Day of Snorkeling

Friday was our big snorkeling day. It was beautiful and clear. We snorkeled north of Black Rocks and that turned out to be our favorite place of the day. The the water was clear and the fish were so beautiful and colorful. We even followed a sea turtle for a while. We have no pictures because our camera is not for underwater. When I suggested buying a cheap disposable one the day before at Walmart, Curt nixed the idea. When he saw the fish, he wished he'd not had a Scrooge attack the day before. Oh well, it might not have worked well anyway.

We also drove to Nakalele Blowhole...

I Heart Maui.

...which wasn't doing much at the moment. The tide was too low, but the surrounding scenery was pretty.

We also swam and snorkeled at Kapalua Beach and Napili Beach. A huge sea turtle was feeding just off the shore. It was fun to snorkel around it and see it up close. We ended the day in Lahaina at the Lahaina Grill. Oh, so delicious! We only thought to take a picture of the dessert, but it was the best part anyway!

Goin' to Maui

After one last farewell to the Hawaiian Temple, we headed to the airport to fly to Maui.

We also had time to stop at beautiful Pali Lookout. This is where I really learned to appreciate the clouds in Hawaii. No matter where we were on the islands, the clouds were always spectacular.

Curt thoroughly enjoyed the flight to Maui. He was snapping pictures and enjoying the view. Before we took off, I briefly thought about taking a motion sickness pill. However, it's only a half hour flight, I've been on small planes before and been fine, and the day was clear. And I could get a Coke on the plane--always good for motion-sickness. No problem, right? WRONG! While Curt was happily enjoying the scenery I progressively got sicker and sicker. The first half was fine, but towards the end, right before the landing, I was gripping the sides of my seat with cold clammy hands and telling myself that I COULD hold on for only 15 more minutes and I WOULD NOT be tossing my cookies on this plane no matter what. As for the Coke? They only offered juice and water. Juice sounded gross and water was barely acceptable. 

Honolulu - Waikiki Beach

SE Oahu

Leaving Oahu

Molokai Island

I sensed Curt looking over at me to point out some interesting bit of scenery, seeing my pale sickly face, thinking better of it, and turning away. Once the plane landed, I staggered out in search of a diet Coke. I was in a half daze and barely noticed that Curt wasn't even with me. I waited for him and he made the comment that at least we wouldn't be wasting our money on any expensive helicopter rides because obviously I wouldn't like it. True. Motion sickness as a cost saving measure. Who knew?

South Maui - Hwy to Lahaina
Note from Curt: On the flight over it was interesting to note the dry almost desert-like conditions on the south side of the islands while the north sides were always green, lush and tropical. 
Note from Sydna: I didn't care.

I kept staggering in search of Coke. We briefly paused at Burger King only to discover the lines were on island time. After 10 minutes of sitting while Curt waited in a nonmoving line, we decided to continue on to baggage claim where my bag quickly appeared. In the far corner of baggage claim was a bright red machine. Success! At $3 a bottle it was the first machine I'd seen that takes credit cards. (Best $3 I ever spent!) After a few gulps of liquid life, I noticed that Curt was still at baggage claim looking increasingly frustrated.

Now you should know that we almost never check our bags; we always try to travel carry-on. First and foremost, because we believe that a vacation spent lugging around 50-70 pounds of belongings is not a vacation, but work. We prefer to travel light and carefree. Secondly, Curt has always believed that any luggage he checks will immediately be lost. That prediction was apparently coming true at this point. The island hopper plane was small enough that even our normal carry-on baggage had to be checked. But seriously, all they had to do was get it on the plane for a 30 minute flight. From the point we checked in the bags to where the plane was parked was only a matter of several hundred yards. Not difficult you'd think. 

