More Hawaii Aloha time

Aug 7                                                                                                              day 6

Today we took the kids over to  Ali’I Kahekili beach park in Kaanapali for a dive/snorkel.  It was a little windy but that didn’t stop us from diving and snorkeling.  Dan took Laura out for about a 40 minute dive over the reef.  The main excitement of the dive was puffer fish and the coral.  Alex and Emily snorkeled for quite a while over reef, and for a few minutes over the divers to snap our pictures.  Alex and Emily saw a turtle on their snorkel.

After the snorkel we went back to the unit and had a leisurely afternoon in Lahaina, topped off by some smoothies at Jamba Juice.

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August 8^th                                                                                                      day 7

We headed out mid morning to go down to a southern beach, Palauea.  When clear it can have some great snorkeling and makes for a nice shallow dive for Laura.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that clear that day.  Laura and Dan dove for about 30 minutes and when you were down at 20 feet of depth it wasn’t too bad visibility but not great.   Laura and Dan saw some eels on the dive.  Unfortunately for the snorkelers, the visibility up top  never really improved.  After getting out, Emily and Alex saw some turtles from shore.

We had lunch on the beach and the girls and Dan played in the waves and water the whole afternoon, so it made for a great beach day.  Laura announced it a super duper fun day! 

August 9^th                                                                                                      day 8

Today we got up to go to Kapalua for an early morning snorkel.  However, when we got there it was misting and already the parking was crazy.  Since it was raining we decided to go back to Canoe beach, just north of Lahaina.  Almost as soon as we hit the water we started seeing turtles.  We know we saw at least 7 distinct turtles, possibly as many as 9 turtles on that snorkel.  In addition to the turtles, there was an amazing coral field with a lot of fish swimming along it.

In the afternoon we simply hung at the pool and swam.  That evening we tried a night time dive and snorkel at Black Rock.  It was not an overwhelming success.  Alex was freaked out because  she was concerned the waves were going to push her into the rocks, even though in reality she was way above and away from rocks.  The diving wasn’t a great success either.  Between the flag, Laura not being able to stay down (the big tank made her float) and trying to maneuver four divers around black rock at night it just  didn’t work very well.

August 10^th                                                                                                    day 9

Shark from a distance (click to see full size)

Manta Ray from a distance (click to see full size)

Today was the big Molikini Back Wall dive for Dan.  It was spectacular.  One of the best dives I have ever done.  The water is crystal clear and beautiful blue color.  On most of the dive if you look behind you or down all you see is the blue of the deep blue ocean as the bottom of the ocean is 400 feet below you (if you get to the bottom you are dead).   Being in the deep ocean like that allows for seeing some deep see creatures, such as the two Gray Reef sharks and one Deep Sea (vs. reef) Manta Ray.  The wall itself was also spectacular with tons of fish, eels, and all sorts of marine life.

The other three just lounged around all day at the unit and the pool all day.  We went to dinner at Old Pioneer Inn where they had wonderful live music and really yummy food.