Our last days in Hawaii and Snorkeling with the Manta Rays

The last day before Mom and I headed home was a Sunday and we were scheduled for a night swim with the manta rays. We were supposed to do it earlier that week, but it had gotten cancelled while we were on our way there. Imagine our surprise when we went to check in Sunday night and the company had a fully booked excursion and we were not on their reservation list! Luckily for us, the receptionist was able to call some of the people who had booked and rearrange their excursion so we could take their spot. So it all worked out in the end.

The boat ride out to where the mantas were was long but fun. We saw some spinner dolphins swimming alongside the boat and doing their acrobatic jumps out of the water. Spinner dolphins are smaller than Bottlenose dolphins and spin while they do their out of water flips. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the dolphins because you never know where they'll jump out of the water and they disappear so quickly.

Me and Mom taking a selfie on the boat. Eden didn't want her picture taken. 

Before the sun went down, the blue sky was so pretty and the ocean seemed to go on forever.

Mom and Eden sitting at the back of the boat for a bit.

Mom at the front of the boat looking for dolphins.

The sun beginning to set.

The sun colored the clouds so pretty when it was setting.

When the sun had finally gone all the way down, we all suited up in our wetsuits, collected our snorkel gear, and jumped into the ocean. Because the water is so dark at night, the way you see the manta rays is through a floating surfboard with very powerful lights attached to it. You basically hang on to the board and float while the mantas do twirls underneath you.

Mom and I had bought underwater cameras, but Mom couldn't get hers to work and when I got my film developed, the techs told me that the film was blank, which is apparently very common when using underwater cameras. So unfortunately, we have no real pictures of the manta rays that we took ourselves, but I Googled images and included them so at least you can get an idea of what we saw.

This is a picture of snorkelers hanging onto the floating light boards.

This is what I saw swimming up at me when I was looking down. Mouths wide open and jaws flapping. Also lots of white, speckled bellies.

The manta rays eat plankton and are filter feeders with no true teeth, so they are completely harmless to people. However, at first, it is a bit disconcerting to see a 15 to 20 foot long sea creature swimming right at you with its mouth wide open. They do ballet dances in the water, spinning in circles and doing back flips in order to catch the most plankton they can. Sometimes they hit the boards or the snorkelers while flipping, although you're not supposed to touch them.

We got wine, beer, hot chocolate, and snacks on the boat ride home to end our night snorkel. What an amazing experience and such a great way to spend our final night on the island.

Aloha Hawaii! I'll return soon…hopefully to visit my Dad once his houses are built. :)

A big thank you goes out to my Mom for inviting me along and planning all the excursions. I'm glad we got to do such fun things together!

Until next time!

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden and an Unpleasant Surprise

After our horseback ride in Waipio Valley, we had a short drive to Hilo, where the Botanical Gardens we wanted to visit were located. We got a bit lost trying to find it since it seems nowhere in Hawaii has a physical address to input into a GPS. All the directions are something like: "Make a slight right onto the road with the two flashing lights, pass mile marker 11.2, and turn up the driveway with the banana trees on either side."

The botanical gardens were definitely beautiful, but since I don't know much about plants or trees, all the gorgeous flowers started to look the same, even if they were different colors and shapes. My favorite section was the orchid area of course.

Because I know nothing about any of the flowers and plants pictured below, I'm pretty much going to be skipping captions on them. Also, if you're not a fan of pretty flower pictures, skip ahead because the unpleasant surprise is still yet to come.

Front entrance sign.

Me and Eden reading about the statue of the Hawaiian god

Mom on the bridge down into the garden. It starts out level, but then you go down a lot of stairs, which are not fun on the way back up and out of the gardens. When we left, I felt like I had just taken a shower because I was that sweaty. 

I'm pretty sure this one is called beehive ginger. They also had these flowers for sale at many of the farmer's markets.

Of course there were geckos!

There was a bird area with a cage that had a few macaws in it. This red guy here liked to talk.

At the end of the trail downwards, you hit the ocean and can read about the legends of the rock formations and how they got that way.

Eden doing some reading.

I appreciated the botanical gardens for their beauty and all the plant life they contained, but I can't say I wasn't thankful to get back into the air conditioned car. Plus we had ridden horses all morning and then taken a mile and a half hike around the gardens with a lot of steps at the end of the trail, so I was beat and ready to go back to the hotel and take a shower. Turns out, that was not in the cards.

