Snorkeling – SarahRuthSeeks

32nd Birthday!

November 14, 2021 1 Comment

Wouldn’t be a proper birthday without starting with a sunrise walk!

I had to do a little bit of work, but then I took a half day and mid afternoon Jess picked me up for our grand Birthday adventure! We started with a hike to Likeke Falls with the grand plan to loop to Old Pali Rd or go back down and up Old Pali. At one point, the path splits and you have to follow the arrow to the right to find the falls.

The trail was not muddy, but sometimes this can be a disadvantage because there’s nothing to dig into and it ends up being slippery. Between the roots and rocks we made it without falling.

0.4 miles in and we made it! Really quick hike. I specifically chose this because I knew it was relatively easy and I wanted a low risk, high reward hike for my birthday. November is supposed to be the rainy season, but we haven’t received much, so the falls were pretty dry, but SO beautiful.

I chose my attire so that Brian would be there in spirit.

The water was cooler than ocean water, but pleasantly refreshing. The rocks weren’t slippery at all, which seems strange from what I’m used to in New England. Decision time, go down and find Old Pali or cut across? We decided to cut across because the trail was actually stone lined. The path itself isn’t an official trail in all trails, though, so we were going a bit into the unknown. I actually also decided to try my micro spikes on the way back (down is slipperier). Let me tell you, after putting those on I felt like Spiderwoman. Which is great because that was about to come in handy. Soon after stones the path became overgrown with leaves.

I know this picture doesn’t reveal much, but see how the path disappears in front of the tree? It’s a very steep uphill there. Hard to get good footing to get a picture, so just use your imagination. This is where my spikes really came in handy.

Little did we know we had to go down a very steep decline.

I learned that really leaning back on your way down so your feet are more horizontally planted and having cleats makes you feel like you can do anything (don’t worry, parents, had I slipped I would’ve merely landed at the bottom, unlike some Hawaii hikes where I would’ve landed 5K feet off a ridge).

Thankfully after this decent we were right on Old Pali, and now you can see pictures of it!

After this point, there’s a little shortcut to the left you’re supposed to take to get back to the parking… but we ended up walking all the way down to walk back up again. We also came across a father and son harvesting start fruit from a tree (the father is taking this picture). They let us each take two home.

Next we headed to get pizza at Pizza Mamo in Chinatown. I’ve heard a couple people recommend this place, and the real reason we went was because it was near where I wanted to get my cake. We parked at this lot and paid, but the receipt didn’t print… on point with Hawaii. Retrospectively we should’ve found a meter.

Anyway, we pre ordered the pizza leaving the hike and it was ready upon arrival. We originally tried to eat outside, but the sun was scorching us. So we moved inside, but then the guy told us about this place with a courtyard next door that would let us sit there. Turns out it’s a really cool Mexican bar place called Encore Saloon that we decided we’d love to go back to.

The pizza flavor was DELICIOUS. I am personally a thicker crust fan. We also worked up an appetite from the hike, so it was extra delicious. Chinatown was interesting… there was a homeless man outside PizzaMamo that was yelling a lot. But there were all these little hidden gems of restaurants. It was relatively quiet. We’ll definitely go back.

Then we made our way to Slice by HB Baking. I have had my eyes on this place for a while. Go look at their Instagram! They are ice cream cakes of complete decadence. Jess wanted to get two slices, but I encouraged us to start with one, and she ended up agreeing with me. This was pumpkin pecan ice cream, some fall flavored pound cake, and banana pudding with the best whipped cream frosting I’ve ever had. 11/10 would go back here.

Finally, as if all that wasn’t enough, we made it back to Lanikai in time to fit in some snorkeling.

And even got a birthday honu! (It was really cloudy for some reason today, and the sun was behind clouds, so hard to see)

I was in my pajamas by 6pm. I’ve been joking about how this sure beats any rainy November New England Birthday 😉

Not pictured/documented are the communications on a variety of platforms I received and the presents I opened.

I obviously missed having my best friend with me, and communication has been rough/non existent the last week or so. But he managed a couple Happy Birthday emails (in case one didn’t get through).

