Hawaii Trip - Maui (Snorkeling, Iao Needle, Kihei Town Party)

We arrived to Maui at night, which is always a bummer because you can't see any of the beauty around you until the next day.  Kylee had texted us asking for a selfie once we get to Hawaii.  Not sure what she was hoping for, I assume she wanted to see Hawaii and not just our faces, but none the less I sent her this pic.

 We were told a "convertible" was best for the Road to Hana.  When we drove away in this Jeep I was very confused how this top would easily come off.  Well, it doesn't come off easily.  But the panels above the driver and passenger seats do come off fairly easily, and though it's not as cool as having the top off, it did the trick of letting the air flow and the sunshine in.  It was fun.

We woke up early, of course.  Idaho time is three hours ahead of Hawaii.  So we were up before 5.  The downfall of staying in an Airbnb is that there's no hotel gym we can use while we wait for the rest of the island to wake up.  I really wanted to run.  But it was dark.  I didn't care.  What else were we going to do with the hours before we needed to go meet our boat?  Ryan decided to come with me.  We had not even seen the area in the daylight yet. But we followed google maps to the beach, then ran along the road for awhile.  We ended up with three miles total.  Later, when we saw the neighborhood in the day, we realized it was a bit sketchy.  Not the kind of place I would choose to run in the dark, definitely not alone.  But luckily Ryan had decided to accompany me and we were fine.

I signed us up for a boat trip to Molikini Cater to snorkel for our first day.  I've decided this is the best way to do scheduled events, right when you get there.  That way if the weather forces you to cancel, you can reschedule.  And it also gives you time to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your time.  Instead of being aimless that first day, you have something to do and time to plan the rest.

When Ryan first told me we should do this, I got nervous.  My last Hawaiian boat trip ended with me curled up and green.  But he assured me it was a short drive, and it did look pretty close on the map, so I went ahead with it.  So that morning, when we left for the boat, I didn't even think to bring any of the dramamine I had bought for our helicopter ride.  I have been on boats so many times in my life and never gotten sick before.  So I hoped I wouldn't regret it.  It turned out fine.

 We saw a TON of whales while we were heading towards the crater.  One of them came up right by our boat.  It was huge.  I accidentally got a video of it instead of a picture, so I can't post it here.  These pictures always make it look so far away, but they seemed a lot closer from where we were.  This picture is of him waving to us.  He did this for a long time.

 One of our first sites of Maui were these wind turbines.  It reminded us of home!

 When we were more than halfway to the crater, our captain got radio from some other boats that were ahead of us and they said it was too rough and there was no way to dock at the crater.  And it would be too choppy water to enjoy snorkeling anyway.  They had warned us that this might happen but I was a bit disappointed I would get to see the crescent moon shaped crater up close.  Instead he drove over to another snorkel spot close to Turtle Cove.  A lot of boats showed up there too. 

Since the water was deeper here, it was colder.  They actually had wetsuits for rent but I didn't think I would need it.  It was not a cold day, but it wasn't exactly hot either.  I think it was in the 70's.  The high was supposed to be 80.  But it was windy on the top of that boat.  And the water was cold.  I snorkeled for awhile, realized I hate those stupid fins but wasn't allowed to go without them, and I started shivering in the water.  I tried to keep moving to keep warm, but it didn't work.  The snorkeling was fun, but it wasn't all that great.  We were hoping to see turtles, but nobody that we talked to her overheard saw any. 

I was wishing I had brought more warm clothes.  I got out of the water, went up to get my towel and laid on the bench in the sun to get out of the wind.  Unfortunately, laying down took someone else's spot so I couldn't do it for that long.  Anyway, it took a long time to warm up.  Then we had lunch and they said we had 45 minutes to keep snorkeling but I couldn't bring myself to go through the cold and getting warm process again.  Ryan didn't feel like there was anything worth seeing to get back in either.  So it was a bit disappointing, but the boat ride was enjoyable once I wasn't shivering anymore.  And the whales were fun to see.

After we got home and cleaned up, we had the whole afternoon still.  So we went to this Iao State Park.  It was worth the visit.  It's so pretty there, and the "needle" is really cool too.  We enjoyed reading the history of the islands, the wars and such.  (This pano made Ryan's arm look hulkish)

That night we went to the "town party" that Ryan had read about online.  It happened to be in Kihei where we were staying on that particular Friday every month.  They mentioned food trucks and boutiques.  We had to park half a mile away, but with nice weather that's no big deal.  There were so many food options!  All I wanted were fish tacos but the one place that looked promising for those were all sold out.  Ryan got some brisket that we shared, then we ended up at a Thai truck and ordered the special, which was fish.  Always fish.  Always good.  All we ate in Hawaii was fish or pork.