Travel Tales: Hawaii 2004, Part Five

Day six began with a search for the bus to take us to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. After walking around for what felt like an hour, we finally had to ask directions, only to be sent back in the direction of our own hotel, where the bus was across the street!

We arrived at Hanauma Bay and had to wait on a very long line to get inside to watch a special video about what NOT to do while snorkeling. While this was an important thing to hear, Kara and I, of course, had to come up with our own ridiculous list of things you must NEVER to to fish. It reads as follows:

1. Lick

2. Poke

3. Take and Eat

4. Flirt with

5. Shoot

6. Pee on

7. Spear

8. Filet

9. Step on

10. Tease/Taunt

11. Insult

12. Rile up

We were also particularly entertained by the female employee who had apparantly seen the video so many times, she liked to sing along with the music!

We finally got down to the beach to snorkel. We rented equipment and got right to it, discovering that snorkeling gear is not an attractive look for anyone. We stayed together for a while, looking at fish, and not going too far past the reef because of the threat of turtles (you CAN go see them, but as I have a strange, irrational fear of being near turtles...).

After a couple hours of snorkeling (cut short by rain!), we headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. No chain restaurant - we were headed for the luau!

We met our bus and started the one hour drive to Paradise Cove. We had a tour guide of sorts on the bus who called us all a family and mentioned that we would be sitting together at the luau once the buffet had started. She also gave us a run down of all the things we could do once we were there, and then we settled in. Kara "made friends" with two guys sitting in front of her, who we're pretty sure didn't know how old she was (Lindsay started singing "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" as a hint). We also quickly discovered that one of them was a bigot, as he kept making inappropriate comments about various ethnic groups.

Once we were at the luau, we practiced our spear throwing (which we were all REALLY bad at) and made leis. Then it was time for the festivities to start! There was a ceremony with hula dancing as they dug the smoked pig out of the sand, and then on to the buffet dinner and the show. We watched more hula dancing, but the most interesting thing were the ones that performed with fire.

Towards the end of the show, they started announcing all the buses that had arrived, and each table would cheer for their tour guide. This became increasingly amusing and irritating at the same time, particularly when they announced a guy named Mark's bus, and Lindsay yelled, "Screw Mark!" for me and Kara to hear. However, she was overheard by a honeymooning couple in our group who started laughing hysterically!

Then it was back to the hotel to prepare all our bags for our departure the next day. Our last day in Hawaii was not particularly exciting. We packed our things, made sure we didn't forget anything and then headed to Lindsay's dorm to hang out for the day (our flight being at night). We ordered pizza, continued to make fun of Kara's sunburn and said our goodbyes before heading to the airport. After a long flight, with a stopover in Los Angeles (which, strangely enough, would be our next trip together, and the subject of the next edition of travel tales), we were home!