Here’s a throwback to our probably third date? We went for mimosa flights for my birthday at Friendly Toast in Cambridge and made it a tradition… well sort of… until COVID ruined it.

Let me start by saying that every year I feel loved on my birthday, and I know that that’s what matters. And that this day was GREAT. I had such an awesome time. This is just a reflection on them in general. The past couple were a bit tough, I think because I was hoping someone would’ve planned or done something for my 30th (they didn’t) and there were quarantine shenanigans (I actually had a nice lobster dinner that year, so actually that was great). I don’t know why it feels like I’m missing out on something… I think because I see “all” these people on social get parties planned for them, or surprised, or have something special, and it makes me feel like no one cares to go through the extra effort for me, and I don’t really get why. Ever since I lost my last best friends to weird circumstances, I feel like I haven’t been able to truly find that again (Brian is not much of a celebrator, nor was their family growing up, so it’s something I have decided not to expect from him). So I have no “bestie” to do things like that that seemingly everyone else does. Anyway, I’ve always just owned my birthday celebrations, because when I don’t I’m disappointed. I was sad Brian wasn’t there to experience these things with me, but it was the perfect day otherwise, and God has filled the hole with a new friend who was thankfully down for my crazy plans for the day. I’m not sure what I feel like I’m missing not having someone that would plan a party for me, but I think it comes down to social media and just how high expectations get set, and maybe feeling like I still don’t quite have a bestie. Again, this is simply a reflection and not meant to say I don’t feel like I’m loved or that I didn’t have an awesome day, because that’s certainly not true. My 32nd was a blast and I don’t think anyone could’ve planned it better/done anything to make me enjoy it more, and I felt completely loved. So I’m not sure what this dissonance is really about, but I’m sure it has something to do with social media. Anyway, here’s to hoping year 33 is a little less tumultuous.

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Haunama Bay Snorkeling

October 9, 2021 1 Comment

Haunama Bay is a state park and Nature Reserve. It is THE most popular Hawaiian tourist attraction (based on no polls but my rather my personal opinion). It’s been on my bucket list, but it’s logistically difficult to achieve, even for a local. You have to reserve tickets, which become available two days in advance. They only allow 1000 guests per day and are only open Wed to Sun. The parking lot is small and fills up quickly and costs $1 for military/local or $3 for tourists. The actual park is free for Military/local or $25 for tourists.

My friend and I hopped online a little before 7am, her on her phone and me on the computer. I had heard the trick was to aim for an off time, like 11:10am or 12:10am, so we tried those. I ended up getting us two tickets at 12:10AM. If you are military/local, you can go in any day without a reservation between 7a-8a.

The parking lot is small, so Erin and I headed over early to make sure we had time to hover for parking. We didn’t have to, and instead enjoyed walking the park a bit and enjoying the beauty of it as a whole.

Anyway, on to the fun part. After watching a 20 minute video putting the fear of God in you that you might be swept out by riptides and that you need to know how to swim, you make your way down a long pretty steep driveway to the bay. The fish were HUGE and there was a wide variety, so I saw a few I hadn’t seen in Lanikai. I could not believe how big they were, and then how close they’d get to us! The bottom left I didn’t capture fully because he was actually too close!

Erin realized she had heard the name of the Hawaiian State fish somewhere before (pictured top right, the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a fish) and it turns out it’s a song in High School Musical 2. As a going away present, she bought me a small fish identifier card. I don’t have it with me, but when I get back maybe I’ll label the fish above.

We had an awesome time.

It was definitely murky because we’re getting into rougher water season and it was high tide. So I guess in the future I’d like to pick a calmer day, but it’s hard to be choosy with the logistics as they are. Here are a few miscellaneous pics from the adventure.

I think this next one puts into scale just how much reef there was to explore.

Afterward, I was evaluating the pros and cons of Lanikai vs. Haunama snorkeling. I definitely would go back to Haunama, especially with Brian, but I have to say that for the logistics as easy as they are in Lanikai, we have a great advantage. However, it is highly photogenic, especially with two beautiful ladies.

