Aloha from Maui Day 7 - Maui Ocean Center and beach time

Our last full day in Maui. We had a change of plans after Michael hurt his shoulder. We had planned this morning surf lessons but we had to trade them in for something comparable in price and so we went to the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium instead.

We saw sharks. Better in here than while we were snorkeling.

Michael is holding a different kind of star fish. It looks like a star when it's young but it grows up to look like a fluffy pillow thing. This is the bottom of the star fish.

A sting ray swimming right over us.

Larry taking in the sites of the fishes and things inside the tunnel.

I thought it was a cool picture with his reflection looking at the fishes too.

The last day here we just had to spend it at the beach. We rented a couple of boogie boards and off we went to the beach in front of the resort. The waves were smaller there today.  Michael is teaching Emily how to boogie board. She was a quick learner.

Larry and Michael riding up to shore giving the hang loose sign which is common here.

Michael, Emily and Larry coming in on a wave, 2 with boards and 1 without.

The sun was setting on our last evening there and we all wanted to get the last bit of the warmth of the sun before we went in for the night.

Emily and Michael watching the sun being put out by the ocean.

The week went fast and it's time to go home. Home is good too. Home is where your heart is.

I'm already looking forward to the next vacation. Hmm where should we go?





Aloha from Maui Day 6- Helicopter ride and golf

I did something today I thought I'd never do. I rode in a helicopter! After our drive on the road to Hana. Larry decided that the best way to see the Island was by helicopter. So Larry booked him and I tickets to fly. We flew the West Maui/Molokai flight with Air Maui who has never had an accident which was important to me by the way. I'm going to share a bunch of pictures I took without a lot of commentary. If you want commentary come on over and you can watch an hour long dvd of our flight, complete with the pilot narrating everything we saw.

Take off.

The North Coast of Molokai are the highest sea cliffs in the world that rise thousands of feet above the Pacific. We were also told that the Island cracked right here and split and then fell into the ocean so the other 1/2 of the island is in the Pacific Ocean.

This piece of land is where the lepers live. Their used to be a lot but now their are about 19. As long as their are lepers this land will be theirs.

I know it's hard to tell but this is a momma whale and her baby. The pilot kept spinning the helicopter so we could all see them and get pictures but I was starting to get motion sick and didn't want to throw up on everyone so I quickly snapped a picture and closed my eyes. He kept turning and then asked if I got the picture. I told him I did cuz after spinning I didn't care if the picture turned out or not.

This is the city of Lahaina from the air.

All done! I didn't get sick and embarrass myself and I actually enjoyed the flight. I'd do it again.

It's common to see chickens running all over the place. This one was on the road as we were leaving the airport.

Good time now to go back to our condo rest awhile and get ready for golfing at Pukalani golf course. It was the cheapest on the Island. We had to rent clubs and I'll tell you up front that I hated the clubs I got. I played awful.

 If you look close you can see the ball in mid flight that Larry hit.

Michael, Emily looking on and Larry.

Yep, I was there too.

Having fun yet?

We only have one more day on the Island. We are thinking at this point to bad we have to go back home already. We could use a couple of more days or 3 or 4 or...

Aloha from Maui Day 5 - Big Beach

Day 5 was a pretty relaxed day. We needed one of those we've been pretty busy. We went to Big Beach after church. Emily and I sat on the beach and read scriptures and a book,. The boys on the other hand decided to play in the waves a bit before they took avantage of sitting on the beach.

When we arrived at Big Beach the life guard announces over the intercom that the waves are breaking close to shore and they are dangerous and if you are new to body surfing you should stay out of the water because lots of spines and necks get broken. So what do Larry and Michael do? They proceed to get into the water. They figured they were not beginners since they've boogie boarded and body surfed on the Oregon coast. Which I'm sure helped them here but still...

Larry decided to use my sarong to cover his head from getting burned.

It's all fun and games until..

some one gets hurt.

Michael's shoulder got separated with this wave. He got out of the water after this wave hit him. Larry's neck got stiff too. While we were sitting in the Maui airport waiting to board our plane Larry told me that when he was playing football for the college he attended that their were Hawaiians on the team that told him he should never body surf in Hawaii because neck's get broken. So Michael's separated shoulder is a good injury if you were going to get injured.

The rest of the day was spent reading and playing board games and resting someones arm.

Aloha from Maui Day 4- Snorkeling and Luau

You should not go to Hawaii without snorkeling. To swim with colorful fish and turtles is pretty fun in my book. We snorkeled and swam with the fish by  Molokini. It's a sunken crater that is now a marine sanctuary.

You have to take a boat to get there. It's 3 miles off the coast of Maui.

I rented a wet suit so I wouldn't get cold and I could stay in the water longer. Plus we decided to buy the DVD of us snorkeling and I didn't want to wear my swim suit in the DVD.

We snorkeled right inside the u shape of the crater.

On the way to the island and back the whales were giving us a show. Here is a picture of a hump back whale breaching.

After snorkeling with the fish the boat took us to a different spot and we got to snorkel with big sea turtles at Turtle Town. Larry was diving down deep by the caves under the water and a turtle came out of the cave and came nose to nose with Larry. It's a $10,000 fine to touch a turtle but not if the turtle touches you as happened in my case. I was swimming around looking at this one turtle and I kept hearing people say there is one right there but I couldn't see it. All I could tell is that people where getting pretty close to me and hitting me on the back. Too bad the turtles aren't fined for touching humans because come to find out it was a turtle that was trying to get my attention.

Later in the day we went to the Te Au Moana Luau. Good food and good entertainment to finish out the day.

We watched someone split a coconut and then show us the different uses of the coconut.

The roasted pig in the pit is a luau tradition. It was smokey good.

Before dinner the 4 of us took some time to take some pictures in front of the sun setting.

Larry and Linda

Michael and Emily

Time to eat.

Show time.

Michael wanted to see a fire dancer in the luau we chose to go too.