Snorkeling in the Tidepools!!!

Today we got up and dad made pancakes as usual which are always really good because it's still doughy in the inside and crisp on the outside and that mixed with syrup makes it better than Waffle House's pancakes (not that I've ever had a waffle house pancake but it sounds like they'd be pretty good. After that great start, we first went to the tsunami museum which is located right in Hilo. I learned some fascinating things that I didn't know about tsunami's such as when a tsunami's about to happen. The ocean first sucks the water in 200 yards and then it all comes back very rapidly. A mistake that people have made in the past is when the water is sucked back, it leaves tons of fish just lying on the ocean floor so people went out to pick them up and then the giant wall of water came and washed them all away. Another incident that has happened during a different tsunami is that when a tsunami warning went out, hundreds of surfers went to the beach to try to catch the giant wave. Luckily it was a false alarm, but if it had really been a tsunami, that would sure as hell be the last wave they ever surfed. When we were done watching the short movie and looking at the displays, we headed for the snorkel shop for a day of snorkeling only about 15 minutes away so we weren't really excpecting a lot from it. When we had everything rented, we went through a Burger King and headed for the tidepools. They looked really shallow, only about 3 feet deep but when me and dad got out there, it was over 20 feet in some places. It was amazing, there were holes all over the place that went down as far as the eye can see. We saw tons of different colorful fish, just the usual but when we got a little closer to the sea, we saw a sea turtle that just scrambled across the rocks right in front of us. We would have followed it because sea turtles are slow but it was a lot faster over rocks than us so we didn't have a chance of catching it. When we got out of the water, my dad took a break while I checked out some shallow tidepools. There were some colorful fish but nothing too fascinating. When I got out, my mom decided that she would try and go snorkeling. The only problem was that we only had 2 sets of snorkel gear and I wanted to go with them. My mom didn't want the flippers in the first place so that was all good but I had to use some swim goggles that I couldn't see a whole lot out of. I got bored of going up for a breath all the time fast so I left mom and dad to snorkel by themselves. When I was all dry and happy, suddenly I heard my mom scream for me to come down to where they were so I did. My mom handed me a snorkel mask and I headed over to where my dad was floating on the surface looking down at something. It was a ginormous, 5 foot eel! It was incredible. Me and my dad kept on taking turns diving down to get inches away from it. It was kind of creepy, a lot like a snake. My parents also claimed that they had seen other white eels but I've never heard of a white eel before so I'm not so sure they were eels. When we were all done snorkeling and ready to go, we went to a restaurant that we had never been to before. It's calle Cafe 100 and the food there is amazing. I got a Magic Meal which came with a burger, fries, and a drink. The fries were exactly like the ones that are served in our cafeteria which is a good thing because it's one of the few good things they served us. My mom got this huge thing with eggs, and rice and she had lots of leftovers that I ate. When we were done eating, we went home and had the remainder of mom's birthday cake. It was delicious! Then we watched T.V. and went to bed.