Blogs from Kihei, Hawaii, United States, North America

The morning started nice as Tory made eggs and toast for everyone and we relaxed in the room for the first morning without having to run out somewhere. We had made friends with a couple from Chicago and their kids and they saved us a chair at the Nanea pool so we headed over there to play. The kids brought our inner tubes and used them to fly down the mini-slide as Steve pushed them faster, spun them around, and sent them down backward. Vivian did not like being pushed on her little purple tube because it went too fast but she had plenty of fun pushing daddy down the slide backward and then sliding after him so he could catch her at the bottom. The kids we were meeting with were more interested in playing ... read more

Diving Maui - world class diving! I was diving there between Dec 19-21 2012. It was really wonderful diving. Molokini was one of the greatest places to dive there. Absolutely amazing. Look at this amazing video: Barracuda at a cleaning station this is how it looks when one of the big, bad guys shows up at a cleaning station. A large barracuda, something like 5-6 ft long getting cleaned at Molokini by some small Hawaiian cleaner wrasses. Great situation and something which is very rare. This is a short video with some sea turtles getting cleaned at a cleaning station near the Kihei Coast... Have you ever seen baby sharks? These little sharks are hiding in a cave at "Reefs End", another fantastic divesite at Molokini. They are just babies, little more than 2-3 ft long. ... read more

Snorkelling We were up at 6:45 and headed down to the Kihei boat ramp for a morning of snorkelling. We were on the boat and headed out for the atoll of Molokini, a bird sanctuary and former volcano, the curve of which was still visible. Our instructors were two middle aged American ladies who were clearly pretty stoked with their lot in life. And who wouldn’t be in their shoes - as we arrived at the island, Pam (one of the instructors) announced to the boat “Welcome to my office!” We got our snorkelling gear on and I jumped in to the water with my camera strapped to my hand, eager to try it out underwater. 3M waterproof it claimed. To say that, at any point during the snorkel, I was as much as 2 metres ... read more

September 3, 2010 It is always a bummer to end a vacation, but at the same time I was glad to go. Time to get back to the real world. Mom and I slept in and lazily packed our bags. Our flight was not until 12:30 p.m. and we had plenty of time to bum around collecting our belongings. On our way out our hostess, Janna, thanked us for staying and was glad we enjoyed our time at her condo rental. I would totally stay at this place again, and Noe's Nest on the Big Island. Both were very comfortable and homey. We were in first class again on the way home. Thank goodness! It was great to have that leg room and not have to fight over arm rests. With a couple glasses of wine, ... read more

September 1, 2010 The morning after our snorkel adventure was a tough one. The sunburn on my back hurt so much it was hard to sleep; every time I would change positions it felt like sandpaper was being scraped against my skin. Ouch. My arms and upper torso muscles were also really sore. I couldn't think why, the swimming was so minimal, I didn't want to think it was because I was that out of shape. Then I remembered, cumulatively I spent about an hour clutching onto the boat lines for my life as we sped through the wide open ocean. I mocked gripping on the boat and sure enough those were the muscles that were screaming at me. Still worth it. Mom and I lounged around the condo in the morning. She took a walk ... read more