Quiet day at Kona

We woke up Wednesday morning to the sight of Norwegian Cruise Lines Pride of America anchored offshore. We figure town and local beaches might be a bit crowded today, but there is plenty of room to spread out, so perhaps we won't notice. We do see the tenders making the trip back and forth all day long.

We figured this would be a quiet day, in any case. We would be here for 6 days, so we unpack a bit, and we need to get some groceries. But first things first, this morning I wanted to check out Kahaluu beach park for snorkeling.

The beach park itself is small, and not a great place for sunning or spending a day. Its a little patch of gravelly salt and pepper sand, with a pavilion with picnic tables, bathrooms, and a couple of booths set up to sell stuff. There are quite a few people, some of them sporting wristbands that mark them as cruisers.

There's a narrow channel between the rocks and coral that is shallow. We can put our fins on here, and then start swimming out towards deeper water. In fact, the water doesn't get very deep. Sometimes we are very close to the coral ( a bit too close for comfort in my opinion) but the clear shallow water make the fish easy to see, and there are lots of fish.

I know those of you following this blog have already seen tons of fish pictures, but here are a few more (they won't be the last!):





After our swim, we comde straight back to the condo. We're only about 10 minutes from Kahaluu, so we may well be back. We shower, and head out looking for lunch and the grocery store.

Lunch is at a nearby place called Jackie Rey's. Its already 2PM, and they are offering half price pupus which is a good deal. We have excellent fish tacos, deep fried catch of the day (which is walu, a type of butterfish), and homemade hummus with grilled pita bread. And a couple of nice mai tais to wash it down, of course.

Next stop the grocery store. We pick up some supplies, and head home for a quiet evening.