We try and visit Hawaii once a year as our one big vacation for the year. We can’t always make the trip but we really try because it’s a wonderful place to recharge your battery and just take it easy for a while. Living in San Diego allows a straight through flight from San Diego to the islands of about 5 to 5.5 hours. This year we went to Kona on the Big Island which is probably our favorite of the Hawaiian Islands. We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, north of Kona. We’ve staid their a few times before and our first visit was a stay at a Waikoloa Village condominium compliments of Prudential California Realty, a nice gift from the owner of the Prudential Office we were working at. We instantly fell in love with Hawaii.

I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about our Hawaii vacations before but I thought this was a good opportunity to start. I would also love to share any information about traveling to Hawaii from the experiences that my family and I have had. This particular blog post is about a snorkeling trip we went on to Captain Cook. Captain Cook which is officially the Kealakekua Bay is a wonderful place to snorkel on the Big Island and is accessible almost exclusively by boat. We had been there about 10 years ago and we knew what to expect before we went. It truly is a great place for snorkeling.

We called Captain Zodiac Raft Expeditions and made plans for my wife, granddaughter and myself to go out on a 24 foot Zodiac Hurricane RHIB Raft to Captain Cook. What I really liked about going out with Captain Zodiac was the crew. We had 2 crew members, Captain Colin and Buddha. Not sure what Buddha’s real name was but he said call me Buddha. There were about 12 of us total on the boat with the captain and the first mate. We started off by going out to look for sea life on the way to Captain Cook. We went out several miles from shore and then headed south looking for sea life the whole time. We found Oceanic Whitetip Sharks, Brown Footed Boobies “a type of sea bird”, a pod of over 200 Spotted Dolphins and 2 Humpback Whales. Now keep in mind this is a snorkeling trip but the crew went out of their way to find these for us to experience. Their passion for what they do was unreal, I mean they literally spent the whole time teaching us about everything we saw and stories of Hawaiian history as well. Just incredible.

Buddha went out of his way to spend some time with my granddaughter and show her the sea creatures at Captain Cook. Something my granddaughter will never forget, nor will I. I can’t recommend this company enough and if you call them to go out to Captain Cook make sure you ask for Captain Colin and Buddha. You will love these 2 guys.

Get your - Free San Diego House Value Check