Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles as far as the eye can see!

We hit the motherload of turtle sightings. Eight turtles are sunning themselves on the rocks.

This is one of the biggest turtles I've seen. It's hard to tell from this picture, but his shell was 3-4 feet long.

Alex: Today we saw 17 turtles! We named a big white one George. And a little one with white markings on its shell Fred . We also named a medium size one Bob. And two in a small pool Greg and Bobaran. We also named a Giant one we watched go back in the water Gimongo. I call him Gimongo the great! A small one we saw laying on the beach is Sam. We saw two swimming together in a shallow pool and 8 laying on the rocks. Me and sissy played on our boogie boards we got this morning. Sissy named hers Boogie. Its orange with yellow flowers. I named mine Peach. It’s a salmon peachy color with 3 orange stripes in the middle, 1 thick and 2 thin, with white flowers in the bottom corner. When we got back we had dinner and went in the pool. I had fun today!

Laura: Today we went to a beach, and saw 17 turtles!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a really big one that was bigger than me! We named some of the turtles, there names were : Fred, Bob, Boburan, George, Greg , Gimongo and Sam. We bought boogie boards. It was awesome. !!!!!!!!!!
THE END

Emily: Another day, another idyllic beach. Life is good. Today we went to Koloko-Honokohau National Park. We parked by this marina and followed a little path and emerged onto this luscious soft sand dotted with palm trees around this little cove. I immediately spread out our beach blanket and sat with my feet in the sand, the breeze gently ruffling my hair and took deep cleansing breaths. Dan and the girls went exploring and were soon hopping up and down (well, the girls were) so I went to see and there was a turtle about 3 feet from shore just hanging out having a snack. I took some pictures and then noticed a 2nd turtle out in the water and spent a long time watching them. We walked all around the cove and then back to my blanket for more relaxing.

We spent the day playing in the water, observing turtles (17 in all!), taking little strolls, and resting on the beach. The highlight was late in the day when we were walking down the beach, I noticed this big hump and as we got closer we realized it was a huge turtle, probably 4 feet long. He was just hanging out on the sand, sunning himself and seemed content to pop a head up anytime anyone was near. The biggest treat was that then he started turning and pulled himself back down the beach and into the water. Amazing! I took a ton of pictures. There is just something about the turtles that is so magical.

We had an early dinner when we returned to the condo and then walked to check out the resort next door and then down to Kailua town for a bit. The girls were getting tired of walking and wanted to swim so we headed back, but I just enjoyed strolling in the warm Hawaii air with my family. It was another fabulous day on the big island.