Bad Key

If you look closely you can see that it says "Bad Key"

Making one of the million phone calls trying to figure out how much

longer until we were going to have to wait for the tow truck

Noah playing with the pigeons

On Saturday Morning we headed to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. When we woke up early in the morning we had no idea what kind of adventure we were about to experience.

Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve in Hawaii known for it's spectacular snorkeling. Because of it's pristine ecosystem, Hanauma Bay gets very crowded and the parking lots close once it's full. We wanted a chance to snorkel, so we decided to start our day very early.

We were all out of bed, fed, and in the car by 5:30 A.M. After our hour long drive, we arrived at Hanauma Bay and had no trouble entering the preserve because it was such an early hour. In fact, if you are there before 7:00 A.M. you don't have pay for parking and admission to the park is free too. We were all pleasantly surprised that we were able to save $23.50!

Once we parked and loaded up our gear we headed to the beach. After the short hike down to the beach we rented our snorkel gear and we headed out to enjoy the fish. Everyone except Noah snorkeled and saw at least a fish or two (Even Granny snorkeled...although she was a little terrified of using the mask & snorkel). Noah spent his day playing in the water and playing with the pigeons. (yes, I said pigeons) Steve and I even got to snorkel alone while Granny watched the kids on the beach. The two of us were able to swim out pretty far and see lots of beautiful fish.

Around 11:30ish we decided to pack up and head back to our side of the island for naps, lunch, and swimming. This is when the real adventure began. When we got back to our car we couldn't open the door with the automatic lock button on our key. After several attempts we used the valet key to manually unlock the door. We unloaded all our stuff and climbed inside only to find we had a "bad key". The "smart key" wouldn't start our car...not so smart if you ask me. Apparently if it gets even a little bit wet it can malfunction. So there we were, an hour from home and no way to get out of the parking lot.

I decided to call the rental car company. After at least 10 phone calls and being put on hold numerous times I finally spoke to someone who could direct me to the right person. So now it was 12:30 (note the time. It took 1 hour just to find someone who could help me) I got off the phone with the "helpful" person and made what I thought would be my last phone call to Alamo Roadside Assistance. (NOTE: I actually called Almao Roadside Assistance earlier, and the woman couldn't figure out how to help me but said she would call me back...she never called back) I found out from the woman at road side assistance that they could arrange for a new car to be towed from Alamo to us at Hanauma Bay. Then the tow truck would tow our broken car from Hanauma Bay back to Alamo. We were only about 20 minutes from Alamo so this sounds pretty easy right? WRONG! For some reason this whole process took over 4 HOURS! It was a VERY, VERY LONG day. The worst part was that we didn't get our hands stamped after leaving the park so we couldn't re-enter. We ate some terrible food from the snack bar and waited and waited and waited and FINALLY the tow truck came with our mini-van and we were on our way.

Although it was a very long ordeal, it certainly was a memory making experience!