Merry Christmas from sunny Hawaii!!

Santa made a surprise visit here overnight, and in a complete role reversal, Biker and I were going to the kids’ doors begging them to get up this morning. Whatever happened to the good old days when they were bouncing on our bed at 6 a.m., itching to open presents?!?!

Last night was the highlight so far — a night dive / snorkel with manta rays. SUCH a cool experience.  The rays are so graceful and beautiful – they do loops and they glide really close to you. They’re huge – from 4-16 feet wingtip to wingtip.  An amazing experience, and something everyone should do. Divers go to the bottom and look up, while snorkelers float at the surface holding on to special buoys. The mantas swim in between the divers and snorkelers to eat the plankton that’s attracted to these big lights set in the bottom of the ocean.

How did they discover that this was a thing, you ask? Story goes that in the 1970s, the Hilton on the Big Island put out some spotlights that went into the water and they noticed the mantas visiting every night. Voila! A business – and the #2 diving attraction in the world – after shark cage diving (shudder) – was born.

We have a video but couldn’t figure out how to load it. Wouldn’t it be great if we had some technologically savvy people here at the house with us to help?! 🙂   In the meantime, this YouTube video that someone else took gives a perfect view of what we saw.

Monday we snorkeled at Hohonau Bay (known as Two-Step because of the two steps you take to launch directly into the clear waters for some of the best snorkeling on the island). Flush with beautiful yellow fish, sea turtles and other sea creatures that feed on the reef in the bay.  Really a nice experience to kick off the vacay.

The house is beautiful, complete with a great lanai and a gorgeous infinity pool.  Great spot for our home base here on the Big Island.