I’m officially a day behind…lots of great photos and stories from today. But dive day two has some absolutely fantastic photos from it.
I’ve learned that when I import photos to my tablet, that the time on them is set to the import time, which serves to completely mess with the order of them. And the tablet has no facility to re-order, and I can’t brain enough (particularly after some amount of rum…) to order them manually.
I figured out why my keyboard wasn’t working last night, so we’re back in action! This keyboard is so awesome, I can’t type a blog post on the on-screen one anymore.
The first photo from yesterday needs some explanation. (perhaps they all do). I was trying to take a photo of some fish floating around, when suddenly a dark shape appeared overtop of me. I pulled the camera away from my face to see that it was Sean…photobombing my scuba photo. >.> Hilarious!
Today the diving was much better. More fish, more photos, more fun, less cold, less rain (none). I’m a little disappointed that I was unable to get a photo of a whale underwater…but that was a pipedream of a photo opportunity anyway, so it’ll be ok. I have a ton of awesome photos to post from today! Later…
Diving again at 6am. Then we gathered our things and drove to the top rated restaurant (Trip Advisor) on Kihei – a food truck called the Kinaole Grill. We grabbed some garlic shrimp scampi, coconut shrimp and panko mahi mahi (all with rice and pasta salad) and drove to a beach called Makena Landing. Lots of waves. We ate lunch and then went snorkeling with Sean while the ladies sunned and read and stuff on the beach. I’d say this was the first time that snorkeling showed me how it could be lots of fun – found a great little wall that we swam beside with tons of life and caves to dive and explore and lots of little fish (I love the little fishies).
We were there for a few hours and then drove back into town for more shave ice (actually…I didn’t blog about yesterday – we went shopping in Lahaina, and got shave ice). Shave ice is delicious. But you almost certainly have to have ice cream in the bottom. It’s like…ice cream and ice with a ton of syrup on it.
Came back, looked through some photos and now out for dinner and then more gaming and drinking. No diving tomorrow, so it could be a later night. A lot of options for tomorrow’s fun – we’ll see what happens!
(photos to follow tomorrow)
My keyboard has inexplicably stopped working and I don’t like typing a lot on the standard one…so here is a lot of diving photos with little explanation.
Diving at Molokini and a nearby WW2 wrecked tank and amphibious vehicle. The new camera is tons of fun, and the wreck was pretty bad ass, but over all the dives weren’t as awesome as we had hoped. Maybe we’re just being fussy.
We started the day early again, and with pancakes. Our friends Sean and Kerry arrived last night and we had surf lessons early in the morning so I made pancakes for the group of us before our lesson. Surfing was good, totally want to go back. Our instructor was not great, a guy from Big Kahuna in Kihei. He was pretty gruff, and a little quiet. He cracked a couple jokes while on land, and gave good instruction there, but when we got into the water, his best instruction was “paddle!!” Which was ok, since I think a big part of the sport is knowing when to take a wave and when not to. But there was another instructor nearby who was giving regular instruction, so I had something to compare him against, and unfavorably. No photos today, unfortunately. After surfing we went to a great little restaurant called Three’s Bar and Grill. Tasty burger and tastier friends with a tasty lava flow. That’s a pina colada with strawberries in it. 😀 I’ve decided not to foodblog this time, because after eating here a bit, the food is primarily US food, with a few exceptions. The nice part – this saves me from having to deal with photos of food. 😛 After lunch we went to Costco – apparently S&K have a thing for international Costcos and after a morning of surf workout, this was ok by me. I bought a rolling duffel bag…because getting my scuba duffel to the airport last Friday was back breaking work. I almost bought a new bag on Friday, but couldn’t find the time for it. Glad I didn’t – great Costco deal on a new bag. Now it’s about 5:30, and we’re planning to bake a pizza and eat a bbq chicken, play some board games and drink some rum. Followed by diving early in the morning, so hopefully I’ll have some more awesome underwater photos for tomorrow!
After the unfortunate phone incident, we drove off to find rice.
