Hawaii: Hanauma Bay, Kaneana Cave, Manoa Valley Inn (Day 4)

On the 4th day of our vacation, we went to Hanauma Bay, which is the most popular snorkeling spot in Oahu. I was really looking forward to this, since snorkeling was big on my wish list for our trip and we'd heard that Hanauma Bay had lots of variety. We got there before the park opened at 7am, so parking and admission were free.

The water ended up being a little choppy the day we went, so the visibility was lower with more sand floating around. We saw some fish, but liked Shark's Cove better because it was clearer. On the good side, I stumbled upon a sea turtle and followed him around for a while near the reef:

Check out this video, which I was taking when I found him:

I also got some pictures and videos of other fish swimming around the bay:

The water was too choppy for Alisha, so she spent the morning protecting herself from the rays of the sun:

We went back and checked out of the condo, but we had several hours to kill before we could check into our next location. We decided to drive up the west side of Oahu to check out Waianae and Makaha. The water was blue and there were some nice looking beaches, but nothing that looked much different than other parts of the island.

What surprised us was when we drove past Kaneaha Cave, which we didn't know was there until we passed it. We looked inside and explored around a little. The cave only went back a few hundred feet, but the entrance was impressive:

We stopped by Leonard's bakery and snacked on malsadas, which were similar to (but not as good as) the beignets we'd had when we returned to UCSF:

That night we stayed at the Manoa Valley Inn in the Guild Master Suite. We'd previously stayed at the Powers Mansion Inn closer to home, and liked the inn feel. The Manoa Valley Inn is listed on the national register of historic places, had good reviews, and looked unique. Unfortunately, we felt a little like we were sleeping in an antique store. It was roomy, but not nearly as comfortable as the condo. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Our room was a suite with a sitting area and then a separate bedroom

We even had a stained-glass window looking from our room toward the inside of the house

One fun surprise is that the inn was also a location where scenes from LOST were shot. We didn't know that when we booked our room, but it was a fun discovery. Compare these TV show stills to the pictures above that we took when we were there.

Where we checked into the inn

Scene from the show

Our room looked out the bay window and flat window above the house entryway

Scene from the show

We got to relax a little by the pool before the mosquitoes made an appearance.

That night we ate burritos while sitting on a cliff that overlooked a bunch of surfers. We watched them surf until the sun went down and it was too dark to see, then went back and got ready to go to church the next morning.