Team Norris: Hawai'i

Well, fans, this could be the last day of the blog. There are no guarantees that our next hotel, near the city of Hana, has internet... we're betting that it does not.

Regardless, today was a very, very busy day. We booked a tour for a snorkel outing:

http://www.mauicharters.com/fourwinds.html

We got up at 5:30, ate a light breakfast and headed to the harbor to check in at 7AM. Molly immediately grabbed a seat (pushing kids and old ladies aside, and intimidating everyone else with "ba-ba-ba-ba"... just kidding) on the top deck at the front of the boat. One of the best seats on the boat, for sure. The boat served a breakfast of Bagels, fresh fruit, coffee and juice... and it was all you can eat, for the most part, so we really dug in. We left the harbor at 7:30 AM, and headed out to Mookolini island, a little cresent shaped island to the south of Maui... about 45 minutes boat ride. Along the way we got up close an personal with the hump-back whales that breed and give birth in the warm waters of the southern Maui bay. Of course, we got lots of pictures of them. Also, along the way, Molly started not feeling well, as though she couldn't get a burp out, she excused herself to go to the restroom, and came back 10 minutes later to inform me that she vomited over the side of the boat... and now feels much better. Wow!

The open-bar opened up at 8AM, so I started my morning with 2 bagels, 2 coffees and Miller lite. Molly had the Chardonnay. Maybe it was the cheap Chardonnay that made her sick? A crewman suggested she was pregnant.

When we finally reached the island, we went through all of the various saftey tips associated with snorkeling and set us loose in the bay of this tiny island. There were about 6 other tours here, but it really didn't feel too crowded. The tour rents the use of an underwater digital camera for $40. At first we decided not to do it, but then changed our minds at the last minute, and got one of the 7 that were available (thank god). Apparently these cameras hold about 320 pictures, or so. We were determined to get our money's worth, and I think we did. All of our pictures took up 2 CDs. Some of them are better than others, and eventually I'll weed out the really crappy ones.

At first Molly really freaked out with the snorkeling. Something about her not being able to get used to the idea that you can't breath using your nose, only your mouth. She got panickey, and for a few minutes I didn't think she was going to do more than 5 minutes. However, she calmed down quickly and really had a great time. Of course, being her father's daughter, she got a foot cramp and had to take off one of her fins toward the end. She also used the slide off the boat. We have pictures of all of this, too ( of course. ) For lunch they grilled up hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken breasts, and it all tasted really good, even for 10 AM. After lunch we got back into the water for another 30 minutes, then loaded back into the boat and headed back to shore. On the way back to shore we got some AMAZING footage of the whales and some pictures of sea turtles.

We finally got back into shore at about 12:30PM. We were not tired at all, so we decided to go on a hike near the volcano we've already been up twice. This it is less desert and more rainforest (so the guide book told). We got up to about 3200 feet (with more than a half a tank of gas this time). At the top there is an unpaved section of the road before you even hit the trailhead... We decided not to do the hike for 4 reasons: 1. It was raining 2. The clouds/fog were so thick you could barely see more than 15 feet in front of the car 3. The sign at the top of the hill clearly stated 4 wheel drive only on the unpaved part and 4. It was pig hunting season, and there were cars parked there. The last thing I needed to do was get mistaken for a pig and have some native hawaiian make a luau out of my ass. Wasted about an hour out of our day on that.

We headed back towards the hotel and decided to eat a late lunch (vs an expensive Hawaiian dinner) at a place that we had read good things about. The food itself was not that great, but I got some oysters on the half-shell. I travel 5 and a half hours by plane to eat oysters that they flew in from British Columbia, Washington and Oregon the day before. Nice. After lunch we went downstairs to the poster shop that had the Mucha prints and had one of the ladies show them to us. We had tried to see them the day before but they had moved them to a gallery, but were told they would be back today. They were amazing. And amazingly priced. Thank god I'm not rich yet, because I could easily see myself collecting that. There were two pieces that we both loved. Not very big, but well over a hundred years old. $750 per each piece.

We did some shopping, then headed back to the hotel to swim in the ocean, riding the waves into the shore (and getting sand in some very unmentionable places in the process) and watched the sun set into the pacific. It was beautiful.

Anyway, that's all I have. Oh, I must mention to Linze and Josh that the number of turn-arounds that we have done this trip are quite astronomical. Not helped by driving a Chevy Aveo. We'll do a couple of extra tomorrow in your honor!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures!