day 5 :: honolulu fish auction

On Saturday morning, we had an amazing opportunity to see the Honolulu Fish Auction up-close. We learned that it's the only public fish auction in the United States, but only experienced buyers should participate. Surprisingly, it didn't smell like fish, and wow, these fish were big!

Inside the auction house we came across these opas that had been purchased. We learned that only 20% of the fish is actually consumed. The other 80% is tossed. Yikes.

During the auction, the fish's tail is cut off and a part of the meat is exposed so the buyers can get a closer look at the quality of the meat. The tags you see are how much the fish weighs and the price per pound.

Purchased fish that were being loaded onto trucks and into vans. Their next destination were restaurants and fish markets where you can buy just a few pounds of fish.

day four :: snorkeling on the windward side

On our way to the snorkel spot, we passed a pullout and saw the devil's blowhole.

John, Carla, Dan, Fran (Carla's Mom)

As the wind blew the waves into the rock, some of it came up through a hole in the rock. You can see, it was pretty windy on the windward side of the island. Plus, it was beautiful.

Dan's first experience snorkeling was on the left side of this pier that houses the deep diving research submarines that you see on Discovery. Since we were on our own, I left my camera so I didn't get any shots of the subs up close.

But the highlight of the day was snorkeling with the sea turtles that came into the cove. It was so amazing to see these guys swimming around. We also learned how to hide from the sun, which we didn't do very well and received a blistering sunburn. Every minute was bliss.

Judd Nu'uana Trail Lookout

Our third day in Honolulu, we decided to go for a hike on the Judd Nu'uana Trail. After the 3 mile hike, we got to the lookout and were welcomed with gorgeous views.

Below are some additional photos from the hike. I have more photos on Flickr of our trip. Feel free to take a look!