2009-Feb. 24: ride to the North shore, snorkel Anini

This morning started by meeting Angie and Josh at their resort and sitting through a timeshare presentation. We had no intention of buying, but like the discount on activities that it gets us. It was Angie and Josh's first timeshare presentation, so I was also curious to see how Josh, a salesman, would handle these guys. Unfortunately, he didn't have much oppurtunity to say much. The saleman seemed more interested in trying to convince Ken and me that we should buy. The 90 minute presentation lasted the expected 2 1/2 hours, even with us trying not to talk. But in the end, we each got basically a buy one get one free 5 1/2 hour Napali sunset cruise certificate out of it. We booked the cruise for Thurs., the 26th.

With that done, we headed north. I knew the surf was high, but the sun was suppose to be shining so I figured it was a good time to show the "kids" the north side and all it's lush folliage, wildlife, and spectacular mountain vistas.

We stopped at my favorite place on earth, Tunnels, and waded in the water,

 enjoyed the scenery (did I mention it was a bit cold for Hawaii),

and watched Josh kick up a good time.

Heading back towards the east side, we stopped at Banana Joes for a delicious smoothie. They get better and better every time I get one!

Since snorkeling was on the day's agenda, we did stop at the protected beach on the north side, Anini, and Angie and I did some snorkeling.

I've been there 5 or 6 times before and have had some great snorkeling there a couple times, but usually snorkeling there sucks.  (Update:  I've discovered where the great snorkeling is and as of 2016 it's one of our favorite places to snorkel) Today wasn't an exception, it sucked. But the water felt great and the views are great. With Angie snorkeling with me and not being out there alone, we ventured all the way to the edge of the reef. There the floor of the ocean dropped drastically and spooked us into scurrying back.  but we did enjoy the water and the few odd things we saw---like this guy, a sea hare.

One highlight of the snorkeling this time was the lone yellow tang we found. They seem to be few and far between around the island of Kauai. On the way back in, we were rained on. It was rather neat snorkeling in the rain, but we could see the guys on the shore rushing to get everything into the car so we hurried our way back to shore.

Here we are snorkeling back in the heavy rain.

After hottubbing and showering, we headed to the Wailua Marina Restuarant for dinner. After bragging about it so much, I was disappointed with a really poor cut of steak. At least everyone else's dinners were good.

And another day comes to an end.