5-5-17 Friday (Honolulu)

Once again, we hit a fast food place for breakfast.  Burger King or as I like to refer to it as “Burper King”.  There’s just too much to do today.  I know.  Such problems to have, huh?

Today was supposed to be a scuba adventure with Hawaii Eco Divers but it turned out to be a flop.  A couple of months ago, Jim and I did a swimming pool introduction to scuba.  We liked it.  We even bought our own masks to be sure we had a comfortable experience.  Hell, we even shaved off our facial hair to get ready for this dive.

Now mind you, Jim booked this trip back on March 2nd.  Because of the 6 hours time difference, we were receiving calls and texts at ungodly hours so we’d switch our phones to airplane mode the night before.    On the way to our dive, I noticed Jim forgot to turn off airplane mode on his phone.  When I switched it off, we received a text and voicemail from the dive master stating he didn’t have my weight or shoe size to fit me with equipment.  I called him back and left a message with a young girl with my info.  When we arrived, our Dive Master, Loren said he had tried to get a hold of us and had to guess my size but he did bring a small variety of what he thought would be needed.

We boarded a boat with our instructor and 1 other person.  There were other groups onboard as well.  This was another introduction to scuba.  Because we’re not certified, we can’t go down very far.  I think 20 feet or so which is still awesome to view coral reefs.  Loren first tried fitting Jim into a wetsuit.  It was so tight that he had to be squished in.  He mentioned the tight fit but was told that if it’s not tight then it’s not a good fit.  When it was my turn, he couldn’t get the zipper up.  He switched me to a partial suit and it took both Loren, Jim and I to squeeze me into that suit.  It was stressful and embarrassing.  I felt very restricted.

Into the water we went.  Loren went over some basic stuff.  When we went down a few feet further he was teaching us how to clear our masks of water.  I was a little confused because I was taught differently than he was teaching.  As I went down, I floated back up, my mask took in water and I had a hard time breathing.  I just felt so restricted.  I then got skittish and said that I couldn’t do this.  He asked if I was sure and I was positive.  I just didn’t have a good feeling and was terribly uncomfortable.  I told Jim to stay.  Jim said he felt the same and we both got back on the boat.  We were devastated. 

Will we try again?  I’m not sure.  This experience just scared the shit out of me.  After we got out, Jim just felt sick and just relaxed.  I felt fine.

Some good points?  I got to see a sea turtle several times!  There was a boat anchored next to ours that had people snorkeling.  The turtle(s) surfaced many times right in front of the snorkelers.  The other good thing?  There were a couple of dolphins playing in the front of our boat as we went full speed ahead to the dive spot.  The bad part aside from the obvious, we had to sit through 2 40 minute dives before we could move onto a new adventure. 

Above: Panoramic.  Click on it to biggerize.  This was the view from the boat.

Above: Turtle!

Above: Turtle!

Above: Turtle!

Above: Me, Jim and ship’s captain’s mascot, Sushi.

We interrupt this post to explain the Walmart runs… Jim’s diet soda addiction.  There’s a million ABC convenience stores in Hawaii.  As a matter of fact, our hotel, located at a shopping plaza/mall had at least 4 ABC stores.  Unfortunately, the store didn’t have anything but small bottles of soda.  Other than that, I will tell you that this store is amazing.

We now return you to the blog post:

With that scuba MISadventure mess over with, we explored a little bit near the hotel. These were taken across from the hotel where our room overlooks.

Above: Huge banyan trees.  Hawaii has a lot of them and they’re gorgeous.  We had them in Fort Myers too. 

Above: A lava rock “pier” with a look back toward the hotel.

Above: This critter was hanging out on the rocks.

Above: A fish hanging out by the lava rock pier.

Above: Taken from the pier, a look toward the other end of the beach.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diamond Head Luau to be exact. 

A luau (Hawaiian: lūʻau) is a traditional Hawaiian party or feast that is usually accompanied by entertainment. It may feature food such as poi, kalua pig, poke, lomi salmon, opihi, haupia and beer, and entertainment such as traditional Hawaiian music and hula.

Jim got us a great deal using a Groupon!  2 for $159! 

We had a great time.  We sat with 2 women from NY.  They were a hoot to talk to. 

The photos:

The videos:

Above: Hula dancing

Below: Fire knife dancing