The boys got us up about 6:45. We checked out the goodies in the stockings, then LW made gingerbread waffles for breakfast, then we opened the rest of the presents. The biggest hits with the boys were the Star Wars figures, the Tie Fighter, the new Lego Star Wars video game, the red light saber (see a trend here?), the legos, and the remote control dump truck. The boys didn't seem too interested in the Wii - I think LW and I may have more fun with that than the boys.
After lunch, we headed over to Ko Olina to do some snorkeling. We figured it would be pretty quiet there on Christmas Day. ...Apparently, so did a few dozen other people. You see, Ko Olina is all a big resort run by Marriott, but they have a limited number of public beach access parking spots - like ten spots per lagoon (there are four lagoons). Today, not only were all the public access spots full, but there was a line of two or three cars waiting at the entrance to each lagoon waiting for someone to leave so they could park.
We contemplated giving up, but then figured what the heck - we decided to pay for the parking and park in the Marriott parking garage. That worked out just fine.
ES Sculpting his Sand CastleKo Olina Lagoon #1
Christmas Day 2007
Revisiting my previous commentary on the pros and cons of Hanuama Bay versus Ko Olina, I made a few more observations today that the two sort of balance out.
On the positive side for Ko Olina, even though all the public access parking spots were full there today, the beach was NOT crowded (notice the population density on the beach in the background in the photo above). It wasn't even close to the crowds we encountered at Hanuama Bay (see the picture with the previous post on H-Bay).
On the down side though, it occurred to me that there are lifeguards at Hanuama Bay, and at Ko Olina you swim at your own risk.
The water was a little murky at Ko Olina today. I had to swim out along the rocks at the mouth of the lagoon to get to clearer waters and see some cool fish. I did see some new fish today that I hadn't seen before. These two little guys hanging out in the coral were really cute and fun to watch. I need to look up what their name is.
We also saw a bunch of different kinds of butterfly fish and pennantfish.
After I swam back to where the boys were making their sand castles, I didn't want to get out of the water. It was really nice just floating in the shallow water next to the shore...
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1 comment:
We went to Ko Olina the last Christmas that we lived on the island. We got there early and had no problem parking. When we left, the line to get in was one of the longest that I've seen. Glad you had a blast there and I hope the 'rents did too!
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