Birthday Dolphins!
We booked a half day snorkeling excursion for this morning--and then Ned & the kids decided to pair it with a night snorkel with the manta rays. While the success of the latter remains to be seen, the success of the first (on Fair Winds) is without question! While we ate a full breakfast buffet, the catamaran sailed about 6 miles down the shoreline through choppy, deep blue waters to Kealakekua Bay: a protected (both legally and naturally) inlet filled with coral reefs and crystal clear, smooth, turquoise waters. I'd never snorkeled before, but the boat had prescription masks on board and a crazily helpful crew ... I took to snorkeling like a 50 year old fish to water :) It was simply beautiful, like swimming peacefully through the world's largest aquarium while fish nibbled and played on coral reefs just inches from me. It was already pretty near perfect, then the dolphins re-appeared. They had circled the boat earlier, twirling out of the water, 10-15 fins surfac...