Thursday is a FREE day

October 22: Back from our excursion to Hilo and Thursday is a free day. Get up late (7:00 am Hawaii time), fix breakfast, check the email and internet news, and then head off to Miller's Shore and Surf to rent snorkels, masks, and fins....cause we are going snorkeling at Kahaluu Beach Park, one of the best beginner to intermediate snorkeling areas on the Big Island. It is easy access and protected by a menehune built breakwater that runs half way across the entrance to the bay. There is a story as to why the menehune only built the break water halfway acroos the bay. Seems that this was the favorite place for the Alii to surf. The menehune only build at night and stop with the crack of dawn The Alii did not like this destruction of their surfing bay, so in the middle of the night one chief made crowing sounds like a rooster. Well the menehune stopped building their breakwater halfway finished, and that is how it stands to this day. You guessed it....no pictures, except for the underwater camera....real 35mm film, no transfer to the computer.

Back to our goal...the park, the water, snorkeling. This is a great area. There is a bazillion tropical fish of all colors of the rainbow. My favorite is the Moorish Idol...yellow, black and white. A beautiful butterfly fish. The parrot fish are also beautiful...multi colors...blues, orange or red, yellow...o I can't remember. Do know that they eat at the coral and deposit sand as a bi product of the coral diet. These little guys are responsible for nice sand beaches. Also swam with a few eels and several Honu....Hawaiian Green Turtles, very graceful in the water and fun to watch. Protected...Kapu to touch...$10,000 fine if caught. Guess that is true of snorkeling and enjoying the marine life in Hawaii. Don't feed the fish, don't touch the turtles, don't stand on the coral...live colony. Leave everything the way you found it, take away only pictures and memories. Also, whoa the person who takes lava rock belonging to Pele. Leave where you found it or only bad will come to you courtesy of Lady Pele.



This is a great little county park (County of Hawaii...each island is a separate county and these are broken into several districts).