Monday - a day at the beach with snorkeling

Up early and after breakfast we took a walk along the beach to the Sheraton hotel.  Along the way we walked through a condo property to the Koloa Heritage Trail - a beautiful garden next to the Plantation Garden Restaurant (where we plan to eat dinner later this week).  The garden was full of lovely Orchids and other tropical flowers.  A few of them are pictured below.  We explored the Sheraton, took some pictures on the lava rocks and then walked over to the lovely shopping center across the road.  Drooled over Tahitian pearls and other jewels, found some great tee shirts, walked through an art gallery and decided to have lunch in the villa and head to the beach.


Great beach day with wonderful snorkeling right off of the beach.  About the best assortment of tropical fish we had ever seen so close to the beach - butterfly fish 
 unicorn fish   
parrot fish  and lots of zebra fish and other varieties.  What fun to see them with so little effort - will plan to try taking pictures next time since these were found on the Web.


We met a very nice couple from Conn. and a man from England who suggested restaurants that they had enjoyed - since they all recommended Pomodoro's for Italian food and my favorite guide book gave them an ONO meaning very good, that was our choice for tonight.  


On the way to dinner, we stopped at the Spouting Horn to see the natural ocean geysers 

It was great fun - we took tons of pictures and also saw some green turtles in the water (in the distance.


Pomodoro's was a wonderful decision for dinner - we all loved our food, the bread, the wine choice, the hostess, Gerry - the wife of the chef (a former nurse from NY ) and our waiter, Tim.  It was a stellar evening!  Drove the dark and winding tunnel road back 'home'.  A thoroughly enjoyable day!

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