Day 3. Today was certainly a good day

This is going to take me forever to upload. But you're all worth it. :-) This day goes down as a
good day pretty much from start to finish. The pic below is what I woke up to. Not a bad start. 

After a little breakfast we headed to Honolua. Our first time back in 11 years. I don't remember the the muddy bottom going as far out as it does but it's all good. We still saw lots of activity on our way out to the nicer coral. Trilogy had beat us there so it was a little crowded but not horribly so. Vis was okay. We did a little reef clean up. Karen found a 2011 quarter turning green and I found a huge hair clip and a very expensive puka shell necklace. Best part was I found four fish I had not seen or photographed yet. A Bigeye Emperor, Flowery Flounder, Agile Chromis and Hawaiian Hogfish. Also another great day for Moray's. Yellowmargined, Whitemouthed and Stout oh my! Still no Snowflake's though. :-(  

And I would like to thank the ding dong boat tour person who decided to swim over someone free diving. The pic didn't come out but I got a nice coral rash on a couple of knuckles.

On with the rest of the day. We came back to the condo for some lunch. Costco BBQ chicken on Hawaiian sweet bread. Yummmm! Anyway we were sitting on the lanai and Karen said she thought she saw whales spouts then decided it was just splashes from the outer reef. I started watching these but they were a ways off but some of them were moving not waves hitting rocks. A minute later out shoots a beautiful grey torpedo. Spinner dolphins! and right in front of our condo. There was a bunch of them. You could see them corralling fish and of course spinning. It was so awesome.

After lunch we headed back over to Kahekili (Airport) Beach. Great way to spend the afternoon. Lots more moray's even one toothy little guy. Was also able to get some decent macro shots on a few fish that let me get close enough. Also all of these photos are right out of the camera untouched. 

All in all it was pretty great day. Finished it off with dinner at Maui Brewing Co. Wasn't bad but not worth the price in our book. Karen said her burger at Moose's was a lot better. I'm so tired I can't see straight. Karen went to bed over an hour ago. Not sure if we will snorkel tomorrow or not. We'll see. There is some tide pools on the north side we want to see. Plus you never know where the car will take you. 

Kapalua Bay

Well today was a kind of lazy day. We headed out early to Kapalua Bay. Parking there at 8:00 is sweet. Had our pick of the shady spots. And except for a couple of swimmers we were the first snorkelers in the water. We were surprised at how cloudy it was. Must of had some chop over night. The water in front of our condo was that way also that way. I think it way have been better to wait this time. By the time we got back the water was clear in front of the condo. Go figure. The rest of the day was pretty kick back. Got cleaned up and headed to Lahaina. Found a bunch of stuff we didn't even know we had to have. LOL Hit the Cold Stone Creamery for some ice cream since it's just a little warm here right now. Got a bunch of stuff for everyone back home. Finished off with dinner at Moose's. We were going to go to the Hard Rock but Moose's won out. Well enough babble on with the fishy pics. Nothing spectacular mostly the regulars but I was really trying to get down and shoot up or level with the fish. The only problem with that is many times they don't seem to like big things swimming up over a coral head at them. A lot of the time their long gone when I get there. Did see a pretty cool starfish today that we've never seen before. Oh and by the way, never believe that "battery full" icon on your camera. Karen's died about half through our snorkel and mine about 20 minutes later. I forgot to change them when I downloaded the pics and didn't want to open the camera again. At least we didn't miss anything awesome.

This last pic is sort of a "Where's Waldo" thing. Actually it's more of a "Who's Waldo". It's not a great pic but someone named Rena I bet can figure it out. I think she has a special connection with these creatures.

A day of lots of ups and one down

This is what we woke up to this morning. I wish the picture really caught the colors. A couple turtles poked their heads up as swam by having breakfast.

Next it was off to Whalers Village for the Blue`aina beach clean up and reef clean up. When we got there there was only a couple people there and we set out down the beach both directions. I can't tell you how many cigarette butts I picked up. Not to mention straws, bottle caps and bunch of other things some even unmentionables in the sand and foliage. It was an interesting study in human behavior watching the reactions of others while cleaning. One beach girl was watching me from her rental booth and said, "Oh are you cleaning up the beach? (Big bag of DUH!) She did bend down and grab a cigarette butt and put it in my bag. Then a Beach boy from the Westin came over to grab a couple of lounges when I was cleaning behind them and he saw I had a couple pieces of aluminum tubing from broken lounges that were just thrown into plants. He got a frown on his face and said, "Sorry brah". With any luck that may not happen anymore at least with him. The other interesting thing was we were the only mainlanders on the boat and when we got back from the beach clean up the boat was full and many were multiple return guests. Where were they for the clean up? Things that make you go Hummmmm? They managed to get into the group picture with the garbage when I was still out cleaning. $25 snorkel cruise and a lunch made by Hula Grill.

