Sunday, January 10, 2016

Vacation Day 6

December 27th - on this day we went parasailing and snorkeling.  I had not told Mat or the kids about the addition of the parasailing to our snorkeling trip - wanting to leave a few things to surprise.  They were all pretty excited to try it - especially Arlington.  Arlington wanted to do something a little more "thrilling" on the trip.  Her first choice was going in a cage to get close to sharks.  That was a big fat heck no, so I came up with parasailing as a safer choice.  Thought she looked cuter with all of her limbs.

We had scheduled this trip ahead of time, and had a reporting time at 9am.  The parasailing part was first.  They put you on a boat, and take you out to the middle of the ocean, and lift you up in the air.  I went with Finley and Cainan and we went first.  I was a little nervous because I don't like heights, but we were well strapped in and I felt very safe.  We went 70 feet in the air, and luckily there wasn't much of a breeze, so we just kind of floated.  It was really beautiful.  Mat went up with Arlington and they saw a huge turtle in the water.

After we sailed, we were taken to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling.  We were given the equipment we needed, but we could stay at the Bay for as long as we wanted.  We ended up snorkeling for about 3 hours and relaxing on the beach there because the kids were having so much fun.  We all saw an amazing amount of fish - some pretty big.  It was a really cool experience.  Even Finley was able to see a lot of the fish and was so excited.

Hanauma Bay is a state park, and the reef and marine life was protected starting in 1967.  It is formed by a volcanic cone.  In 1990, the park decided to take a more active role in preserving the park and the marine life, and we were all required to watch a video about the area and talked to about not stepping on the coral and reef while we were snorkeling (which was actually really hard).

President Obama was visiting Oahu while we were there, and he and his family were coming to the bay on the 28th (it was going to be closed to the public, of course).

It was a great day.  Enjoy the pictures

Finley and I getting ready
 Arlington is ready to parasail
 Going out into the ocean:
 Cainan, Finley and I going up
 There we are - flying around

 They dipped us in the water in the end.  It was cold.  And salty

 Mat and Arlington


 After their flight
 Getting ready to snorkel



 The waves crashing on the rocks were huge




 View of the bay:



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