First day - first change of plans

We had planned on heading to Pearl Harbor today but found out there were no tickets available to get to visit the Arizona Memorial.  We decided to bump it to tomorrow - we found an inexpensive tour company that had tickets.  So today we rented a van and snorkeling gear and hit the north side of Oahu.  It was such a full day I am sure I am going to leave out something.

Our first stop was Laie Point.  It was carved out after a tsunami hit the area many years ago.  Lots of sharp rock formations and a good 1st break after an hour on the road.

We found a place for lunch, Hukilau Cafe.  Was on Man vs food.

From there we went to Malaekahanna State Recreation Area.  What was neat about it there was a way to walk out to a nearby island.  Vince, Theresa, Amanda, Kasey, and Mary made the trek.  John stayed on the main island guarding the gear AND holding on to the rental keys.

We stopped at the Banzai Pipeline but the water was flat.  Maybe a half a dozen folks splashing in the surf.

Ted's Bakery was our next stop.  Had to stop for some wonderful pastries and pies.  Thanks to Glenn, our rental guy, for suggesting the stop!

The majority of the rest of the day was spent snorkeling at Shark's Cove.  Though it wasn't sunny and visibility was slightly down we had some awesome encounters.  Amanda took the best underwater photos.  We saw many types of fish, a sea turtle, sea cucumbers, and a variety of sea urchins.  There were so many good photos taken it was hard to pick the few for this.

Our last stop of the day was Turtle Beach.  It lived up to it`s name.  There were turtles all over the place.  We were already dry and too worn out to get back in the water so we had to be satisfied with watching from the shore.

We ended the day with a nice spaghetti dinner and a slide show of the photos of the day.