Day 7 Saturday 

Up pretty early. Trying to stay closer to Oregon time so it’s not such a shock when I get home lol. 

Breakfast down at Piko. What? Party of one? Ok, let me seat you right in the middle of the room. Which is fine, but it makes it hard to watch people without staring lol.

Me: can I have that breakfast bowl without all that extra stuff….lol Them: oh, you just want rice and pork? Yes lol.

I signed up for two of the Outriggers tours. I looked online, but it’s hard to tell which tours are sketchy and which ones are legit. The first tour is tonight at 8:30. I will be swimming with the manta rays! We will be in the water for 45 minutes. I can’t wait😁

I drove north to see if I remembered anything from the 2017 trip. That was my first solo trip to Hawaii. I looked for my favorite shave ice place, Scandinavian shave ice, but it’s temporarily closed. The last time, I stayed at the Royal Kona resort which is where I’m going next.

Went swimming and baked a bit by the pool and caught up on my blog.

It’s time! I signed in with Sea Quest Rafting for the manta ray snorkel. I am so excited!  They gave us a shorty wetsuit to wear. That’s good, I was afraid I would get cold.  There were 16 people on my boat. We got into a small zodiac and headed out in front of my hotel.  We each got a snorkel, mask and a pool noodle. They had us jump/slide off the boat into the water and we swam over to a floating light board.  Once there, we held on to the board with both hands, put our arms out straight and then put the pool noodle under each ankle.  This was so you could lay completely flat on top of the water. They turned the lights on to attract the plankton/food and then we waited. It wasn’t long before a couple of smaller ones showed up. They were gliding through the water underneath us and doing back somersaults.  Then the bigger ones came to eat. They were approximately 8 feet across, maybe longer. The big ones would get within inches of us while swimming upside down.  The guy next to me screamed like a baby 😂 

By far the coolest thing I’ve done in a while😁