We woke up early to drive up to Haliewa (North Shore) to go on Hawaii Shark Encounters! It wasn't a surprise like I had hoped it would be. Last week we saw sharks while diving and he started talking about not wanting to go on this tour anymore so I told him that that's what I had planned but there was still time to cancel without having to pay for anything. After thinking about it and realizing we'd be able to see more and see them closer up without worrying about scaring them, he decided we'd still do it. So we drove up there yesterday for an 8:30am appointment. It was very cool. We got on the boat and went on a 20 min ride. This took us about 3 miles from coast where the water is 600 ft deep. There were 12 people total that had signed up to go on this trip so they had 6 people go in at a time. We were in the first group and it was very cool! Oh sidenote: they had masks and snorkels sanitized for those who didn't bring their own. But yes we went in first with 4 other people and saw a lot of sharks! More than 5, I'm certain of it but I never counted. We saw Sandbar and Galapagos sharks and even one Barracuda. The Barracuda was the only one that made me nervous. The sharks are sleek and beautiful while the Barracuda was pointy and you could see his teeth and he definitely could have fit into the cage if he wanted. Thankfully he stayed further away than the rest of the bunch. I know the boat has seen him before so they knew we weren't in any danger.
See him there? Creepy! Well you probably can't unless you click on it to see the larger size. Oh well.
Aren't they so neat? I enjoyed it a lot and John did too so it was a good start to the Unbirthday.
The next few hours we went to lunch, showered, and he played some video games while I napped. I was exhausted! I'm tired a lot lately- it's annoying.
At 5 we had reservations at Ruth's Chris, which is DELICIOUS. I've never been there before, but we'll definitely be going back. John thought it would just be the two of us going out to dinner until he saw Bryan Harris there, his friend and roommate from the Academy. John asked what he was doing down here (we were in Waikiki) and I turned and said "He's having dinner with us!" John was impressed, surprised, and glad to see his old friend. He was also glad to see the single malt scotch that Bryan brought for John haha. Ruth's Chris opens at 5 so we told them we were there for the Reservation but still were waiting a little while they opened. It was expected and perfectly fine since not everyone in the party was even there. While we put in our name I saw Stacy and Kyle Haubold coming up and told him to go greet them as well! Haha. They're also friends from the Academy, and Groton as well. John was very pleased to see his friends that he's been too busy to see. Shawn and Kris Kellogg also showed up as well as another Sub friend, Evan. It was a good party of 8 and I'm very glad everyone was around and able to make it. It made for a great night and a great birthday. It's good that John got to see them all again. They're all so busy!
Oh and Ruth's Chris is the best place to go for a special occasion! They're so nice and the food is amazing. They also gave john fancy bacardi 151 strawberries covered in chocolate and set on fire for his birthday! It was very tasty! I'm glad they did that, and they gave him a card with a gift certificate. That was unexpected. We'll definitely go back again for other special occasions. We saw a couple there for their anniversary and there were rose petals on their table for that. I definitely recommend this place, and it's a chain so you don't need to come to Hawaii to go!
The rest of the pictures are on Picasa :-)
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