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Snorkeling at secret beach redeemed

July 11, 2021 No Comments

Brian and I went to secret beach snorkeling, it was his first time there and my second. If you recall, my first time snorkeling there felt like a bit of a dud, so I set low expectations for Brian. We went left coming off the beach this time, and were rewarded heartily.

We encountered turtles twice, we’re not entirely sure they were different turtles. You might get sick of my turtle pictures, but it’s kinda like when people have kids and can’t stop posting pictures of them. So here’s some turtle spam.

My proudest capture, beside that first turtle picture, was of this eel.

I think a bit of ignorance is bliss when doing these types of things, because immediately a million thoughts came to my mind like “are they aggressive? Should I ‘run’? What if I get stung by it?” But turns out he’s pretty scared of me and I didn’t see him again once he disappeared. I think this is a Dragon moray eel.

I’ll spam you with more fish/sealife pictures.

The “necklaces” you see around our necks are these waterproof bags

The water was really calm. My only regret was eating stromboli too closely to going, I didn’t digest it well horizontally. I was not nauseous after, though. For some reason it felt like there was a hole in my snorkel (well, there is… but in this case the snorkel was vertical and it still felt like water was getting in). Brian said the same thing, so maybe it was some weird fluke with wind? Hopefully it was a one off.

These posts take an overwhelming time to create/edit. I’ll probably only post pictures of cool new animals I see moving forward. And of course sea turtles.

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The definitive guide to snorkeling on Oahu

June 28, 2021 No Comments

Ok, just kidding, I’ve only been to two places. Secret Beach on Marine Corps base and Lanikai, the beach right by our apartment. I prefer the one next to our apartment; so far we’ve seen sea turtles every time, we don’t have to drive, and Secret beach was quite barren with fish. Lanikai feels like you’re in the cast of Finding Nemo.

Brian bought a Go Pro previously for his scuba diving in Guam. It’s a really old version, the 4, but it’s still kicking so we brought it out with us today. Right off the bat was a bit “slow”, we tried out a new section where we heard there were turtles, but there were not many fish like we’re used to. However, before long the turtles did show up. We saw one, then a pair. We chased them for a bit back toward where we’ve seen the most fish. You’re supposed to stay 10ft away from them. We did our best once we saw them. There are two videos after the pictures. I’ll save you some time and say you don’t need to watch them and there’s nothing too exciting after the first 20 secs or so.

This video of Brian chasing the turtle might make you dizzy to start but it evens out.

Once we moved back toward Lanikai there were plenty of fish to see. Here’s a small sample. I didn’t realize how far zoomed out the GoPro is, you can’t preview the image on the GoPro so… these are amateur hour. I cropped and zoomed a lot when editing afterward. But will improve!

Finally, you can’t go home without a few selfies.

Shaka is the friendly gesture Hawaiians give each other, and it means “turtle”

The first time we went in Lanikai, I felt INCREDIBLY nauseous afterward. Bizarrely, I haven’t ever really experienced sea sickness. I read up about it, and it can happen if the waves are a bit rocky and you pick your head up a lot (It was my first time, so I was pretty nervous we were in the middle of the ocean a lot when really we were like 20ft from shore… so I kept lifting my head to check for shore and Brian). I have definitely improved, and the second time we went in Lanikai I was fine… the waves were much quieter. Today I felt woozy again, but not as bad, and it was REALLY hot, so I don’t think heat helps. Brian is very helpful in cleaning off the gear and letting me shower and lie down when I get home.

The second time I ever went snorkeling was with Megan at secret beach on the Marine corps base. It’s really really shallow, even out 50 feet or so from the shore. Very calm. The population of fish was very low, but there was a ton of beautiful coral. I think if we went again we would go to the sides. You also should time this correctly to go during high tide. You already should try to find the channels between reefs otherwise you risk hitting them with your knees kicking, and damaging reef is bad. If it’s low tide, It’s almost one way in, one way out. High tide you can sneak over them.

You can see the reefs through the water here, I will try to get a better picture to show what I’m talking about when I say channels, but it’s simply sand flooring between reefs.

Still plenty more places to snorkel and I shall report back with my expert opinions, of course. Also stay tuned for me to convince Brian to get the GoPro 9.