Thursday in Hawaii (updated)

Take 2. I lost a lot of my post so here we go again!(Like 2 weeks later...ugh) Thursday was a great day. I think it was probably my favorite day in Hawaii. Chris and I got to swim with dolphins. Not your trained sea world dolphins (which I'm sure is cool, but I've never been there) either, but dolphins in the wild! Chris and I were lucky enough to leave Landon with his loving grandparents and travel to the other side of island to take a snorkeling cruise that let you swim with fish, dolphins, and sea turtles. I knew it would be fun and exciting, but actually doing it was way better than I could have imagined. I think a bit was the thrill of the unknown, not knowing what to expect or what animals might appear. The other part is that we just got lucky, because we had great encounters with the animals! Way more dolphins were around than we expected and the captain free dived to the bottom and picked up an octopus that I got to hold! First we saw the sea turtles, which you have to be careful and be super still so that you don't scare them away.

Then we saw the dolphins, where you have to be even more still! No paddling, kicking, swimming...only floating. And one person can ruin it for the whole group! For awhile I was floating all by myself and out of no where a huge pod of dolphins appeared and some directly beneath me! Probably 10-15 feet below me! It was so incredible, until I watched them swim away and one of them pooped at me. Very rude. I'm sure they don't do that at Sea World, but this is a real life encounter.

Then we went to 2 different fish sites. The 2nd one was definitely much better! There was a HUGE vent (as in I could drive a huge truck into it) that let out hot water from some type of plant. Lots of algae and coral had grown on the vent and because the water was so warm it was a HOT (haha) spot for the fish. All kinds of beautiful fish in all sizes and shapes were floating around. We had bought some fish food, but we only needed that if we wanted them in our face. So many people on our cruise had pooped out at this point and too bad for them because they missed the best spot of the whole outing!

(someone else, but cool picture of fish!) Our photographer also had a very important talent.

On the way back, we noticed a large pirate looking ship that was dry docked. It sure looked familiar and then the captain told us that it was from the new Pirates of Caribbean movie and that they had been filming there!

Afterwards, Chris and I drove up to Waimea Falls Park and explored just a small fraction of the reserve. We were greeted by a peahen and her chicks. And when we left we saw the peacock.

I could not believe how lush it was compared to where we just were! It's amazing how rainy it is in such a concentrated part of the island! They had a map that showed average amounts of rain fall and I wish I could remember the numbers, but it was VASTLY different from the driest to the wettest parts.

We took a short hike to the Waimea Falls and it was beautiful! I got fulfill a bucket list, life-long dream of swimming under a waterfall. It was neither as amazing or as romantic as I had envisioned, but instead was not very fun or easy. There was a small gap behind the waterfall where 1 or 2 people could sit on the rocks. There were a lot of people fighting for those 2 spots, but you had to fight the current of the waterfall, climb slippery rocks, be blinded, beaten upon by hard falling water and deafened by the sound. Standing in the falling water for a little bit hurt my head. So here are the pictures proving that we tried!

(I look like a total dork in this picture...) And apparently blogger doesn't like the picture of me in the water next to the waterfall... Afterward we made sure to get some more Hawaiian goodness in the form of shaved ice and headed back to Waikiki to see our baby boy and his grandparents. We hit up the pool for a quick swim! We liked to stand by the waterfalls to get some warmer water. The pool was cold!

What was Landon doing while were gone? Hanging out with his grandparents and going to the pool!