books.

How cool is that tree and that view???

I love watching the water crash against the rocks.

Bonus: a swing as a reward at the bottom of the trail in the woods.

More BLACK SAND! Olivia showing us its texture.

Looking for stuff.

Chillin' on lava rocks. Lots of these were grey and red.

Throwing rocks.

Aren't they cute?

Photo time!

Can you tell we are having some serious wind down there?

Russ looks like he's trying to start a wrestling match with me, and though he usually is, he is actually just trying to keep my hair from flying in his face during the picture.

Now it's my turn to wrestle him!

Look what my poor sick baby found?? The only big shell we've seen the whole trip!! It's perfectly whole and huge!

Looking for more. No luck.

Jelly fish in Hawaii!! 

Good thing we only saw this dead one up on shore. This is exactly like the one that stung Olivia in Mexico last spring.

All together! Nice hair!!

Thanks for an awesome 8 days and still 2 to go!

Mr. Muscles!

The other side of the beach. It was feeling left out!

Now that's green!

We stopped at Tropical Dreams Hawaiian Ice Cream, and bought...

Fudge! A pound and a half of 6 different flavors! YUM for the next 3 days!

OK. We got ice cream too. It was so good. The Tahitian Vanilla was the crowd favorite!

Olivia tried almost every flavor they had!

Our first glimpse of a WHALE!!!!

Finally! Don't worry hon, we'll see more tomorrow.

The girls and I missed the wild, spinner dolphin swim so instead we did the

 Hilton Bottle Nose Dolphin Encounter!

Heading down to the water with our trainer, Evan and others in our group, Patsy (with white hair) and then a couple from Brazil, Joyce and Gabriel.

TESS took ALL of these pictures!!! Thanks honey!

CAN'T WAIT!!

Giving the Shaka sign for a quick pic.

There she is! "EVA" a 37 year old mommy (hey, she's older than me!)

Dancing with Eva!

The look on Olivia's face was worth it!!

Feeling her soft belly!

INCREDIBLE!

 We also got to play with one of their daughters, Pakunala who is 6 years old.

Evan taught us LOTS about dolphins while we were there. We spent more than a half hour in the water with the dolphins.

Showing us the white-ish veins in her tail.

Chloe got to roll "mole" the dolphin. I think this is Eva's mate, "Lono" who is 24 and has 7 kids.

Olivia and her new best buddy. 

Both girls got to kiss Eva for a picture but mine is the only one Tess could get but we ordered the others on line and will post them when we get them.

Why are my eyes closed? Habit.

Naughty dolphin splashing us

A last pet good bye.

Showing off one last time!

Thanks Russ and the HILTON for an unforgettable adventure!

Donkey Crossing?

One of our favorite dinners on the island at "Jackie Reys Ohana Restaurant." Our book recommended it and they were right!

We had super delish steak and seafood, burgers, grilled cheese, creme brulee and a brownie roll with ice cream. 

It was the perfect end to a perfect day!

Chloe rolling the dolphin and then kissing it -while being blocked by their photographers!

All three of us posing with Eva at the end for one last picture. 

Me and Eva 

HAWAII DAY SEVEN: Hapuna Bay

* If you want to see a picture better just click on it to enlarge it!

MY FAVORITE DAY in HAWAII! 

We spent all of Friday, March 20 at 

HAPUNA BAY!

 

The following pictures are my idea of heaven on earth. Clear, beautiful warm-ish water, super fine sand, perfect weather, boogie boarding, body surfing, laying out, playing catch, building sand castles and snorkeling with my darling family.

View to the right (where we snorkeled later in the day)

View to the left

Best view- my kids in the tropical blue water 

(O.K. Emily, I know the water is clear but it LOOKS blue!)

One of the best things we brought with us from the mainland is this little red football. We played with it A LOT that day!

Go long!

Liv getting ready to test out the waves

Tess joins us out in the water.

Chloe and I had so much fun playing catch. We loved to see how well we could do. It was pretty easy to get ten out of ten so we challenged ourselves and got 19 out of 20! Not bad! Chloe loves to play football at the park with her friends and has a good arm!

Olivia and Rustin having a sand fight. See the sand all locked and loaded in her right hand. Where is Rustin??

Here he is, ready to retaliate! No fists buddy!

She got him- sand on his back!

Chloe queen of the drizzle castle! 

Making these makes us think of Grandma Koski!

Olivia and her castle, ready to destroy! 

Looks cool both ways!

Tess's favorite pastime! Could she be any darker?? 

The towel is over her head because it was sooo windy your face and hair would just get covered with sand! Later She and Russ moved all our stuff the the wet, harder sand so we wouldn't get buried in the sand storm!

We got a tip that there were a bunch of sea turtles on the right side of the bay so we hustled down there. Sure enough, there were probably 8 or more! Here is a smaller one heading toward the rocks. 

Here are two big fellas right on the rocky edge. They were so fun to swim with. You could get super close and watch them chomp on coral. 

Nice. We knew it was illegal to touch them but had fun getting up really close (we had been waiting 6 long days to finally see some) and this guy next to us kept yelling at us, "Don't touch 'em! Don't touch 'em!" Russ was like, "Are YOU touching them, cuz we're not touching them?!" It was annoying! 

