Underwater Pics

Here are a few of the pictures we took while our faces were under water.

Coral formations in Shark's Cove

Here is an eel poking his head out of his hole.

Some of the orange and blues in the fishes

Some Schools of the smaller fish

Here is one of the surgeon fish. This one is only about 12 inches long, not 3 ft like some of the parrot fish we saw.

And finally, the turtle that was following Kayleen.

You will notice that something took a chunk out of his (or her) shell

The water was incredibly clear and beautiful. It really was like swimming is a huge aquarium

Looking forward to the next trip!!

Day Five

Final Day this trip

We drove out to Hanamumu bay. I will get the spelling correct at some point. It is a national wildlife preserve, so the snorkeling was fantastic. The fish were huge and plentiful. The water is mostly calm, and the whales come way in during the winter months.

We saw a whole school of what kinda looked like sand sharks, except for the triangular body shape. The fins looked very similar to shark. The gills even liiked life gill slits rather than covered gills.

We probably swam out 1/2 mile and then back. On the way back, we saw a spotted morey eel haning out in his hole. There are supposed to be a lot of octopi and squid, but we didn't see any of those. Anyway, we spent two hours and it was AWESOME!.

This was a wonderful day, but we have to go home tomorrow. We will probably be back.

Day Four

Learning about the Property

The pictures really don't have anything to do with the comentary on this issue.

We met with the Sales guy in the morning, and he answered several questions which we had prepared.

One of the most important was concerning a new snorkeling spot, which we will try on Day five. Information to follow.

This hotel sits on an area where four (4) man-made lagoons are located.

We went to lagoons 1 and 2 in the afternoon, and found that the snorkeling was excellant. The fish were not so plentiful, but they were large and there was a huge variety. As the coral expands and the reef matures, it will be able to support a larger poplulation and the snorkeling will improve.

We went to dinner in an outdoor cafe, and the rains decended upon us. At first it was just a fine mist, but when our chicken pasta came (excellant food, by the way) it started to pour. The waiters and bus-persons were handing out towels.

A few nights ago, we were on the beach and smelled smoke. It turns out that a car was burning. The flames were about 10 feet high, and scorched the tree above it. There is now burnt oil and ash all over the side-walk there. The funny thing is, that as the smoke was at its thickest, the band began to play "Smoke gets in your eyes."

Not quite like the other days so far, but Day four has been okay.

Day Three

Polynesian Cultural Center

Woke up and went for a short walk. Our bus did not pick us up until 11:00, so we had time to go into the water, which we did.

We met the guy who showed us how to make a woven fish out of leaves, and to twirl poi balls. I did okay at the spear toss. We got on the bus with Cousin Leo, and went to the site.

We took a boat tour of the villages.

We saw the canoe pagent, which was amazing.
We visited a few villages and received amazing demonstrations of the island way of life.

Kayleen particpated in the Hula training, and also was in the Somoan Nut dance.

We ate an excellant Prime Rib dinner, although Kayleen tried one of the desserts that turned out to be discusting. We didn't find out what it was. She offered some to me, but I took a pass.

The night show - "Horizons" was truly amazing. The total energy and island emotion the dancers had was overwhelming.

We called this day three, and although it took some effort to get the video on the blog and to get it to work, we declared this to be a day full of wonderous sights, cultural perspecitves, and new understanding, and the day was pretty dog-gone good.

Day Two

Learning to Relax

We Slept in until 7:00 AM, which doesn't sound late, until one realizes that we are three hours behind Tucson. W walked North along the shore. The sun had already been up for a while, so we didn't get to see the sunrise.


We ate a light breakfast, and prepared to drive out to the North coast. We drove through a few towns that all start with W, Including Waimea, which is where the big surf wares are.
We drove to the Turtle Bay Resort and decided to snorkel there. The water was wonderful. The fish were sparse. The Coral was most amazing. We saw more species and colors in the coral than we had experienced prior. The coral pollups were also "in bloom", ready to send out new eggs or spores or whatever coral sends out.
This was beautiful spot, but the varity of sea life was limited. We drove down to Sunset beach and took a few pictures.
We drove back to Shark's cove and were AMAZED. We immediately experienced the kind of sea life we have come to expect on Maui. The fish were mature and the schools of fish were huge.
Normally the swimmers will follow a turtle around, but the turtle was following Kayleen. She started to get spooked. It wasn't as big or as old as we have seen before, but it was very large and had a banked up shell. We got weveral excellant pictures of the turtle, which we will post when they are developed. Shark's Cove gets an A+ as a spot for snorkeling. We will go back either Thursday afternoon or on Friday.