…
Anyway. That afternoon we’d planned to do flying trapeze in Lahaina. Those of you in the know, will know that we did this in Seattle a few months ago. They don’t offer flying trapeze in Vancouver, for whatever reason. Miranda had done it before in San Fransisco and I was keen, so off we went for a weekend. When we came back, she got their email flyer and found that they had just opened a site in Maui…which we had just booked our flights to. So obviously that had to happen. Emerald City Trapeze is the name – look it up and go there, they are great people.
Trapeze was pretty sweet. I moved up to the next trick, as did Miranda. Unfortunately, her arms gave out before she could get hers. But I got mine! I was so stoked. Videos to follow in a few weeks. 🙂
After trapeze we had an hour and a bit before dinner so we headed back to the beach from yesterday. Got some great photos (which you’ll have seen). Hoping to get some more when I go diving in a few days. And more colours!
Dinner was a luau at the Old Lahaina Luau. It was good. And expensive. But an open bar, all you can eat buffet, some neat crafts and historical things going on before, the hula dance thing after dinner, I’d say go. I bought a suitably Hawaiian shirt before hand. I’ll never get to wear it again, but it’s pretty sweet.
Came home and Sean and Kerry were here shortly after. Sean came down to hang out, and then…photos! Surf lesson early tomorrow! 🙂
We started the day with pancakes and sitting on the lanai watching the waves and the cars go by. Our plans didn’t start until 12:15 and we were awake at 7 again, so had lots of time to hang out. We went out to the beach near our condo. Miranda setup on the beach and I took my new-to-me scuba camera out for a test run.
Good news – the camera works pretty sweet!
Bad news – I went swimming with my phone…it’s in a bag of rice right now, trying to suck the water out of it.
Later that afternoon we went snorkeling again (sans phone) and took some more photos. Still working out how to get good shots. And my comment afterwards – “snorkel photography is a MANS sport…”. You have to hold your breath, dive and setup a good shot within seconds…if you don’t get the shot you wanted…take a chance and try again, or listen to your lungs cry out in anger for oxygen…
First day was gooooood. We woke up early…7 am Canada time. Went for a walk to go pick up our lovely vehicle, which I’ve been driving most of the day. Went back to the condo and packed up for our day. The plan – to drive around the western top of the island.
We got on the highway and minutes later saw a lighthouse that looked neat so we stopped. Scrambled across some rocks to check out the waves breaking against the rocky cliff edge. Miranda is looking out across the water and sees a whale off in the distance. I try to get some photos, but it’s too far away.
We drive west a bit and find a fantastic restaurant. Aloha Mixed Plate. Highly recommended. At lunch, Miranda pulls out the guidebook and funds a whale watching tour, and after lunch I call and make a reservation. Tour starts at 2 pm. We decide to go snorkeling in the meantime, and our afternoon is booked.
We found a beach 20 minutes north of Lahaina and got in the water! It was a “resort” resort, and I felt a little weird walking by the carefully manicured lawn and old people with all their beach umbrellas. While swimming around, I saw my (first) turtle! Mission accomplished…we can go home now. I mis-configured my underwater camera though, so didn’t get any photos here. (didn’t take it underwater thankfully!!).
Headed back to the Pacific Whale Foundation for our whale tour.
We both got to much sun on the boat and were pretty tired. Went to a mall to figure out Miranda’s mobile data, grabbed some dinner and some groceries and went back to the condo. Played a game of Agricola, played with some photos and went to bed around 10:30pm, local time.
Later!
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Breakfast on the lanai. The water is facing us, but the camera phone under exposes the bush-wall and over exposes the water from where I’m sitting.
Get up? I don’t think you understand…
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I have half a post written already, but I wanted some photos to go with it and it took me a chunk of the night to figure out how to get photos from my camera onto the Kindle and then displayed and edited there. So instead of a brilliantly worded (wordy) post with glorious photos in it, you just get this.
I’m so sorry. 😛 Later!
We picked up our ride for the weekend. Holes in the floor, no floor rug things and impossible to close as the back is a wide open jeep back. Also, wicked acceleration and slow brakes.
Drove to Lahaina this morning, doing a circumnavigation thing.
I’m thinking of food blogging, so hopefully I’ll have some good stories later tonight.
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