I knew they were big but they seemed even bigger up close and personal!

One of the best things we found over here was this little cove with a sandy beach. It was only about 30 feet wide but it had big black volcanic rocks we warmed our selves on, perfect sand to lay on, little tide pools (hot tubs) and tho there were people there (a nice family from Virginia) it was pretty fun to hang out there!

 Chloe and Liv warmed up there while we snorkeled a little further out.

These are the venomous black sea urchins that struck fear into our hearts!

The waves weren't terribly big but every once in a while you get a good one and Tess catches this one!

Olivia and Rustin knows how to ride em! Well Olivia missed this one but caught lots all day long!

We had to try about 5 times before this worked but I am actually taping them while I surf the wave WITH THEM!!! Yeah me!

Chloe, Rustin and Liv demonstrating their favorite way to recycle sand castles!

This little guy was alone to the right of the main group Russ called us over to see it! 

Up close and personal with Mr. Turtle!

I sound like Darth Vader breathing through my snorkel. 

 

Tess and the turtle family! 

This is our last video with this camera, EVER! See the brown flecks float by? Not sure if it's related but after this we found that our underwater camera had water IN IT!! We spent the next few days fretting over whether this entire photo card was ruined or not along with ALL the underwater pictures and video from the entire trip!! When we pulled into out house at 1:30 am a few days later I ran straight to the computer and tried to download them. 

MUCH TO OUR DELIGHT, IT WORKED!!!! Obviously!!

After a long day at the beach we went home and cleaned up but before we could head out for dinner Rustin had fallen asleep. We tried to rouse him but he wanted to stay home. We found a food court and chowed down! Rustin had leftovers from the night before at Macaroni Grill. YUM!

HAWAII DAY SIX: Pool and Dolphin Swim!

These two girls were not healthy enough to go on the dolphin snorkeling adventure that we had planned for the whole family that morning (but Russ took the big kids).  I did try to make them happy with a highly supervised  little excursion down to the pool.

Ever snorkeled in a hot tub?

A funny  memory from that day was when I left the girls to go up and get their snorkel gear from our room. I told them to stay OUT of the water and sit on our lawn chairs and rest till I got back. While I was up in the room I heard a knock on the door. I asked who it was and there was no answer. They knocked again and I asked again and this time a strange voice answered back, "Room Service." Curious, I opened the door and saw Chloe and Olivia laughing! Olivia did a good job disguising her voice. I guess they got bored waiting for me so they came to help. 

Not many fish under there!

Still looking!

Not a very funny sign but we had fun reading it in every arrangement possible changing the wording and the emphasis because I misread it at first and Chloe thought it was funny.

Living on the edge by the infinity wall.

"Don't take my picture!"

"Ok, now take it!"

We spent a lot of that day resting in our condo. Head up the stairs to the third level.

F34

Living Room

Kitchen. Hey, where's Russ?

Tess and Rustin's room.

View from the front door. Spirally stairs leading up the to girls loft that had a queen size bed in it. 

Chloe taking a mandatory reading break on the living room couch. Straight ahead of her is the master bedroom with a king size bed and huge bathroom with deep tub. 

While we were relaxing, Tess, Rustin and Dad were on the adventure of a life time.

They went out on a speed boat with about 4 other people and chased a pod of wild spinner dolphins. Several times they would be told to jump in the water and start swimming but they couldn't catch them. They would circle around them in the boat, try to get ahead of them and then try again. They wore themselves out chasing them once they caught them but it was well worth it!

This is a great video of Tess and Rustin swimming with a wild pod of 43 (Tess counted) Spinner Dolphins. Russ is video-ing and swimming with them. If you watch closely you can see two of the dolphins mate! After searching for the pod for 45 minutes they got to swim with them for about 45 minutes and boy were they tired when they got home. The dolphins were tired too and they were already home! Apparently they head down to the bottom and sleep with half their brain turned off and one eye open. Really! 

The beginning of this video is amazing and it really shows how close the kids are to the dolphins. Rustin is RIGHT BEHIND one and could have reached out and touched its tail, but they weren't supposed to. After that Russ thinks he turns off the camera but he doesn't and you might as well just stop watching cuz it gets really crazy and boring at the same time, unless you like videos of camera straps and hairy legs.

This last one is cool (Rustin shot this video) because you get a good look at the scars the dolphins got from the Cookie Cutter Sharks. They have white, perfectly round bite marks on them -like a round cookie cutter would make- sad, but true.

P.S. these dolphins are much smaller than bottle nosed dolphins and weigh about 150 pounds. A bottle nose dolphin weighs about 500 pounds!

They are called spinner dolphins because they LOVE to jump out of the water and spin in the air incredibly high and fast. It's very entertaining to watch. They say that they do it for communication and for fun!

This is video I took a few days later on a snorkel cruise where we all got to see them jumping out of the water. They didn't spin as much this time but you get the idea. It might even be the same pod.

These last four pictures I got online to give you a better idea of what they look like up close. I wish we could keep one in our pool!