Last day in paradise!

New Year's Eve I get up early and head to Hanauma Bay. It's a volcanic crater that is now awesome coral reefs with lots of marine wildlife: coral, fish, turtles... Elvis Presley's film "Blue Hawaii" was filmed there. I've been there before, and it's sooo good I go there again by myself. (Shawn? It's Sunday in Hawaii. Football games start at 8am. Good luck getting him out of the hotel room.)


A familiar drive up Rt 72 past Hawaii Kai, I get there early enough to get a good parking spot. Stops at the ticket window, then the mandatory eco-video, then the snorkel rental line, then the locker rental line, then oops the locker rental line again - forgot to give them my cell phone, and then lay the mat and towel down, and NOW I'm ready to snorkel!

10 feet past the shoreline and there's tons of fish to view already! Lots of coral reef 6 inches below the surface make for interesting swimming along (suck it in! don't get your bikini top caught!) but the views are worth it. With the morning sun, I feel like I'm swimming in an aquarium. I see cauliflower coral, convict fish, the humuhumunukunukuapuaa (say that one time fast!), and some houli-fish, aka belly-fish, aka tourists in snorkel gear.

(Pictures later. Underwater camera gets developed at Target.)

30 minutes snorkeling, then 10 minutes rest, then one last 30 minute snorkel, then it's time to go - checkout at noon.

Shawn amazingly agrees to leave tv and go for a ride up the coast. We take Rt 72 up the eastern coast of Oahu and see the breathtakingly beautiful water as we drive the winding cliff road.



We look for a beach in Kailua and Kaneohe but get really lost. We decide it's time to stop for food and _I_ pick what turns out to be a sports bar showing seven different NFL games at one time. I even find a table where Shawn can watch the Bills lose to the Ravens (That I had no control over...).

We finally ask directions and make it to the beach to see...lots of clouds... Brr! It's like 60 degrees! So we head back taking the Pali Hwy back to Honolulu. Pali means "mountain" in Hawaiian. Can you see why?



Return the rental car, ponder whether our luggage is too heavy (it is, but combined with my mini luggage, the total is 142 lbs and she lets us through!).

Fly from Honolulu back to Kona on go! airlines, then wait for our 11:59pm flight on 12/31/2006 back to Phoenix on USAir. The gate attendant informs us that we are the last flight of 2006 that originates from a US city. Hmm, guess he's right!

Tips for travelers: Check local time when you land to catch a connecting flight. We took 4 moving walkways in Phoenix to our connecting gate, then stopped to get some breakfast. We sat down, gave the waitress our order, then I checked my cell phone (which is ALWAYS local time). 9:35? As in NINE:35? As in our flight leaves in 10 minutes! Oops. Cancel that order!

I thought the gate looked empty - 'cause I thought we had another 45 minutes. Guess it's empty for a reason - everyone's already on the plane! At least we weren't the last ones. Five other people boarded after we sat down.

We came back to an overcast, rainy Baltimore. 45 degrees. Kind of strange to not be in 83 degree weather anymore. Who cares? I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt to work tomorrow. Oof. Work. As in 1:30am Hawaiian local time. Happy. New. Year. to. me.