After watching the empty carousel go around and hoping Curt's bag would somehow appear, we left to find an employee. We met a couple from England on a 3 week honeymoon in the United States who where also missing their bags--all 3 of them. Since Curt's bag only had our shoes and snorkeling gear, we weren't in too bad of shape. I felt worse for the other couple. About this time, Curt informed me that he had put most of our cash into the missing bag and forgot to take it out before checking it in. Great, this trip was about to get even more expensive than planned. We were told that maybe our bags were on the next flight, so we hung out to wait and passed the time using our phones to search for the nearest Walmart where we could find some cheap replacement shoes. I didn't have much hope of seeing our belongings and especially the cash again. But good news! The next flight came in, our bag (and the English couple's bags) were on board, the cash was there, and life was good again!

We stayed at the Plantation Inn in the quaint town of Lahaina. The Plantation was our own little piece of paradise. Nothing too fancy, but clean and air-conditioned. I thought we might miss not being on the beach, but we loved it and would stay here again if we ever go back. I could live here.

The porch looked over the beautiful pool. We thought we'd never use the pool. Isn't the point of going to Hawaii to swim in the ocean and sit on the beach? Who needs a pool? Turns out it was one of the best parts of the bed and breakfast. The water was the perfect temperature and it was never crowded. All of the rooms fit only two people, so no loud family pool parties. After swimming in salt water a little fresh water was, well, refreshing!

Relaxing Pool - 12 ft deep

Kaanapali Beach - Maui

Kaanapali Beach

Maui Sunset

Maui Beach

Everyday in Hawaii ends in beautiful sunsets. At least every day we were there. What's not to love?!

Snorkeling and Polynesian Cultural Center

Our 2nd morning in Hawaii found us trying snorkeling for the first time at beautiful Turtle Bay. We had originally planned to go to a place called Sharks Cove, but my friend suggested we try an easier place just a few blocks from her condo. It was a good choice especially since I have NEVER swam in the ocean before and was happy for a nice calm sheltered beach.  This was a beautiful beach with nice sand and beautiful fish. These are the only pictures I have of us snorkeling since we were warned not to leave a camera or phone unattended at the beach because they are likely to be stolen. My friend Alison took pictures and then took the camera back to her place.

After a slight problem with my snorkel, (Are you supposed to suck in salt water? I think not.) we figured it out and had a fun time looking at fish.

For lunch we stopped at a place called Kahuku Farms whose specialty was fresh foods that they grew themselves. Eggplant sandwich? Sounds different. Tastes delicious! But by far the best discovery was...

the apple banana! So named because the fruit is slightly more firm with a sweeter taste. The apple banana ice cream was the best ice cream ever! So good that we got another one to go. Apple bananas aren't sold on the mainland (so I was told) because of their shorter shelf life. I still need to search and find out for myself because these little bananas are so good!

Of course we had to stop and pay homage to BYU Hawaii.

Almost across the street from BYU was this lovely lookout.

The arch in the rock was created by a tsunami.

The Polynesian Cultural Center is the LDS church's version of Disneyland. Since employment here allows students to earn money for tuition at BYU, most of the performers are clean-cut students from the islands. I had been here 25 years ago on vacation with a friend's family. It was fun then, but the place has vastly improved. The shows are well done. The performers are entertaining and the atmosphere is like one giant tiki hut. A new IMAX movie theater had just opened and a short movie (complete with puffs of wind, and moving chairs) gave an overview of Hawaii's beautiful scenery. The canoe pageant was fun to watch, but I have never been so hot in my life as standing in the shade watching that show. I really just wanted to jump into the water. I can't imagine how the performers felt dancing in the full sun. But they all had smiles on their faces.

All of the different islands had their own show highlighting their culture. The Samoan show was one of the most entertaining and it was fun to see this man climb the coconut tree. This was the first show we watched after the canoe parade and when the students brought out beautiful dripping dishes of freezing ice cream, we couldn't resist. They have the marketing aspect down. We made sure to do our part to help those students with their tuition!

This little piggy was dinner. Except she (note the flower) showed up during the luau after we already had pork on our plates, so maybe they cook one and serve it the next day?

One of the best parts of the PCC was the amazing show at the end. The dancers were wonderful and the  fire dancers were beyond incredible. The fire dancing alone was worth the cost of admission.