Sunday February 12 Lahaina/Kaanapali

Up at 6 am to go out and watch the whales with the Pacific Whale Foundation. The whales were dancing as soon as the full moon set and the sun shone. Large breeches in the distance and close ones of baby whales. Lot’s of great pictures on the 35mm that I will post when I get home. A few on the digital that I’ll share now. The guides have an underwater microphone and dropped it overboard so we could hear the singing. Did you know that the song is different every year but during the season all of the whales sing the exact song? Nobody knows the purpose of the songs. Researchers have played the song of a previous season thinking it would attract females as a mating call and it only attracted males, so they are still trying to figure it out.
Snorkeled the afternoon away at a beautiful gold sand beach north of Lahaina. Saw every single fish (and ell) in the books! Found a kitesurfing area while snorkeling and sat enthralled pining away on the beach. There was a guy actually using a surfboard instead of a kiteboard, no straps or anything; and he was switching feet (putting his right foot forward or his left)! He was amazing!
On the snorkel back met up with a turtle as large as myself! I’m really not kidding. He and I floated around for a long while together. He had to have been ancient. He didn’t mind my company one bit and just kept munching his kelp. Of course, had run out of film by this point but it was fine, I could concentrate solely on the turtle. I kept looking out of the water thinking there was no way I was only 100 ft from shore and lolling around with a giant turtle. I really felt blessed to be in the presence of such an amazing creature.

Checked into my beautiful room at the Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast. I would definitely stay here again. I liked the Lahaina Inn but I think I would prefer to stay away from the hub-bub of the downtown area. The room here at the Garden Gate is huge, beautiful, has a view of the ocean and the garden area is lovely.






The Old Lahaina Luau was next. Open bar!!!!! Did the most drinking of the entire trip (can you tell, from the guys I was picking up on?) Liquid Lavas right over this way, nearly naked bartender! The food was good, the unveiling of the buried pork was cool. The dancing fabulous. I do think if I came back I would do the Fest at Lahaina, which focuses more on great food. But hey, did I mention the open bar? Also, they gave me a lai and flowers always make me happy!
Tomorrow, home again, home again. Sad news but now I can bug everyone with, “When I was in Maui . . . “ and more pictures than I could ever post. Look for an upload of my Hawaii pictures on my flicker.com account in the next week or so: http://flickr.com/photos/bizzylizzy/