Maui: Last days

 I loved all beautiful, exotic flowers on the island and kept stopping to take pictures of them the last couple days we were there. My favorite is the yellow one with the red center.

One of the last mornings, Greg and I took a long walk on the beach from our place to down past Black Rock. We were hoping to find a good spot to snorkel. The conditions weren't ideal, though, and there wasn't much to see at Black Rock (Greg scoped it out while I relaxed on the sand). On our walk back, we saw some snorkelers out in the water, so Greg went to check it out. There was a big coral reef very close to shore with lots of fish to see. I decided to attempt snorkeling again, but once again, Death Waves got me, along with some coral and a big rock. While trying to help me get out and get my flippers on between waves, Greg ended up getting taken out by a big wave and washed up on the sand. Snorkel fail #2. I gave up. I really wanted to like snorkeling, but I just couldn't do it. All the locals we talked with commented on the unusally high surf and rough water conditions. Maybe the next time we go, the surf won't be so high, and I'll have more snorkeling success.

lunch at Aloha mixed plate--I finally tried the Loco Moco

more relaxing and reading back at our place in the afternoon

That night, we went on a sunset dinner cruise with Mike and Christine. Andy and Jen left for home that morning, so we were down to four. The weather cooperated again, and so did the whales. It was incredible! This whale put on a show for us and slapped the water with his tail over 40 times in a row.

The next day, the Millers left to go home, and it was down to the two of us. We checked out another small beach and finished up our shopping in Lahaina before having lunch at Bubba Gumps. We ended up getting our meal almost free because they lost our order. The funny thing was, we hadn't even really noticed it was taking so long. We were enjoying the sun and nice breeze by the water and weren't in any hurry. Guess we were fully adjusted to "Maui time."

A storm moved in that afternoon with strong winds and rain. We had made dinner reservations at Duke's on the beach, not knowing what people in Maui did when it was stormy. They just moved more tables under the covered area and lowered temporary canvas/vinyl walls. We enjoyed a very nice dinner and ended the night with some Hula Pie