Days 5 and 6

As planned, we were served Eggs Benedict by Peggy and Wade in the morning. After that, we walked up to the Ala Moana mall and split up to wander around the shops. We met up at the food fair at 12:15 and had lunch together. From there, we had just enough time to walk back to the room, change for scuba, and whiz down to the meeting spot. Peggy went to the hotel and hung around that area, Wade walked straight to the meeting spot, while Kate and Jeff walked to the room, changed, and were lucky to grab a bus to the marina.

It took about half an hour to gear up and run through some underwater sign language. There were 3 staff and 6 divers: Tom (captain), Erik (main contact and dive leader), Dom (backup dive leader), Travis and Stacey (first timers), Jason (talkative Coast Guard guy), Wade, Kate, and Jeff. We pulled out of the marina and buzzed down to Turtle Canyon ... Straight offshore from the hotel. That dive was in 25-35 feet of water and lasted around 20 minutes. We saw 4 turtles and a variety of fish. Kate had some ear issues, but otherwise it went very smoothly. We shifted to a spot closer to the marina for the second dive, which was in 40-50 feet of water and also lasted around 20 minutes. It was called Horseshoe and we saw 4 small sharks, a bunch more fish, and handled an urchin.

By the end of the scuba excursion, we felt so good about the staff and the dives that we discussed coming back for a "wreck" dive before we headed home (in a week).

We wandered back to the room, and Wade went most of the way listening to a very talkative member of our dive group, Jason.

We went our separate ways for dinner ... Kate and Jeff went to Cheeseburger Waikiki and had special drinks (Double Trouble and Blue Hawaii) and special meals (Ahi Salad and Hawaiian Chicken Burger).

Monday morning, we got up early, met in the lobby at 7:30, and got the 8AM bus to Hanauma Bay. After a quick orientation movie and walk down the hill, we picked a spot at the far end of the beach that had some shade. Kate and Jeff went out snorkeling, then Wade and Jeff, then Kate and Jeff again. There were quite a few fish, but very little else.

On the way back to Waikiki, Kate and Jeff hopped off and picked up something for dinner: sushi. We gathered for dinner at Kate and Jeff's and finished off with Macadamia Nut Ice Cream. Lots of chatting until around 10PM.