Marianne was not feeling the best today, between being tired and some
intestinal distress. So, we spent the morning relaxing in the room and
regaining strength.

About 1:30, we headed out to check out the Dolphin Quest program. We
got some good video and pictures of the dolphins playing in the lagoon.
After that, we took a nice walk around the rest of the complex we didn’t
see yesterday. This place is huge, and we still have not seen it all, I
don’t think..

We are not having the best of luck accessing the web on the T-Mobile
SideKick at the hotel, so I have not been able to approve a few comments
from others on the blog the past 24 hours… I had signal and suposedly
data support, but could still not access the web a short time ago when
walking around the complex… I’ll try again at dinner.

After some relaxing after breakfast, and giving Marianne some time to feel better, we headed back out to explore the resort some more. Here are some pictures of other resort sights:

This carved wood horse was by concierge desk by the elevators in the Ocean Tower

This near life size horse and carriage is near the Main Lobby at the mid-level of the Grand Staircase leading to the lagoon.

Marianne looking “Buddha”ish on the Grand Staircase.

Marianne caught me unaware watching the sights during our boat ride return to the Ocean Tower. This is down at the other end of the resort near the lagoon tower.

Another canal boat leaving the dock under the arch bridge at the Main Lobby.

Another view of the Tram, this is the secondary tram that is sitting on a siding. The main track is in the foreground.

On the south end of the resort, we found a garden area containing several banana trees and a collection of unique wildlife.

I never realized how ugly a banana pod was, but the dark purple flower pod is downright ugly. But, I don’t really know if it has purpose in the production of bananas, because some of the smaller bananas still had small white flowers on the tip of the small baby bananas just starting to form above the ugly purple pod.

Goose! Goose! Goose! (Hi Beth!)

I can’t remember what species of goose these are, they told us, but I forget….

This big old turtle was with the geese.

And, another look at the African Grey Crane on the island in the Ocean Tower on the north end of the resort.

The Hilton Waikoloa Village as a "Dolphin Quest" program where you can get personal with the dolphins, however it is not a cheap adventure.

(See: http://www.resqwest.com/docs/dolphinquest/hilton_webres2.asp)

It costs a minimum of $199 per person for a half hour adventure, where you actually only spend 20 minutes with the dolphins, and that 20 minutes is shared with 7 other people, or 3 other couples, if you are in a couples group. I guess that averages out to $199 for a little less than 3 minutes with a dolphin per person, or $398 for a little more than 5 minutes for a couple…. Not exactly a bargain. Marianne thinks she saw a similar program in Florida for about $75 a person….

This is the children’s program, which might be less costly, but it is still expensive…

These are some of the dolphin trainers working with the dolphins.

Two of the dolphins having fun…

More pictures of the trainers working with the dolphins