Patrick: Hawaii, Day 5

So I guess I don't have much more to add to Brian's description of today's events.

Aside from a few scattered showers here and there, the catamaran ride was wonderfully exhilarating. Along the way, we saw a few random sea turtles floating like deadwood on the ocean's surface carried by the rolling waves of the open sea. A pod of dolphins came to greet us and one excited little fella even entertained us with some acrobatic stunts. These Hawaiian spinner dolphins are smaller than the typical Sea World performers, but they shared a similar curiosity and playfulness that we've all come to expect from dolphins. Check out the clips for some sleek swimming action.

I must say, the snorkeling part of the trip could have been more enjoyable. Unlike Brian's goggles, mine kept leaking from the top no matter how much I pressed it against my forehead whenever I dove down into the depths. Our area of exploration was also severely limited and I kept bumping into the other guests. Once I accidentally came up underneath a woman, which resulted in an embarrassing and awkward situation... Still, we got to see a large assortment of fish of various colors and being amongst a school of fish felt like floating in a swirling rainbow.

In the afternoon, we found ourselves back at the shaved ice store that Jason took us to on our very first day in Hawaii. It's called Waiola Bakery and Shave Ice in case you might be curious. This time, I ordered coconut and pudding shave ice dessert which was, as expected, delicious. Compared to the other stores we've been to on this trip, the shave ice here is extremely fine. The variety of flavors couldn't compare with the Aoki shave ice we had in Haleiwa the other day, but I think it's been my favorite so far. Michael and I talked briefly about getting our own shave ice machine some day. We'll see how that goes...

04132007