Hawaii 2016-Day One, The Circle Island Tour

Day one we always love to do a tour of some sort to get our bearings. So we signed up for a tour that drove us around the entire island. We saw amazing look outs (this one has a monument of Amelia Earhart as it is near where she was meant to arrive on her I'll fated flight. This is the road up to Diamond Head. We'll hike the crater tomorrow and report back.

This is the Halona cove and blowhole.

This was somewhere. ..the guide stopped the bus and we took a selfie....

Cool view of stuff

Neato a beach! 

This one I remember! It is called China Man's hat

 if I wanted photos of scenery, I would Google them.

We drove past Kualoa Ranch where we are racing this weekend. Everyone else on the tour thought the view was lovely. Dave and I quietly soiled ourselves just thinking about this elevation!!!! Should...be...fun??

OMG! I am ruined forever!  We stopped and got deep fried bananas at a road side stand. They are wrapped in magic and sprinkled with sugar. 

 The next time you are making guacamole for 100 we found some avocados for you....

 Look, another beach! Waimea Beach to be precise.  This is the one where they hold the surfing masters!  Apparently last year the swells reached 60ft!!

This is a traditional Hawaiian village...

Part of the tour was snorkeling and seeing turtles. We just love that these turtles are inot their natural environment and are completely protected. The law states that you must stay 2m back from them and you are not supposed to stand up on the reef as it is their food source. 

  The turtles appear to not have been briefed on the 2m rule because I was standing in the water adjusting my snorkeling equipment and a GIANT turtle swam really close to me. I tried around and saw him there and called out so loudly that everyone whipped their heads around to laugh at me.

Speaking of safety, this is Connor. Connor's job is to keep you safe from the water. There's another life guard on the beach.

Mom, if you need to we were told that you can grab his surfboard. You know, if you're in trouble. 

Turtle selfie!!!

Thank you Connor.

The last stop was the Dole Plantation. One of the rest things about having a guide is that she can tell you the best things to hit in a short time. She told us to get in to the line for the ice cream immediately. Gluten free, dairy free pineapple ice cream. It was AMAZING!!!

it was a fun day and a great tour. We bought some groceries and headed out for a quick run. I gore the time, I gave up shutting it off when we stopped at intersections.

We did a quick 6.75km to top off a fun day :)

Did I mention that I fell asleep at 9 and slept like rock!