Kealakekua Bay

For our last full day of island exploration we decided to drive down the coast and stop along the way for adventuring. Our first stop was at Kealakekua Bay where we rented kayaks in hopes of seeing turtles and dolphins.  The ocean was smooth enough that we had enough man power to handle two kayaks, which was great.  (By the way, it's terrifying using a phone in a kayak to get pictures.)  

We paddled across the bay to the Captain Cook monument, but didn't see much sea life on the way there.  The bay there near the monument however was beautiful.  We pulled on our snorkels and masks and enjoyed the fish.  I think the coolest fish I saw was a rainbow teal, super shiny fish.  I was glad Cambrie got to see that one too.  There were some tour boats in the area who had also stopped to float and snorkel, so it was a little crowded.  Not too bad, but it was tricky finding our crew with foggy goggles.  

Once our hungry bellies started calling our names we hoped back in our kayaks to paddle back to shore.  On the way back we saw the tell-tale dorsal fins swimming towards us.  A pod of dolphins!  These ones were spinner dolphins and it's easy to see why they have that name.  They would leap out of the air and spin around in tight circles or do backflips.  They were so cool to watch!  When they started getting closer Cambrie couldn't help herself and jumped right in to swim with them.  I was going crazy with our waterproof camera trying to get a picture of her with the pod, but I have no idea how they turned out.  They swam around for awhile before continuing back towards the monument.  We didn't have the speed to keep up with them and had to watch them slowly swim out of range.  It was awesome!  

Back at the shore we were docking our kayaks when Cambrie noticed a turtle right there at her feet.  It swam right up to her.  She so desperately wanted to reach out and pet it.  I scrambled to get her snorkel, then she and Jeremy jumped back in to swim with Apricot.  I think they all swam around together for nearly 10 minutes.  It was a long time.  Check out that smile on this girl!