Day 2: O'ahu

Being wide awake at 2:30 am island time was annoying. I laid there staring at the ceiling hoping I could go back to sleep at least for a few more minutes but that didn't happen. As soon as someone else starting stirring, we all got up and got ready for the day. It was still dark outside when we headed out to tour the grounds of the resort. Seeing the morning sun breech the horizon was lovely. Being up that early we were treated to all the morning calls from the birds. A and I spent time smelling the tropical flowers and collecting some for our journals. There were many varieties of bougainvillea. The flowers are always the same color but the 'petals', which are technically modified leaves, are different colors. The African Tulip Tree was in full bloom and the variety of plumeria (fringapani) was heavenly. Just staying in one spot and smelling the tropical aroma was a wonderful way to bring in the new day.We met in Doc's room around 8 am. Doc gave us some information on the Hawaiian culture like how the Hawaiian alphabet has only 13 letters and how O'ahu has the greatest population out of all the Hawaiian islands.

Each day a student, if they want to, would give a devotion. Doc would give the first and last devotion of the trip. This mornings devotion was from 2 Timothy 1 dealing with how "God doesn't give us a spirit of fear..." Doc mentioned that we might encounter some things along the way that will scare or frighten us. He stated for us not to succumb to the fear; that we have a greater power to help us over come; for us to face the issue head on and God will get us through.

We loaded up the vans and headed out for the day. Originally we were going to visit USS Arizona Memorial but because of the cruise ships in port the line was extremely long so we decided to do it another day. We headed to Ala Mona Mall to grab food and to look around before heading up to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling.
Hanauma Bay is a Marine Reserve. They limit the amount of traffic to the area daily. Before heading out to the bay, all visitors are given a brief introduction to the reserve along with its history. The bay is a compound crater formed when a submarine volcano broke the surface of the water. Reef and ash material created the crater combs and sea level rose to form the bay. The Polynesians first saw the bay and probably named it for its shape. The sand on the beach is imported from other areas because the original sand is green and visitor's normally have a mental thing about sand any other color than white. Not only are the marine organisms protected but also the land animals within the reserve. One of these such animals is the mongoose, which was introduced to take care of the rodent population but since the mongoose is diurnal and the rodents are nocturnal, it didn't work.

Though the thought of a marine reserve is a great idea, the area was filled more of coral rubble than actual live coral. Yes, there were a lot of marine organisms within the area and some turtles were seen swimming in the backdoor channel but it was still affected with all the human activity. One of the rules was to not touch/stand on the coral but while puttering around the bay several visitors weren't following this rule, which drives me crazy since coral reefs are my passion. The bay provided an opportunity for others to learn how to snorkel without being bombarded with waves.

After a day in the sun we headed back to the resort for our evening class and the night's devotions which was given by Meg on Ecc. 12:1. "Enjoy Life." If it ain't fun, then it's not worth doing!