Hawaii Vacation Day 4 (Friday) - Swimming with Sea Turtles

Today is our first excursion! I knew I wanted to sign us up for some excursions and stuff while we were here. My sister has had a fascination (obsession?) with turtles since we were kids. All kinds of turtles. Sea turtles, box turtles, tortoises, sliders, snapping, whatever kind of turtle, she liked it. She wrote books about turtles. We had a pet turtle, named Mary Anne. We had turtle "stuffies". 

So I KNEW I wanted to sign us up for swimming with sea turtles because OMG RIGHT? How amazing.

I used this app I found VIATOR which allowed me to research, review, book and pay for these excursions right from the app. It included reviews from TripAdvisor and the like that gave me the confidence to book through them. 

Anyway, lots of different excursions run by different companies. 

It was at 2:30 in the afternoon so we had the entire morning to kill. 

First up, breakfast.

We chose an open air cafe steps from our hotel, with seats facing the street, so we could people watch. 

I got the famous "Loco Moco" which is a beef patty, on top of rice, with gravy and a fried egg on top. There are variations, but this is the jist of it. And it was delicious!

A bit more beach time before heading to the pier. 

It was such an awesome experience. There were several other groups there as well, so our guides were up on surf boards to keep an eye on us and to keep us with the group. The waves were definitely getting to me and I ended up going back to the boat for a bit because I was getting a little sick! 

But, before I got sick, I was able to swim with some really cool fish and TWO sea turtles! We needed to stay at least 10 feet from the turtles, as they came up for air. It's cool because they really come up so close to you and we're trying to tread water and push ourselves away from them. 

It was absolutely worth it, despite me getting a little sick. Everyone else was fine.

We got back in time for dinner and to crash for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow we rent a Jeep and go exploring!