Tide Pools - Kona Trip Part 2

March 5, 2010

Warning.. this is a lot of pictures!

This was the view from our balcony. We were right up against the shoreline. It was amazing!

At night the ocean waves came right up against the rock wall. It was amazing to see the difference between high and low tied.

Sophia was so excited to go check out the tide pools. James loves to help Sophia.

Very excited kids!

This is right by the car. It was so fun to be so close to everything.

We walked all over the lava rock tide pools to look for crabs and things.

Sophia was loving walking on the rocks until she saw her first crab. After that she wanted to be carried the rest of the time.

Sophia and Sterling

Daniel and James exploring.

This crab is already dead. The crabs that are alive are either black or gray. Once they die they turn orange. There were tons of them all over the place that were already dead, but either they hold on really tight and stay there when the tied comes in or they turn orange pretty fast.

We walked all over the rocks and found..... a sea turtle.

The lump in the water in the middle is a turtle.

There is a closer look at his shell. He wasn't very good at posing for me. I even asked nicely for it to turn around and lift up his head, but just like my kids he had a mind of his own.

He did turn around.. but didn't lift up his head very well.

There.. he showed you his left leg!

Everything was so beautiful!

There is another turtle in the water.

When the tide comes in all of these rocks are completely under water. It was so amazing to me to see all of this.

Daniel slipped on the slippery rocks and fell into the water and got his pants and shoes wet. Luckily we hadn't even left our hotel yet so we went upstairs and got him some new pants and socks.

There was a sea cucumber (top left kind of rust color) and lots of sea urchins and crabs.

These were really cool they looked like a cross between sea urchins and star fish and jelly fish.

They were everywhere!

That was our balcony, the parking garage then the 2nd floor, we were on the third floor.

James and Sterling searching for wildlife.

After searching for a while we were on our way. We were going to go to a Sea Horse Farm and check out what they had to see. When we got there we realized that we had to be there at a certain time to get the tour and we had an hour to kill. So, we went to another tide pool area to play that was just down the street from the Sea Horse Farm.

Sophia and Daniel took off their shoes and socks to get into the water to play in this small tide pool. There were lots of hermit crabs and things in this little area.

This was a neat little area that had this circular rock area that would fill up with water when the waves come in and then spill over the rest of the tide area. When the waves went back out it made this beautiful waterfall.

More little waterfall.

The lava rock had some of the neatest patterns in them. I could have walked around exploring for days. It was so neat to have the lava and the sea tide pools.

To me, the Big Island is much more the quaint Hawaii that I think of when I picture Hawaii. Even the touristy areas are not nearly as touristy as on Oahu. We only stayed on the Kona side and didn't make it to the Hilo side of the Big Island but this trip was really nice and laid back.

Sophia got even more wet in the water and so we took off her pants so she could play. We hadn't brought swim suits because we were going to the Sea Horse Farm, so why not just get in!

Kicking and playing and looking for creatures... can it get better than this?

There were little dried salt pools all over that were so cool looking.

There were some of the coolest tide pools. These are the things that I think of when I think of all the snorkeling videos. When we went snorkeling on Oahu it was all dead coral and not many colors but these little tide pools had more color and cool coral in them then I had ever seen in person.

The porcupine urchins were all over.

I know this was a lot of pictures but I wanted to capture every minute of it. It was a much needed vacation and it was so relaxing and exciting to look in all the tide pools and see all the things. Believe it or not I didn't post all the pictures I took, I took lots more!

I'll post the Sea Horse Farm and the rest of our trip tomorrow!