Visit To Hawaii - Page 3

Monday - 9/6/10 - Continued
Can you believe it, even more pictures for one day?
We were busy, and we weren't even trying to get all of this done!

As I mentioned near the end of Page 2, our goal was to eventually end up at the North Shore area in order to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, there was so much stop-n-go traffic from people trying to find a parking spot along the way, we didn't think we were going to make it. Thankfully, the traffic thinnned out in time for us to make it far enough northwest to park at Hale'Iwa Beach and do a little beach combing before the sun set.

We all set up and started getting our shots of the setting sun, trying to capture elements in the image that caught our eye.

The funny thing is, with different zoom and iris settings, you change the characteristics of the sunset. This image was taken just moments before the above picture, yet it seems like the sunset is just shot through with orange.

When in truth, if you back out all the way, you get a rich mix of hues (and the occasional beach comber).

I like this phot0 that I took from behind the girls, as it seems to capture alot of the essence of our vacation...

Tuesday - 9/7/10

Dave, Karen and I had planned to go snorkling today, so Dave & I drove over to Wally-World to get a couple of sets of masks, fins and snorkles so we swim along the reefs. When we got down to the beach area, Karen chose to stay with Luann on the beach while Dave and I did the swimming. Apparently, while we were doing our thing in the surf, there was quite a bit going on at the beach. In this picture, Karen is playing around with one of the dragon boats that were used to photograph Japanese couples after their wedding.

Actually, after sititng on the beach for a little bit, the girls found out that the beach area behind the Hilton hotel is very popular with the Japanese for wedding photos, so they got to see 6 different photo sessions of the various couples frolicking on the sand while the photographers directed them in their poses. Luann said that it looked like one of the obligatory poses was to have the couples jump up as high as they could while the photographer tried to catch the image of them in mid-air. It would take several attempts before the shot was finally done right. Oh yeah, that must have looked interesting...

A quick one-hand shot with the camera...
Would ya look at that red skin? Somebody's gonna peel like a lizard soon!

While the girls remained on the beach, Dave and I took to the water. Unfortunately, we were away from the spot where we got the picture of the turtle, so the water was fairly murky and visibilty was no better than 10 feet. Anyway, since we brought a camera-bag enclosure for Karen's digital camera, we did get some neat pictures of the reef (About 80 of them). Here's a shot of a butterfly fish, pecking away at something on the bottom.

I came across this big piece of coral with a small grouper standing sentry at the base of it.

And then there was this lizard fish hanging onto his 'catch of the day'.

Dave stopped to show me a whelk that he found. As you can see, the water over the reef is real shallow (Dave is standing up), so it is constantly churning up the silt with every wave, which is the cause for the reduced visibility.

Here is an interesting image of an Oriental Flying Guarnard (guarnard is French for grunt), crawling along the bottom. It really can't fly, but if it spreads out its pectoral fins, it looks like it has wings. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure what it was, so I didn't disturb it.

When I showed this picture to Dave back at the hotel, he was surprised I found an urchin that looks like this. You see, the blue-black urchins are pretty much everywhere, but this Hawaiin Slate Pencil Urchin is one he has been trying to find for a while and I just happened to stumble across one. Talk about beginner's luck...

One of the things we wanted to do while visiting the island was a luau. Now, you could go to the Polynesian Cultural Center and watch a 'Disney-esque' luau, but really, where is the fun in that? Instead we chose to go to Paradise Cove and have fun there. The price was better and as I said; "I want to go to a luau where I can have sand between my toes", and this place sure filled the bill.

When we arrived, we were immediately given a drink and were 'leid'. I made sure that Luann got leid twice.

Ah, don't they make an interesting couple?

While we walked around taking pictures, a couple on mongooses crept up trying to get to the pit where the pig was roasting.

The show was great with all kinds of dances, with great singing and music. The fact that the guys in the dance troupe were of a racially mixed balance, did not escape me.

This dance was pretty impressive to watch, especially since he was doing gyrations with his hips while the girl was on his shoulders. That sure got the attention of the girls in the audience!

There was even a fire dancer doing his thing and Luann got this cool time-lapse photo of his handiwork.

Ta-Daa!

At the end of the luau, Karen was able to pose for this photo between both of these Hawaiian hunks that we saw in the show. Good for her!