Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay with Jill and many tame tropical fish

Gwen's best friend Jill finally made it out to Hawaii from Las Vegas. It's been a while since I last went snorkeling there, mostly because of Covid and the strict rules the C&C put on visitors. At this time, locals don't need a reservation or pay a fee, but tourists pay $25. The reservation system is insane and part of the reason why I don't go to the county firing range anymore. You have to go on their website exactly at 8am two days before you want to go, and the spots sell out in a matter of minutes.
I think because of the strict tourists rules, it's not as crowded as it was before (which is good for the reef and fish). The parking lot used to be full from 8am to noon but seemed like there was parking now. The hard part is getting in the water. After about five minutes, my body adjusts to the water temperature and salt in the eyes. After that, I wonder why I don't do this more often.
The bay is a nature preserve that doesn't allow any fishing, and the fish know it. The fish seem to travel around the bay in gangs with different species, usually around one of the big three foot monsters. There were two massive parrotfish with beak like teeth. You can hear the fish chomping at the algae on the coral. This was also the first time I've seen a wild octopus. It was about a foot long and shot brown ink at me when I got close.
Later, I swam out to the right buoy where there was a single coral bolder. My GoPro was almost out of battery so left it behind. As I approached, a massive moray eel about 4ft long with a 6in wide head swam out from under the rock and stopped about 3ft from me. I looked at it, it looked at me, then it swam away. It was awesome.
We then went to Kualoa Ranch where we went on the ag tour which has some of the Hollywood sets including Jurassic World, Snatched, and 50 First Dates. The real Hollywood tour is $159 each without the Kamaaina (local) discount which is far above our tax bracket. Afterwards, we visited the macadamia nut farm and went to the Tantalus Lookout over Honolulu where we did the customary Hawaiian dad pose that you see on the tourist videos.

[@jimmylieb5225]

clicking shrimp! nice bird nosed wrasse!

[@RonzRocketz]

It's purplie!