6thof9: June 2014

Buddhist Temple 2014

We checked out a replica of a Buddhist temple. It was so beautiful and peaceful.

Ringing the gong is supposed to help clear your mind before going into the temple.

This statue is made out of wood then coated in black paint and lastly gold leaf. It was HUGE! This picture doesn't capture the presence this had.

Every detail was perfect. The sand was raked into calming lines and swirls and they even had these cute gargoyle guys.

LOTS of coy fish. So many. And there was a group of them ganging up on another one incessantly and so violently that it was being pushed all the way out of the water. It was mildly disturbing.

Tyler and I stayed in Waikiki for a few days. We still spent our days with Richard but our nights were in this odd city; a mixture of San Francisco, Las Vegas, some Asian big city, and Hawaii. The shopping there was crazy. Think Caesar's Palace type shopping only outside for many city blocks. The only thing that rivaled the amount of shopping was the amount of restaurants. One night we wanted to find a place to eat so Tyler used yelp to find food within 1 mile, lower priced, at least 3 stars, and it gave us over one hundred options. We decided to go with an authentic Thai restaurant with 4.5 stars and over 600 reviews. When we got there I almost chickened out because we were the only white people and most of the other patrons didn't even speak English, they were showing passports as ID, also their menu stated that they use MSG. With 600+ reviews at least a few of them had to be from mainland Americans right? I am glad we didn't leave, it was good food and we didn't get sick.

We were also obsessed with pineapple. We ate some almost everyday. So when we saw a couple enjoying a pineapple drink we knew we needed one. They were trying to take a selfie so Tyler asked if he could take it for them. He took one then pretended to run with her camera. You should have seen her face. It was pretty priceless. Anyway, the drink was good; they took a pineapple, cut off the top cored it, blended it up and put it right back in. Because it is so fibrous it was almost like a smoothie. Yum!

Hanauma Bay 2014

I know all of these pictures are very similar but this place was just so amazingly beautiful and none of the pictures do it justice. This is an absolutely beautiful nature preserve that is a must see must snorkel. This is one that the tourists absolutely got right. They have a parking lot that really dictates how many people can be there at once, once the lot is full, there is no parking for miles.

You see that dark stuff in the water? That is the reef. I was so close to it at times I had to let the waves take me over while I thought skinny thoughts. If the water was any lower I may not have been able to get out there. But being that close to the reef means that you get a really up close and personal view of the fish/sea life. Because it is a preserve, the fish are not scared of you and even the fish that are usually more skiddish will let you get pretty close. We saw the most amazing parrot fish and you could hear them crunch the coral as they ate it.

This was possibly my most favorite place to snorkel. Other places you had to dive to see the good stuff. Here there were so many fish and they were right there swimming right next to you.

We also saw a turtle here but it isn't the best place to go if you want to snorkel with a turtle. Not enough room unless you go out pretty far.

And although I didn't get any pictures, we saw plenty of Mongoose here. I didn't know Hawaii had Mongoose but apparently they were introduced as an experimental rat control that did not work. Instead they ate the bird's eggs until the birds began nesting on small islands off the mainland. I know that means that I shouldn't like them but they were so cute it was hard to have any bad feelings toward them.

Again, I wish I could give you a glimpse of how great this place was; I could tell/show you the fish I saw there, describe the water, but I think it is one of those things that has to be experienced.

Tide pooling 2014

Tide pooling was a can't miss activity with Richard. I wish that we could have done more of it. Sure it is fun for the rest of us, but when you tide pool with Richard you are sure to see something awesome.

Can't be getting sunburns. We heckled Richard and Ben plenty while taking this picture. It was so good to see Ben and spend some quality time with him. I adore his brother and sister and so it was no surprise that I liked spending time with him too.

This was the strangest, fastest moving starfish I have ever seen. Looks like it came out of the movie Aliens. Tyler says that when they were snorkeling later he moved a rock and found two of these about a foot across!

Tyler found this guy and showed us. "I found a cone snail!" Richard looks in the net and says, "Good identification Tyler!" Cone snails are poisonous and so you can't touch them. This guy was trying to sting the net and it made me nervous. About 10 minutes later I found something I thought looked interesting. "Hey what is this? Oh, it's a rock." Tyler: "Good identification!"

A sea cucumber that has spit its gross white stuff out and an urchin

Kids love to pull Richard over and show him things that they have found and they love to see what he has. He is always patient and tells them facts, lets them touch it if it is appropriate, he is a good teacher.

Hermit crab

This is a box crab. They look just like rocks! Richard caught this one. It was my goal to catch one as well.

Look at how weird he looks all opened up ready to fight

After seeing the box crab Tyler and I went to looking with much more purpose. We found this little black rock crab and spent like 5 minutes catching him.

We were so proud we turned to Richard to show him

"Nice job!" He says without a hint of irony as he has 3 box crabs in one hand and is going for a fourth. It was like a scene from a movie. The crabs were perfectly content just sitting in his hand. When Tyler tried to hold one it got away. Just add crab whisperer to Richard's many talents.