Boat Dive

Up at the crack of dawn to go boat diving. It was a three tank dive, and it turned out to be, 1 great, 1 good, and 1 boring. The great dive was Reef's End. It is a drift dive and the current was strong. There was no time for pictures when you went by, you were flying. We saw a lot of stuff though. The second dive was on an amphibious landing craft (an older version of a Hummmer) The carrier and two small corals were all there was to the site. The rest was sand. Though we saw some good stuff, the extensive sand was boring. We kept wanting more fish to look at. The third dive was good. Lots of nice coral, reef fish, sharks, eels and colorful little things. We missed you Shannon and Ericka. You would have been icicles. Connie's lips were blue after the third dive. She was cold after the second dive and the third one finished her off. We have no pitures though, Connie's camera is giving her trouble. We have grown so used to coming home and messing with pictures, it feels weird not to .

Crown of Thorns

Aloha, We have just spent two glorious days diving. Connie, Shannon, Ericka and myself. Today we dove Old Airport. There was 100ft of visibility and the coral was awesome. We are all very proud because we were able to stay down for 85 min,for both dives. Truth is Connie and Shannon still come up with tons of air, while Ericka (a new diver) and I are happy with 85 min. The picture is of one of the three Crown of Thorns we saw. This critter is very destructive to coral. It eats it. So though they are beautiful, we hate to see them in the beautiful coral. Shannon and Ericka are leaving tomorrow, so Connie and I are going boat diving. Aloha

Can you see the Frog fish? They are a prehistoric looking critter that we saw yesterday snorkeling. As always Jan found him. It is only the second time I've seen one. That makes yesterday a very special trip. Connie got in about 3:00 and had to go by the dive shop to get the dive flag I forgot. We picked up gear so we could all go diving tomorrow. After church the four of us walked the three miles home. Connie, on the other hand walked and met us so she did about 5.5 miles. We took a long time, what with the shopping. Ericka is trying to get stuff bought so she can take it home.

Aloha, Today we went on a four mile hike to Waimoku Falls at Haleakala National Park. This hike is not a simple walk in the park. You scramble over rocks and roots and slide down muddy inclines. But your reward for all of this effort is spectacular views of water falls, the bamboo forest and finally the 450 ft Waimoku Falls. Of course it took us 2 hours to get to the falls. The girls stayed with Jan and I because they were worried that the "old" ladies needed looking after. We were slow, but we got there. As an excuse I used, 1) My shoes were slippery, 2) I stepped wrong and tweaked my leg, 3) My glasses were fogging up in the rain, 4) Ericka wanted to look at everything.

Honolua Bay Snorkeling

Great start to a great vacation. Shannon, Ericka, and I were going diving this morning, but Shannon had trouble with her breathing and we figured diving was not a good idea so we went snorkeling instead. Saw some really cool stuff. An adult Rockmover, Pearl Wrasse, huge turtle (with a huge tumor on the side of it's face) and a lot of the normal fish we see. The butterflies, angelfish, yellow and blue fish. Reminded me why I keep coming back here to Maui. Again Jan and I were the only ones who went back in after lunch. The rest of them or wimps. It was cold though. I put on my wet suit and Jan used the shorty over her skin and we still were none to warm. We left about 2:00pm and the bay was still like glass. That's one of the things I enjoy about Honolua Bay, when it's good, it's very good and when it's bad it's awful.
Aloha

Hellooo Maui

I'm here. Hooray for me! I actually had to go to the airport early because of a ride problem, but I made the most of it and played games on my computer. The sunset and clouds were amazing when we were coming in. Jan, Bob, Shannon, and Ericka met me with a hot dog and I love them for it. Ocean here I come.