We went out early in the morning (7:30) to watch the staff feed, check, work with the dolphins. Seeing dolphins up close is amazing. Eight of the twelve dolphins have been born in captivity.
The trainers check the dolphins as they work with them in the morning. Although I have mixed feelings about seeing dolphins in captivity, both trainers and dolphins are quite fond of each other.
Steve and I ventured out to get breakfast (food is outrageously expensive in the resort) and we bought snorkeling gear for less than it would cost to rent it for 4 hours at the resort. We headed up to Hapuna Beach State Park (15 min north of the resort), where we head the snorkeling was good. It’s a huge white sand beach, but has little shade, and the waves were a bit rough for snorkeling on the rocks on both sides of the beach. We found a group of rocks in the middle, and even though the sand was churned up by the waves, we saw quite a few fish and a turtle munching on coral. Next, we tried Anaeho’omalu Bay (5 min from the resort) for snorkeling, but the water was even more turbid than at the first beach. There were fish, but visibility was only a couple of feet, and twice I came head on to large turtles (something of a shock). Our last attempt was in the lagoon at the resort, but again no luck. The bay has ancient Hawaiian fish ponds, used by rulers to keep fish for when they traveled the coast by canoe. 
The beach also has quite a few cats (cared for by volunteers), and surprisingly, we saw several weasels, which were introduced to the islands in the 1890s to control the rats (pests to the newly popular sugar cane crops). Unfortunately, rats are nocturnal and weasels are not, so they did nothing to the rat population but decimated the native birds.
That afternoon, we went out on a whale watching tour with Hawaiian Nautical. They picked us up at the hotel and drove us back to Anaeho’omalu Bay. There were only 5 of us but they took us out in a 54 catamaran because it was rough, and we would have gotten wet in the smaller zodiac. We felt like we had a private cruise (that included drinks). The captain, Josh, and his crew were informative about the humpback whales that are moving down from Maui at this time of year, at the end of their several month migration from Alaska.
We were extremely fortunate to have six or seven sightings of two whales (more than likely mother and baby). We saw their spouts, their backs rolling, and their flukes when they dove. When we were heading back in, we were treated to a grand finale of male whales breaching farther out. Amazing to see 40 ton animals rising straight up out of the water. It was too far away to get pictures, but luckily, we had binoculars and could get a closer look. The whales are tiny in the video, but it was thrilling to see so many sightings of these huge animals.
The Hilton Waikoloa Village is the most beautiful resort we have ever stayed in. The art collection (over 1800 pieces) is museum quality and lines the walkways between the buildings.
Quite a collection.