Swimming with the fishes-- Waikiki again, but the true on this time

The spouse and I decided to spend Thanksgiving in Hawaii. Probably the best decision I've made in a long time.  This was the view from our hotel room balcony:

That's the Waikiki harbor, with an excellent perspective for sunsets, though I think we watched all of them from the beaches.

As the swimmer that I am, the highlight of the trip was swimming with the fishes!!  Hamama State Park has a nature preserve in it with amazing coral reefs.  You take a bus out to the park, pay the $7.50 entry, watch a 9 min video on safety for you and the reefs, and then walk down a hill with this view.

And this one:

You can see the shape of the reef from above.

Blue water is sand.  The reef is the darker area. It was great to see this view of the reef, because it was a map of what I would swim through, and really helped me get my orientation.

I own snorkel gear. In part this is because I want my prescription goggles. And in part because using a snorkel that has been in someone else's mouth is ick. 

I was one of the few with a swim cap on. Combine that with the Yellow rash/sun guard, and my orange buoy and I was easy to spot while swimming!

But what really mattered was what I was spotting.

The highlight was the sea turtles.  Day one I had a turtle almost to myself for 20 min.

We had a good long conversation about turtle-y things.

But the second day, the turtle had paparazzi.

This made me sad. Although, technically, the guy was within the rules-- he was not touching the turtle-- he was awfully close. The turtle was swimming away from him. Unlike the one I'd made friends with the previous day, who was happy to eat and talk to me.

I easily spent two hours in the water each day.  When the wind would pick up, the conditions would get worse, and I'd get out for a while and hang out on the beach. It was such a pretty place, easy to spend a day.

Another highlight of the trip was the drive to the North Shore, where we watched surfers at the Bonsi Pipeline. 

And met some beach chickens.

And I drove a VW Bug Convertible.  Wow I had a hard time giving that car back.

After so much sun, and 70* ocean water, the return to Alki will be hard!

Is gear the answer?

I wore sandals for last night's swim. The beach I enter on is rocky and I HATE walking across the rocks. I find it very hard, at the end of the swim, to establish balance on the rocks and it hurts my feet getting out.

So I wore my water sandals (they are like Tevas, but a brand I picked up in Israel years ago called "Lizard"). When I would do the crawl, they acted like little flippers, boosting my kick. When I would breast stroke, they would create drag. Slowing me down.

RJ suggested I get the Vibram 5-fingers shoes. She has a pair, and loves them, not just for swimming. I've been wanting a pair, but am unsure about the $100 price tag.

So the question now is, is this a good excuse to get shoes I've been wanting. Or is this another case of just throwing money at the problem. Should I move up one park north, and get a more sandy water entrance, driving 5 min further to swim, but saving $100 in shoes. Should I learn to just suck it up and do the rocky entrance? Is gear the answer?