Bows & Bugs: Hawaii: The last days!

Sunday morning!

After meeting we went and walked around an old fort and sacred ground.

Then finished up the evening on the boogie boards of course!

The only way that Camden would boogie board was on Daddy's back!

Our last day we finished our vacation at Kua bay. This day just topped it off!!! We got to the beach to a HUGE line of cars. For some reason the beach opened a couple hours late so many cars ended up turning around. We stuck it out and waited about a half hour (no thanks to me... who figured we were just wasting time) and ended up being about the 10th car in when they finally opened! As we were driving in I thought I saw dolphins out in the bay! Sure enough we dropped our things on the beach and Mom and I swam out to snorkel with them. They were about where the boat is in the photo below. It took a good 20 minutes to swim out there... it turned out a bit further then it looks from shore! But we were in the middle of HUNDREDS of dolphins! Seriously! My Mom took a few photos and then swam in to watch the kids and send Daddy out! Let me tell out, out in the middle of the ocean with no one by you is a bit nerve wracking! There was a snorkel group out a bit so I swam about 20-40 fee from them so at least I was semi close to a few people. While I was out there in the span of no more than 2 minutes I counted 51 dolphins under me!!!! I lifted up my head after they passed because I could hardly believe my eyes... I yelled to the guide of the group that I thought I just counted 51 dolphins and he said that NOPE there had been 52! So I wasn't going crazy! Keep in mind that we were only seeing maybe a quarter of the dolphins that were in that bay right then!!! THEN right by the guide there was a little girl who and her mom... a baby dolphin came right up to the little girl and nuzzled her! No JOKE! The guide said that he was really watching the Mother dolphin to make sure that she was ok with it and he had never seen that happen before! It was amazing!!!!!!! The best part of the trip hands down! In the photos you can see little white spots... those are jelly fish.... and they did sting! There were all around out there and it just felt like little needle pricks... didn't hurt too bad until one got stuck in my swimsuit or in my mouthpiece! After a good hour and half I couldn't take it any more and had to head back in! It was soooooo cool to watch the dolphins though. The little ones would be playing/dancing/jumping and squealing away while the Moms swam behind and around them. The older bigger dolphins (I am assuming the Males) would take up the back of the group and were often quite beat up with scars all over their backs. You would sometimes here a real loud clicking that sounded more forceful and all of the sudden the baby dolphins would settle down a bit! So fun to see! On more than one occasion the dolphins were so close they almost rubbed against me. I kept my arms in so that I didn't scare them or touch them. The only semi scary time was when one jumped right in front of me.... these are huge animals to have flying through the air right in front of me. The dolphins sleep in the bay so the entire pod swims in a huge circle. They swim in a circle because to sleep they turn off half of their brains (the inside of the circle). So basically we just swam out to the outside of the big circle and groups of 20-52 ;) would swim under us. The little ones play in the middle of the adults. After we came in, the pod was out there for another half our or so and then they move out... in the course of a few minutes the entire pod will be gone from the bay. This does not happen often so we were VERY lucky!

The following photos are taken by my mom from the beach. Her camera has an awesome zoom on it so these are my favorite photos. You can find us in each of the photos because of the red boogie board that Daddy brought out when he came. you can also see our heads and snorkel tubes.

I am on the right and B is on the left with the tip of the red boogie board showing and the dolphins are right next to him.

Now this one I LOVE!!! You can see my tube on the far left and B is on the far right with the boogie board... there is no more than 10 feet between us and there are THREE dolphins coming right in between us!!! See they were CLOSE!