We went to Mala wharf for the clean up. Karen and I started working our way towards the beach into the shallower water but the vis dropped to zilch and we got out of there. It was weird too that the cloudy area was probably 5+ degrees warmer and you could feel instantly. The only glitch in the whole day was I had given Karen my camera since she can't dive too deep and somewhere my wide angle lens fell off my camera with the adapter. $140 gone. Can't let it ruin the trip but the fish pics won't be as good as I like and no over/under shots I really wanted to take. :-(

I ended up bring up several pieces of fishing line, one with a lure still on it, a beer bottle and a large sheet of some kind of synthetic fabric floating under the wharf. I also grabbed a piece metal from this gal that weighed about 25lbs. I have no idea how she got it all the way she did. She wasn't as big as a minute but she was not going to drop it. But she wasn't going to make it to the boat either. The piece was big enough to take me under unless I kept kicking up as I went back to the boat with it. She was a trooper all right. My wife said she was breathing pretty hard after I took it from her and I can believe it.

The charity this trip was for was a canoe society, I can't remember the Hawaiian name, but they are building an ocean going canoe the sail around the world in 2014 and navigate like the Polynesians did when they came to Hawai`i. The gentleman in the red shirt on the bow in that one shot, Uncle Kimokeo, was from there and told us about it. Quite an amazing group who's main push is to get the keiki's and all Hawaiian's back in touch with their heritage as well as the land and the sea. It was very moving the talk he put on as well as the Hawaiian chants he did.

Then we headed to Kahekili around 1:00 and said hello to some friends. There was some chop so the water wasn't super clear. There wasn't a whole bunch of activity but it was still great. We saw the turtles two of which I would say easily weighed 300+ lbs. They were BIG! That one resting under the ledge, her head was literally the size of a honeydew melon. Saw lots or the regulars. That eel was very photogenic, ie: he put up with me diving down and taking his picture and didn't come out and give me an eel kiss. That pic was from less than a foot away on macro. The nice part of the snorkel I didn't see anyone I needed to educate on reef etiquette. Not sure where the car will take us tomorrow but I will be sure to share.

 Now this the way to end a great day. Didn't see the green flash but oh well. Aloha until tomorrow.

Well we are finally on Maui!!!! It's been a long day but so worth it. Started out in Portland getting on one of Hawaiian's new A330. Pretty nice plane. Didn't run out of carry-on room.

When we got to Honolulu we were expecting a five hour layover but they had an issue with a later flight so they were letting people from later flights go early for free. Only thing was was that our snorkel gear would still be coming on our regular flight. But it worked great. We went and got our car and some lunch and still had time to do some shopping at the mall, Wally World and Costco.

Once we got the bag we headed to the Kaleialoha in Honokowai. The room was quite warm but beautiful. They had the lights and TV on for us and a fresh pineapple and a box of Mauna Loa chocolates on the counter. And the best part is we had a gecko great us on our front door. The wife already named him Charlie.

The shot above is the awesome view that greeted us from our lanai. The moon is down now and the sky is full of stars. waves slapping below and the trades are still blowing a little. It sounds like the trades may have not been blowing and came back today. hopefully it will cool it down some tomorrow. For now the AC is on.

2 days away

Well the clothes are packed. Karen got her new carry-on in Relay For Life purple. Gonna be able to find that one easily. Got the waterproof cameras packed and ready to go. Karen still has to pack the "Flower" camera (DSLR) but SHE doesn't have to go into work tomorrow. Last night I got the tickets for a snorkel trip with Trilogy for their Blue`aina trip on Sunday. Time to give back to the islands and do some beach and reef clean up. 

Tomorrow afternoon we're outta here. One stop in Albany to have dinner with Justin then to Portland and see if we can sleep before we fly out Saturday morning. If all is on schedule we should be winging our way to the warmer part of the Pacific. Can almost smell the salt air and plumerias already.