Our first full day on the island started us off with figuring out what to do and where to go to do it. After waking up at 6:30am HST we didn’t leave the room till around 8:00am. We got a late start obviously. Then we drove to downtown Kona and drove around in circles looking for a hole in the wall bakery for breakfast. Wasn’t great, wasn’t terrible but no one ate much. Then we had to find a Starbucks for that hometown coffee with soy. By now it’s 9:00am and we don’t have any snorkel gear.
Where’s the Snorkel Bob’s? Thankfully not too far but after spending close to an hour in there it was too late to drive anywhere to far. So, we decided to make two more stops: one for cold drinks and the other for a beach umbrella and mats.
Now it’s 10:30am and we’ve found our first destination, Kahalu’u Beach Park in downtown Kona. This is a very popular beach with locals and tourists and since we got here kind of late, the water wasn’t very clear due to too many people in the water. However, all was not lost as we all saw multiple turtles! Even with average snorkeling the sight of turtles makes any spot awesome.
After exiting the water, Daddy thought it might be a good idea to get closer to nature and crash onto the lava rocks. I was down for quite a while as I needed to make sure I didn’t break anything. I even got some assistance from a lifeguard. At this point I’m feeling better but my right side of my body took a good beating from toe to right arm. After the fact we noticed a sign that stated that the rocks are slippery… perhaps I should have read that first?
Tonight we ate dinner at the Crystal Blue lounge within the hotel. Much better than the bar & grill at pool side. Nice selection of pupus and drinks. Kids enjoyed it as well and Aiden ate all his dinner for the first time on the trip. Hooray! We’re hitting the hay a bit early tonight as we have a snorkel cruise to Captain Cook’s Monument in the morning. Should be fun!