Sept. 9, 2016  tunnels one more time and a tripadvisor meet and greet at Happy Talk:

I must be feeling really at home now!  Didn't get up until after 11 am today!  Didn't waste too much time getting ready to head out, though.  Had a breakfast of bagels then we were off to Tunnels.  But first we stopped at the overlook right here by Princeville where I went to take sunset pictures yesterday.  Since we're normally coming here from the East side, we don't usually see this overlook while it's still so clear.

Love the hood ornament on this Woody.

view from one of the bridges on the way to Tunnels.

 The first street parking by Tunnels was full, but the other one had a spot.  So we parked here for a change. 

 Going to miss this view.

a little trickier entering without much sandy area.

 A Christmas wrasse. 

 a young Emporer

a very large red lip parrotfish.

 Spotted Mackerel?  They were about the size of the large parrotfish.

typical topography and assortment of fish

more of the topography of Tunnels.

There was an area where air bubbles were rising.  Reminded me a bit of Champagne Reef off Dominica.

some of the deep tunnels.

 a school of large unicorn fish.

 a school of assorted fish.

We swam upstream to where the Lagoon Triggerfish are.   This is the beach there.  

 It's right by where the large sandy area starts near the point.

 Ok, back to snorkeling.
one of my lagoon triggerfish coming to say, "hi" (or more likely, "go away!")

a pair of endemic milletseed butterflyfish.

One of the many many many chubs our here. 

 A threadfin butterflyfish heading down into the deep.

 I hoped this little would come all the way out of the sand, but it was heading into the sand and didn't come back out.  A magnificent snake eel ---first one  I've seen this trip.

 Easy to ignore the goat fish, so I figure I'd include a close up of a yellowstripe goatfish.

a couple convict tangs (surgeonfish) and their  cousin whitebar surgeonfish.

school of large ringtail surgeonfish.

We only stayed about 2 hours today so we could get back for a tripadvisor meet and greet at 4.  Since this may be our last trip this way this trip, I took some pictures of the beautiful ride along the North shore that I'm going to miss so much.

love all the foliage.

Love the glimpses of the ocean.

and glimpses of green mountains.

and glimpses of both.

also love the charm of all the 1 lane bridges.

 how could you concentrate on soccer with views like this?!

 Figured we might as well stop at the Hanalei Valley overlook, too.

 more views of the taro fields.

 We were the first to arrive at Happy Talk.  We had never been here before, so I was thrilled to see another new place to us.  We were actually offered an exchange into here, but it didn't match up with the dates we needed.  Maybe next time!

a table built for Ken!

great views 

Ended up being 9 of us.  It was a fun time!  We visited until after 6.  Their queso and their pizza are good, too.

Love the table!

 about 6:15, we decided to head out to see sunset. 

Had to take some pictures of the purdy flowers around the area.

The grounds of Hanalei Bay Resort are gorgeous!

 There was a path leading down to the beach, so I decided to check it out.

 I don't know why I was so surprised when I got to the beach to see that it was the St. Regis beach!

So I decided to see if I could get back up the trail before sunset.  

Good thing I started up when I did.  Wasn't half way there when it started raining.  But I was also treated to a double rainbow (only 1 visible here).  

I was surprised I made it back before the sun had set.  But it was raining hard enough that I figured we better get under cover to protect my camera.  So we didn't actually get to see the sun set.

Tomorrow we're heading back to the East side.  I can really see now why the North shore lovers tell everyone to stay on the north shore.  Love the green towering mountains.  That doesn't mean I'll stay here all the time from now on, but maybe a few days each trip.