Maui Vacation part 2

Wednesday we had a recovery day and checked out the local pools. We hung out at the pirate ship in the morning where the kids could slide down the pirate ship and float like a lazy river in the intertubes.  We had lunch back at the hotel and naps. We brought dinner from the Fish Market our to our beach for snorkeling and sunset. Our beach has great snorkeling. Steven saw a turtle, I saw an eel, and tons of colorful fish and coral. Honestly, the eel freaked me out because it wasn’t just hanging out in its home like you usually see, but it swam out of the coral and swam away. I swam in the opposite direction. We then needed to rinse off so we went to the north pool which had a water slide and splash pad. The kids loved it. Addison did laps going down the water slide and Andrew did it all.

Took a walk to see how far the boardwalk went to the north of us...discovered we have the best beach!! This one had a bad rip current

Pirate ship!

They loved it

We pool hopped all day and ended in this one to the north of us

and our nightly dinner out at "Our Beach"

bury me!

They got a little crazy 

Another rainbow

I think she wanted to snorkel but was a bit afraid, but Daddy did every day.  Mommy did a few nights too!

more rainbows

Thursday was submarine day. We went down to 130 feet below the water’s surface. We started the adventure on a “shuttle boat” out to the submarine. While on the boat we saw a humpback whale with  her calf. They flapped their fins and showed us their tale like in the video. It was off in the distance but we could still see it all. Tomorrow we’re going on a whale watch so we should see a bunch more activity. It was awesome to see this though! When we made it to the sub we had to transfer from one boat to the sub in open ocean. We got down to our seat and it was a bit rocky but no barf :) when it was time to submerge they played the sound that you usually hear when a “torpedo is heading your way.” Hahah very funny. Down below the surface we saw two spots of reefs with all sorts of fish. It doesn’t make for good pictures because the light down in the water doesn’t reflect well. For example, Andrews bright red McQueen shirt looked like muddy brown. We saw eels, spotted eagle rays, yellow tanga, moorish idol, lots of variety of parrot fiah, trevally, porcupine puffer, unicorn fish, moray  eel. After the two reefs we went over to a sunken ship, the Carthaginian.  I guess this boat was sinking in a harbor, and these guys bought it for a dollar and created a man made reef. There were also scuba divers down there checking out the Carthaginian.  We then proceeded down to the deepest part of the ocean and landed to submarine on the bottom of the ocean. We went down to 129 ft when we hit the bottom. Everyone got most likely the “deepest kiss” of their life! After our submarine adventure we stopped by Foodland for some poke and Addison and Steven really liked spam musovi so we got her done of that.  We went out to the beach for our nightly sunset and dinner on the beach. But then the kids lost their bananas and everyone went to be early.

This is the boat we saw at the bottom of the ocean!

We saw a Whale and calf on our way out to the submarine!! 

Enjoyed our night out on the beach after the submarine day!

This morning we went down to the Maalaea bay for a whale watching excursion. Little to my knowledge, this is “The Windiest Port in America”. Well I believe that, it felt like insane Santa Ana’s blowing and we were getting on a boat with white caps already in the water.  We saw a couple of whales. One up close and personal showing off his fins slapping the water and his tail also slapping the water in a likely show of dominance.  The kids enjoyed the boat and seeing the whales and Andrew fell asleep on the boat ride back to port.  Since Andrew took his nap we decided to investigate the middle of Maui further.  We drove into Ioa Valley State Park.  It was beautiful.  Where we are staying is considered the desert because there isn’t a lot of rain that falls. But, 20 minute drive into the Volcanoes and it’s a whole new story. It is a lush rainforest and looks like a Buddhist temple (to me).  It is a sacred ground along with a lookout when incoming forces arrived.