Snorkeling! 
This morning we got moving pretty early and headed to Black Rock to go snorkeling. It's supposed to be a popular spot. We saw a ton of neat fish, but there wasn't much coral in this spot. Also, it appears the fish are fed there, because they were getting super close to us. Especially if we stayed put for very long. We could hear the whales really well too, which was very neat.

By the time we got out, the beach was getting pretty busy. We headed for Kihei to have a yummy lunch at Joy's Place (again). From there we headed farther south to the lava flows. Laura and I went for a short hike before we got back in the car and headed back across the lave to another popular snorkeling spot, the Dumps.

The water was pretty clear, but the water was a little choppy. We still saw lots of neat fish. Some we hadn't seen yet. On our way back in, Laura spotted an octopus!!! It was awesome! We didn't have the camera with us, unfortunately. :( But it changed color at least 3 or 4 times. Super neat.

After snorkeling, we headed to an Indian restaurant in Kihei for dinner. It was pretty good.

Our first full day with Laura went really well and was super fun. We're all bushed though and heading to bed early. :)

-Miranda

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Another Couple Lazy Days 
We've still been pretty tired, so we took the morning to get some work done, then decided to try boogie boarding. We rented a couple boogie boards and went to the nearby beach. It was sort of fun, but the waves were really messy. There were a bunch of reverse waves, so it would mess you up even if you did catch the wave. We stayed out a little bit, Joe more than me. We checked out the touristy Lahaina area that evening. There were some cute shops and neat galleries, but almost nothing for a couple vegetarians... All grills or burger joints. We finally found a 50's style burger place that had 4 different veggie burger options.

The next day we were scheduled to pick Laura up from the airport! Her flight ended up being delayed for a couple hours, so we didn't pick her up until 2pm. From there we picked up a snorkel set for her, and headed to Kaanapali beach to take her snorkeling. She had a lot of fun and we even saw a turtle! Afterwards, we went for a nice walk, then back home for a relaxing dinner.

-Miranda

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Flood Video 
Here's the video of the flood in Paia that Joe took. The Silver car across the road was our rental at the time.

CLICK FOR VIDEO:PAIA FLOOD

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Lazy Day 
We slept in a little bit, but were still up around 7. We decided since it's possible we won't be in this area much longer, we should get anything done up here that we want to do. We headed down the road towards the Olivine Pools which a local at the house mentioned.

The road was super windy with a lot of blind corners, but there was little traffic. We found the spot, got out and climbed down the rocks. Olivine is apparently a semi-precious mineral. It was all over in the rocks. Pretty neat. Some of the pools were super muddy. I'm assuming it was just because of the massive rain storm a few days ago. The pools farther from the rock wall were really clear though. There were even some fish in there! Very fun to watch them.

Once we left there, we decided to stop by some of the sights along the way back. One was the "Blow Hole", which a hole that water comes shooting out of when a wave comes up. It was pretty neat.

From there we couldn't really decide what to do. We were both super worn out. We've been basically running around since we got here. We decided to go snorkeling in Kaanapali Bay, which is in the area. It wasn't as clear as Makena, but there was coral all over. The currents pushed us around a bit more also, but we finally remembered to bring the underwater camera with to test out. It did pretty well. We saw a lot more fish varieties I think, but it was not a place I would expect to see turtles, and we didn't.

We were both pretty tired, so we headed back to the house after that and have basically just been getting some work done and resting. A nice, relaxing, fun day.

-Miranda


The view from our room.

Joe found a heart hole in the rock and there just happened to be someplace I could set the camera up.

Neat fish in the clear pool.

I liked this fish. I only saw one in this pool and he was hard to get a decent photo of.

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Awesome Day of Snorkeling! 
We woke up pretty early today. Joe went out to get cereal (we went to a grocery store the previous evening). He tried to be as quiet as possible and still apparently managed to wake everyone else up... Which, people keep appearing out of nowhere. This place is huge!

Today, we decided to head out snorkeling. There was a place just north of where we are that was supposed to be decent snorkeling. All we had were goggles, but we figured that was a good starter. It was a bit freaky getting in, but once we got comfortable, we realized the water was super clear! As we got a little farther out from the sandy beach, we spotted coral and a lot of different kinds of fish. They were everywhere! At one point we even spotted a Green Sea Turtle! It surprised Joe. :D It was a little tough with just goggles, but it was still tons of fun.

We headed to Kihei after that, which is supposed to have some great snorkeling areas. We had lunch and headed farther south to the end of the road. On the map it showed snorkeling, but it looked like you had to go for a bit of a hike. It was through an old lava flow from 1790. The area was very neat, but all the little alcoves weren't quite protected enough and it was really rocky to actually get into the water. So we just hiked in, looked around some and hiked back out.

Since the sun was still in a great position for snorkeling, we stopped at Makena Landing. Notes on that said it was a great post so long as the waves weren't up. It looked really calm, so off we went. It was great! We saw a ton of fish and about 5 sea turtles. The first one we saw was pretty small. The second one came out a cave heading straight for me! When I swam a bit off to get out of its way. Totally freaked me out. This turtle had to be at least 4 feet long. It was huge!

After that adventure, we found some dinner and headed back to the house. Now we're just getting some work done and heading to bed. One problem with this place is there are windows everywhere. In the bathroom, in the bedroom, etc. No blinds or shades at all. So, we have to shower in the dark and people can see in the bedroom, which is kind of weird. The owner said he's going to get some shades at least for the bedroom in the next couple days, which would be nice if we're still here then. One pretty cool thing is two of the windows/doors are actually disappearing doors. We haven't been around during the day yet to really utilize them though.

-Miranda


The lava flow.

A section of the beach on our walk. I believe the white stuff on the rocks is old coral.

The disappearing door.

The bedroom.

The bathroom. Crazy shower! Nice windows, huh?

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