We drove back through the traffic to the hotel. We ate a very large lunch and rested. We walked south through a Hawaii rain and saw a dead eel on the rocks.

We sat outside in the cool, cloudy air, and held hands. We bought a salad to eat in the room which was just about perfect. We have called this the morning and evening of the second day, and it was an excellant day.

Day One (Revised)

Softening us up for the hard sell!

We boarded a plane at 9:30 PM and flew to Las Vegas. We had to change terminals in Vegas, and the way to change terminals was not readily apparent. We ended up in the cellar, and waited 29 minutes for a 8 minute shutle ride, and had to go through security again. Luckily, we were the only ones in line at security. We had a 2 1/2 hour layover and used a bit more than one of those hours getting to the Hawaiian Airlines gate. We originally booked the gig in September of 07, and our seats were together. But in the ensuing months, the seat assignments had been scrambled. The flight to Honolulu was on time, but we thought it might be delayed, becuase we watched the maintenance dudes open up the left side engine most completely. We flew all night, and arrived at 5:00 AM. We did get some"quality" sleep on the flight.

On another note, a little girl was sitting accross from us in the front row. She had been in a car accident, which had caused her spinal cord to swell. She was unable to walk without incredible pain. She was about 2 1/2 years old. Because of her inability to walk, the crew moved her and her nurse to the front row. Some guy got on the plane, saw that they were in his seat, wanted them to move, and would not take no for an answer. The crew finally told him he had two options. Take the seat in row 18 or wait until the next day. Taking the seat on his boarding pass was not an option.


We found the hotel and kicked around a bit, but couldn't get into our room yet. So we drove north along the west coast of the island. We found that not everything is pristene and of "tourist attraction quality."The picture is of tents where people actually live on the beach.

The video is just of some waves crashing against the shore. No big deal.


re eating lunch, and the hotel called to let us know that we could now get into our room. We unpacked and took a nap. Then went into the water for the first time. The snorkeling was not great - the reefs are immature and the hotels are trying to lure more fishes into these man-made lagoons. The water was fantastic for families and little children.

We ate dinner (this is the view we had

watched the sunset and called it the morning and evening of day one. It was pretty good.

The Tao of Pooh

Kayleen and I were in Target. I was looking at a book called "The Tao of Pooh". The wisdom of Pooh bear and his friends is amazing. I saw the wife of my counselor walk by, followed by their two daughters. I called out "Sydney!" She is the young one, in Kayleens Nursary class. Sydney hid behind her older sister. I went over and shook their hands, as I do on Sunday, and Sydney was fine with me, but kept looking fearfully at Kayleen. She wanted her mother to hold her. I tried to get Sydney to come to me, which she loves to do on Sunday. I was not wearing a white shirt or tie, but she did recognize me. Unfortantely, I was with Kayleen, and we realized that she equated Kayleen with having to spend two hours in class with a whole bunch of hooligans. She was happy to say "Bye" to Kayleen as we left. I didn't buy the book but I was intrigued.

Family comes first

Its been three weeks since I posted. Things have been hectic, but fun. I had a medical procedure on the left side of my back. The Dr. stuck a needle in the nerve and used radio frequency to burn the nerve. That sounds like a microwave. The next day we drove to Utah, up through Flagstaff and Jacobs Lake.

We spent some quality time bonding with our children and grandchildren. We visited the Zoo in Salt Lake. The Giraffe exhibit was INTERESTING

On Friday we went to Tim's graduation.

On Saturday we attended Benjamin's first birthday party.

We drove home Saturday and Sunday. (no pictures) Back at work this week, looking forward to our next journey, which will be to Hawaii in a few weeks.