Saturday, June 7th GREG

Today's adventure brought us down to the Hawaii Kai area of southern Oahu to take the kids snorkeling and see our friends from BYUH days. One of the most kid friendly snorkeling spots is Haunauma Bay. It is also very educational. Everyone must watch a 10 minute video on how the bay was formed from a volcano crater, the last active volcano on Oahu, and on reef ecosystems. Along the way, we also picked up my dad’s father’s day gift from a local carver.

I finally figured out how to teach someone how to snorkel by simply telling the kids to sit down in the water but you can’t get your hair wet. That was actually a success for all of them. We buddy-systemed up and off we went. I took baby J with me and he had a blast, so many squeals and excitement coming out of his snorkel as he pointed at all of the fish.

I had an opportunity to swim with two hawksbill sea turtles which is always enjoyable. They are so graceful and powerful in the water. They are protected and it is against the law to touch them or antagonize them. One of the locals decided to grab onto one to have a ride. That didn’t last long as it pushed its power arms and swam away frantically.

After a few hours of snorkeling, we headed back to our friend’s house from when we were students at BYUH. The Colbys lived above us during our time in H-100 in Temple View Apartments (TVA – married student housing at BYUH). Our daughters were born two weeks apart from each other and spent a lot of time together. We also saw each other a fair amount afterwards as we both attended graduate schools around Kansas City. The kids tried out ripsticks for the first time and we relaxed and talked about old times and new adventures while the kids played. They all got along so well.

As always, when traveling anywhere away from Laie on the island, shopping must be done, regardless of the time or whatever had to be done. We went over to Safeway at 9:30 pm after a very long day and started on the grocery list. After seeing various prices, we have branched out into many new categories of substitutes. Apples at $2.99 per pound no longer seem as necessary as nectarines at $1.99. Milk is out of the question at $5.50 per gallon. Ground beef seems to be completely out of the question at $7.59 per lb.