Hawaii Trip #2-4: Hanauma Bay, Skybox Taphouse

Got started bright and early! Hanauma Bay was our earliest excursion of the trip, with a 5:50am pickup time at the Hyatt across the street. We took a roughly 25 minute ride and arrived at the top of a large hill. It was rainy and overcast as we dug through rental gear bags and attempted to ensure the snorkel and flippers fit correctly. We gathered up our gear and the rental gear – an umbrella, chairs, a GoPro, and the snorkeling gear –  and began the trek down to the park entrance. 

The park opened at 7:00am, and getting in required a nine minute video on the history of Hanauma Bay and the park rules. Hanauma Bay is a large circular bay filled with coral reefs and many kinds of fish (400+ according to the video). It was formed by a volcanic eruption an estimated 32,000 years prior. 

We were finally turned loose on the beach around 7:15, and we were among the first group to enter. The final walk down to the beach was incredibly beautiful. We got situated with our chairs and umbrella – NOPE, not umbrella as it was so windy they were all turning inside out and blowing away. It stayed windy throughout the day!

Once we had our beach spot situated, we tried to get the snorkel gear set. The flippers seemed to fit fine, but mask issues abound. The girls cheeks were still recovering from the sun, making the masks somewhat painful on top of being ill fitting. Meghann tried switching masks with Sage which sort of worked, until Meg’s mask started hurting and Sage’s was leaking. Vivienne tried a “ninja mask” which covered her entire face, but she was having issues with that as well. Between the early morning, long ride in, carrying tons of gear down a mountain, umbrellas flying away, and standing in the water for what seemed like forever fiddling with snorkeling gear, I’d just about had it and we headed back up to the sand to regroup.

We set up the umbrella to give the girls some extra sun protection and held on tight. We to have Meg go back up the mountain (thankfully via a mini shuttle) to get bagels for breakfast, while the girls played on the beach. After a brief cooldown, we decided to give snorkeling another go. After some more mask swapping, we had a much better go the second time around. There was some truly neat sea life on the beach. We were able to take several photos and videos with the GoPro we rented. The four of us swam the “horseshoe” in front of us, which was a large arc between all of the coral reefs. The water was beautiful and it was busy, although farther out it wasn’t too bad. 

The day continued to get better as it went on. Vivienne looked for shells to put on Sage’s sand castle. We did a couple more snorkeling outings off and on throughout the day, with just Meg and I going out together for the last one. We saw a massive fish! The high winds gave non-stop entertainment from watching all of the beachgoers trying to figure out how to hold their umbrellas down. There was at least one umbrella that had blown onto the side of a nearby cliff. 

Around noon we packed up, washed off, and kicked off what was the best workout of the trip. We initially waited for a shuttle to take us up, but the line was long and they were moving slowly. We didn’t want to be late, so instead we loaded up the gear and trekked quickly up the mountain, making up for time lost waiting for the shuttle. We finally made it (Vivi barely made it, Sage went back down to help her out), loaded the van and headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we cleaned up and headed across the street for a late 2pm lunch at Skybox Taphouse. We had appetizers and a small pizza. Overall was a decent experience. We walked the mall a bit, and then headed back to the hotel to rest. 

We took some naps and woke up still not very hungry. We decided on ice cream for dinner (yay vacation) at a place called Kith, found by Meg. They had ice cream with mix-ins similar to a blizzard, however they had all kinds of cereal in addition to standard mix-ins you’d fine elsewhere. Meg, Sage and I all loved ours. Vivi was lukewarm on her vanilla-only scoop. We headed back to our room shortly thereafter and headed to bed.

Stay tuned for one final post covering Meg’s birthday and our last day on the island!