Eden wanted to check out Hilo since it was only a mile or so down the road, so on our way there, Mom stopped at an intersection to let a pedestrian cross. We heard a terrifying screeching of tires and everything seemed to go in slow motion like it does in the movies when something traumatic happens. BAM! We were rear-ended by a pickup and the rental car was pushed through the intersection.

Poor rental car. Simply not drivable anymore and not our fault. 

Eden was in the back seat and bore the brunt of the impact, but it seemed that everybody was OK aside from being very shaken up. I had never been in any sort of collision of that nature before and I just couldn't believe our bad luck. Luckily, Mom had purchased the additional insurance through the rental company, so we were fully covered.

All of our phones were dead, so we didn't really have any way to communicate with the rental company, tow truck, or insurance agents. Luckily for us, the man who hit us was a gentleman and loaned his phone to make calls. He even drove Mom to the Hilo airport to get a new rental car because we still had two hours to drive to get back to the hotel. Me and Eden stayed on the side of the road with the broken car until the tow truck came and it was really funny because we had no way to communicate with Mom to know if she had contacted the tow truck and we were supposed to ride to the airport with him or what was going on. The tow truck dude was also very nice to us and made some calls and found out that we had to wait just a bit longer because Mom was on her way back with a new car.

That's the tow truck driving away with the crashed rental car. At least Eden and I had a grassy area on the side of the road to hang out on.

So, once again, we had a THIRD rental car on the island. I could hardly believe we had gone through three cars in under a week! Our luck was so bad that I could only laugh at the situation because there's really nothing else you can do in a situation that bad.

We all had some much-needed alcohol when we got back to the hotel. And I got my hot shower. What a rough day.

Until next time!

Touring a Kona Coffee Farm & Dinner at Eden's Work

We finally got our rental car replaced, so Mom and I did a bit of exploring on our own while Eden was working.

First, we checked out more of the local outdoor markets. Kona is a very tourist-friendly town, so outdoor markets are a dime a dozen. They all have a lot of the same merchandise ranging from locally picked flowers and produce to handmade jewelry and artisan herbs and foods.

Mom getting into the aloha spirit with some pretty flowers in her hair on her morning walk.

My look for the day. Mom picked some plumerias on her morning walk, so I donned one in my ear. I found out later, it was in the wrong ear. You're supposed to wear it on your left ear if you're taken and right ear if you're available, and I had no idea and wore it on the right side all the time. Sorry Kyle!

Not a stitch of makeup except for some mascara. It's so hot and humid on the island that there's no point. My eyebrows would've melted right off.

My look for the day. I bought this hooded maxi dress from Forever 21 specifically for wearing on the island, so you better believe I was going to wear it at least once.

Very fine ukeleles for sale at the market. Upwards of $200 per piece. 

The flowers for sale at the market. There were so many of them it was almost overwhelming.

 We found a family-owned Kona coffee farm, called Greenwell Farms, and took a mini tour of the place as well as sampled some excellent coffee.

On our way to some good coffee!

Chameleon coffee! If it wasn't so expensive, I would've bought some just because of the name. The guide also said they have three-horned Jackson's chameleons like the ones pictured on the bags in the orange tree next to the store. I would've gone chameleon hunting, but it was raining.

Mom supporting the local coffee farm. :)

It was raining so they supplied us with large umbrellas while we walked around.

One of the Kona coffee trees. The red berries are the ones that are ready to be harvested for roasting.  I also learned that Kona coffee comes from a specific stretch of land at a specific altitude, so there were lots of Kona coffee farms in the area, but I think we picked the best one to tour.

View from the retail store's patio. 

I found the farm cat because I am a crazy cat lady and I can't walk by a cat without saying hi to it. Also, I was very much missing my kitties at home, so any contact with a fuzzy little being was bound to lift my spirits. 

A beautiful orange hibiscus from the tour.

Look at all the coffees to sample! It's a bit like going to a boutique winery - you lose your palate after tasting a few. They also had honey and macadamia nuts from the farm that you could taste.

Eden's work was down the street from the coffee farm and it was about dinner time, so we headed to Patz Pies for some pizza. They sell it by the slice for the most part, but you can also get a whole pizza if you want. I learned that most people in Hawaii work two to three jobs and are not paid a minimum wage. Many earn only tips and it is actually out of the ordinary to have a job that pays minimum wage or better in addition to tips. So we tipped Eden well! Hahaha.

The menu at Patz Pies. Mom and I got two slices of different style veggie pizzas and shared.

Outside view of where Eden works.

Patz Pies!

Stay tuned to hear about our horseback ride in Waipio Valley.

Until next time!