April 4 Honolulu

We spent our first two nights at the Breakers Hotel downtown Waikiki.  It was an older place with 6 two story buildings around a pool.  The units were old but very clean and the beds comfortable.  We had sliding doors out to our own patio and then the central patio with the pool.  The location was fantastic.  We were about a block from the beach, across from a 7 11 and an ABC store and is in the heart of the high class shopping district  (which, of course, I took great advantage of) and we were right next door to Hard Rock Cafe.  I would certainly choose this place if I were to come again.  It was much cheaper than the big high rises and so comfortable.

We were picked up at 8AM to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.  It was definitely a learning experience for me.  Please notice the difference between the blue and brown areas in the water.  The brown areas are were there is very sharp coral which you are not supposed to touch.  We spread out our towels near the center of where the whole area is coral.  I could not move without touching it and the water was not deep enough for me to bend over and swim until I was way out.  By then I had scrapped up knees and was not too thrilled with the experience.

I did snorkel a little bit to get back but it wasn't until after we climbed back up again that I looked down and saw that there had been areas where there was no coral.  A learning experience, at best.
We had a underwater camera and Mike took lots of pictures of fish.  I'll post when we get them back.

When we got home from the bay we ate lunch at a great little Japanese diner. We both had great noodle dishes with dumplings.      

  

After lunch we caught a city bus and went the aquarium.  We were each given a little phone with numbers that you could punch in and hear information about each tank.  It was a very pretty and interesting experience.