We spent about 4 hours on our feet and walked another 4 miles or so. We were pretty tired and sore from the day before still, so I think it was a day too early... We did find the packets and they had less protein in them than Joe was hoping, but he still picked up a bag of them.
On our way home, we stopped at a vegan restaurant that was very good.
Today, we have been sitting at the house just working, resting and playing. Joe's getting a little bored, but it should mean we have more energy for doing something tomorrow.
-Miranda
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On Sunday, we decided to try taking Mary boogie boarding. We checked out a few different beaches. One beach we had to drive down a crazy awful road to get to the parking area. The beach was absolutely gorgeous though. Joe and Mary played in the water some before we headed back out. We checked out another beach that was very pretty, and far easier to get to. We decided to come back there when the sun was lower.
We found lunch and even some desert before heading back to the other beach. Once there, we sat in the shade and watched the others in the water for a while. An older couple (just retired age) were watching whales out from the beach. They let us use their binoculars some. Joe and Mary went into the water and I sat with them chatting and watching the whales. They were super active!
For dinner, we found a little hole in the wall sushi joint. The food was excellent.
All three of us were flying out on Monday, so in the morning, we had heard of another good snorkeling spot. We decided to head there. The snorkeling was great. We got to see an eel and a couple turtles. The geography of the coral was amazing. Afterwards, we headed back to the house, cleaned up, and headed to the airport.
We got there early, like you're supposed to do. It looked like the waiting area for our gate was through a line that had a sign about agricultural inspection (you can't bring fresh fruits, vegetables or flowers from Hawaii to the mainland), so an hour before our flight, the previous flight was done boarding though the plane hadn't taken off yet, we got into line to go into the waiting area. The lady checked our tickets, wrote a new seat number and said, 'here ya go'. Apparently we were supposed to board the plane? So weird. Because we happened to be there, they put us on the flight before ours.
It worked out fine in the end because we just stayed in the Honolulu airport with Mary until our ride was coming to get us.
-Miranda
The gorgeous beach.
Joe and Mary hanging out in the waves.
Another gorgeous beach. The colors were amazing.
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Yesterday was a pretty lazy day. We returned the rental car, but otherwise hung around the hostel and got some work done. Joe shared his underwater cave adventure with a number of other people at the hostel. Some were pretty excited to go and check it out. One girl we originally met at the airport waiting for the guy from the hostel to pick us up. Nat is from Australia, so she ended up hanging out with us for a bit and told us a bunch of stuff about Australia and ideas on where to go, maybe where not to bother and even mentioned a couple other islands and things we could check out in the Pacific.
This morning, we got packed back up and headed to the airport. Our flight to the Big Island left at 1:39 without a problem. We arrived and decided to try without a rental car for the couple days we're here before Mary arrives. The bus only stops at the airport twice a day, so we didn't bother waiting and just started hoofing it towards the highway. Once on the highway, it took 10-15 minutes to hitch a ride into town to the Target/Kmart. We did a little shopping at Target then headed up to Kmart where there was a bus stop.
The bus arrived, we got on, and then found out a tire was flat, so we had to get off. We waited 45 for the next bus to come, then took that. Apparently there aren't really bus stops here.... You just know the route of the bus and flag it down when you see it coming. That's our best guess so far. When you request a stop, it stops at the next corner and drops you off. We weren't quite sure where the hostel we were going to stay at was, but we did have the address and it was right along the highway. As soon as we spotted it, we pulled the cord and he stopped soon after.
The hostel is super quiet. The room is big. It even has a couch in it, but the 'bathroom' is outside and the kitchen is in a different building. It's pretty interesting. So far, we've seen the two owners and that's it. I don't even know if anyone else is staying here. The woman running the place seems very nice. At least it will be quiet tonight.
-Miranda
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This morning we got a later start than planned. We wanted to leave around 6 to start the road to Hana. We didn't actually leave until around 7. Once we got closer to Lahaina, we realized that the crater looked clear of clouds, so, especially since we got a late start, we should head up there instead. Unfortunately, it's a bit colder up there, and we did not bring our jackets... The views were amazing and the 'crater' was very neat looking. We didn't stay super long since it was in the low 50's and insanely windy.
On our way down, we spotted a Zipline company. We decided to check it out. See how much it was, how long, if they had openings, etc. Turns out, we could go with the people that were getting ready. So, no waiting at all! It was a bit pricey, but we went anyway. It was tons of fun. I didn't bring my camera, but I got a number of photos and videos with Laura's cell phone. Don't think I'll ever be able to get it on the blog... but she might email them to me. We'll see.
Now we've just been resting at home and getting some things caught up. We did find out that the guy that owns the place found someone for tomorrow night, so we're packing up tonight and leaving in the morning for the road to Hana. Joe has a place rented out there tomorrow night and then we'll be in the North Shore hostel the following night. It will be nice not having to drive in and out of here everyday for the rest of our stay.
-Miranda
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This morning we tried to go boogie boarding. We basically, completely failed. Joe needed to get out before 10:30 or so because he needs to stay out of the sun as much as possible. We went to the beach we had gone to before, but it was breaking on shore and that's it, so that wouldn't work. We tried a few other beaches, and nothing looked like it would work. We finally found one that might have worked, but it was a super long walk from the parking lot and by the time we got there, it was too late for Joe. I had pulled something in my side back on the second day we were here and it got worse when I tried to boogie board, so just Laura went into the water. Unfortunately, she got a little freaked out, but did catch one wave back into shore.
We had whale watching scheduled at 2:30. The weather was perfect. Nice and breezy, so we stayed cool, and it was relatively cloudy, so we weren't roasting in the sun. We didn't have to go far to see whales. We watched a calf breaching. The mother dove (showing her fluke) and then breached. It was great! We saw another mother and calf later. The mother was holding the calf up on her nose, pushing it around. The guys on the speaker said they had a whale do that once, swimming right by the boat, like she was showing off her baby.
We went with the Pacific Whale Foundation, which is a non-profit organization. All profits go towards research, education and conservation, which is great. We had a blast.
Here's a video of the calf breaching and the mother right next to it. (Ignore the guy talking. He's referring to the Humpback Whale songs we were listening to from the hydrophone they had in the water for a bit.)
CLICK FOR VIDEO:WHALE BREACHING
-Miranda
A gorgeous view from the boat.
This was right before she breached. Normally showing the fluke is sort of a goodbye. This generally means they are diving, so I was not ready to try and take a photo of her breaching. Oh well.
The Banyan Tree in Lahaina. This is one tree, and only about one quarter at that. The main trunk isn't even shown in this photo.
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