I'm back! After more than a year of not writing and a few days of not being able to remember what the URL for our blog is (that is so sad - it's such a challenging blog name...) I'm ready to try this again. When I last wrote it was at the end of Spring break 2007. We wrapped up Spring break 2008 a couple weeks ago and this time we didn't stick around Alberta or even Canada; we were blessed to spend 2 weeks in Hawaii. Our first week was on Oahu and we visited and experienced many wonderful things and had such great family time. Some of the highlights include renewing our vows on Makapu'u Beach, beach combing (Kaitlyn collected a shell and wore it on the end of her finger as if it were her nail... a few hours and a visit to Pearl Harbor later we returned to the rental car to discover the shell wasn't empty but was the home of a hermit crab! The girls both screamed but I had a good belly laugh watching them react.), swimming with the dolphins at Sea Life Park, Polynesian Cultural Centre, Perry's smorgasboard (a highlight for all of us - we even tried Mahi Mahi fish prepared 2 different ways - had to pay the girls each a buck to get them to try it but they did!), Hanauma Bay snorkeling & the hike up Diamond Head Crater. Believe it or not we still had some time to enjoy our beach at Waikiki and the pool at our hotel.
Our 2nd week was enjoyed on Maui. This island is a slower pace with less people but certainly no less options for enjoyment and activity. A couple highlights here were the helicopter island tour (the north coast - saw Tom Cruise's home that he enjoys 1 week/year, the Road to Hana (and the many waterfalls that you can't see while on that road), the rainforests (and what I figure look like large broccoli trees), the Iao Valley (another rain forest), acres and acres of sugar cane and some pineapple and the Haleakala Crater (our pilot said it could erupt at any time though that wasn't evident from our view). Did you know that when the sugar cane is ripe they light the crop on fire? It takes a lot of water to get a crop ripe so when the light it the only parts that burn are the parts that are undesirable like the weeds; the sugar cane would still be 70% water.
On another day we drove the "Road to Hana". We'd heard mixed reactions about this drive but we went into it knowing it wasn't about Hana but the road to and from there. There are 617 hairpin turns & 54 one lane bridges before arriving in Hana. We continued past Hana because we'd heard of something called the Seven Sacred Pools (actually there are more than 7 there but that's what they're called). We started this journey in the rain (seemed fitting that as we drove through the 'rain forest' it was raining) but we were glad to see the sun come out - the girls and I took advantage of this and jumped into one of the pools with a waterfall at our back. This was a treat.
We went on a snorkel cruise but because Scott had been kissed a little too hard by the sun on day 2 of our Maui adventure he thought it best to stay out of the salt water. This worked very well because the girls weren't quite ready to trust the snorkeling adventure and they weren't too sure they wanted to see what was swimming around them. Good thing too; I'll get to that in a minute. When our boat was pulling into it's first destination (Molokini Crater) it was rushed by dolphins - WAY COOL! Some people who try snorkeling tend to jump into the water and put their flippers to work. Here's a tip; relax, float and watch intently. Many things are missed when you hurry while snorkeling - float and stare at the same coral for a bit; you'll be surprised what starts to move. And that's when I spotted the eel. Umm, that's also when I spotted the shark.
It would be learned later that one of the predators for green sea turtles is the shark. The location of our second snorkel spot was called "Turtle Town" (in front of Tiger Woods house on Maui). I'm so glad that the shark was below me and in front - there were about 20' between us; and thankfully he was going the other way. Had we been eye to eye you would have seen the water level on the Pacific Ocean drop about a foot as I would have inhaled it!
There were adventures on the boat too - we saw the humpback whales; one flapping his fluke in our direction and we saw a momma with babe floating. The captain put the 'microphone' into the water so we could hear the whales talking to each other - WAY COOL! We stopped at a bouy on our way back to the harbor and it was explained that when the boat is there the sharks aren't thus freeing the turtles from a fear of being, well, dinner. This freedom is the perfect time to come on up for 5-6 breaths before descending back to their hiding places. Sure enough; we'd spot one, then another, then 2 more and so on. I'm glad that Scott and the girls at least got to see things like this. Next time hopefully we can all snorkel together.
I'll have to come back and add photo's later; for now the computer is just a titch to stubborn.
