Boat Trip

We found the best deal for snorkeling. We got up early this morning and boarded a boat with Pacific Whale that takes us snorkeling at both Molokini and Lanai for a good price. In fact, it was about the cheapest trip to Lanai that we found. But the wind today was pretty bad. In fact, the boat trip became quite I wild ride. The conditions at Molokini were good enough to snorkel even though the water was choppy, but the disappointing thing was that the Lanai water wasn't, so we didn't even end up going that direction. That also meant that we wouldn't get to see the dolphins on the way to Lanai. They made up for it though. They took us to a place just off of Maui (the "turtle town" area) for a second chance to snorkel. Then they used the extra time to take us whale watching. It was a very enjoyable day. At each site we saw something neat: an eel at Molokini; three turtles at the second spot, including two that came up and swam with us (too bad we didn't bring the camera in the water with us this time to prove that it was just chillin' with us); and a whale that showed off for us by splashing its tale and fins.

After we got off the boat we decided to drive to the top of the volcano and watch the sunset. The crater is pretty neat, but at 10,000 feet it was way to cold to walk around in our shorts. We got out of the car just to take a few quick peaks. The sunset was nice, and we could see the Big Island from there.

Adventures of Lahunalakalili'i and Palikalapalu

Sunday we did church and "the road to Hana."

At church on Sunday morning (we went to Sacrament Meeting in the Kihei Ward) someone gave some history of the Christmas celebration in their talk. I knew it had something to do with an old Roman pagan holiday. Apparently about 100BC the Romans picked up some religious worship from the Middle East where they were conquering. There was a sun god Mythras who's birthday they celebrated on Dec. 25 because of the winter solstice. Apparently they had trees and gifts and everything. Christians adopted the holiday and celebrated Christ's birth instead. When I heard this I first thought it was unfortunate to mix the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth with a pagan holiday, but then I thought what a nice way to change a holiday that they wanted to celebrate anyway into something meaningful. Maybe we need to do something about Halloween. :)

At the end of church we sang 'Aloha ae' to a family that was leaving the ward.

We started our trip to Hana pretty late in the morning. We were on the rode by 10:45am. It was a great trip. Someone lent us a CD that points out sights to see. Wow it was a beautiful trip. We went through a rain forest, and parts of the road were surrounded by a tall bamboo forest. The cost was beautiful, rocky, and blue. We pulled off the road in a couple of places, including to get buy fresh fruit and to get pictures with parrots, but we were pretty much in a hurry to get to the end of the trip and back during the day-light. One village we stopped in had a great view of a waterfall that we wouldn't have seen from the main road, but by the time Larisa pulled the camera out clouds had swept in and blocked our view.

Hana was a nice little town that Larisa enjoyed, but we continued on to the "seven pools" about 15 miles further down the road. The road made it quite an adventure; it had about a hundred little single car bridges as you drive on the edge of the cliff. Once we got to the end we hiked around, but the water was too swift for swimming that day. In all the trip took us about 9 hours (even though we traveled only about 100 miles round trip), but it was a good Sunday activity.

Day three

In the morning we attended a meeting that familiarized us with all of the attractions of the island. We tried to use the morning to plan the rest of our sightseeing and activities, but got tired trying to pick from so many good choices. So we went surfing. Paul hooked me up with a lesson while he just rented a board.

Lessons were so fun. The instructors walked us (me and a several other mismatched-aged people) through surfing 101 in about 5 minutes. They taught us how to get up and balance on the board. After we got in the water, they helped us find a wave and gave us a push. It was so fun. Even though the waves were small, a few times I rode them almost all the way to shore. Paul watched at first and then got in and we tried to surf together. It was hard to get up on such small waves, especially when no one was giving you a push. Two hours of such intense fun leaves you sort of exhausted.

Later on in the day we decided to go discover the south coast of Maui. We heard that there was some good snorkeling down there. What we did not hear was how pretty that area was. The drive itself was gorgeous. The trees and fields were cut and groomed, the water was so blue and clear. We went all the way to the south most point of our side of the island. It was covered with a 200 year old lava that erupted from a nearby volcano. At that specific point, it was hard to snorkel because of the force of the waves, so we came back up that shore a bit and went in where things were a bit calmer. We saw a school of fish right away and they were so much closer to us than the ones we saw last time.

We did not have much time so we stayed close to shore. Overhearing other people, we realized there was an eel somewhere nearby. We swam around trying to look for it. At one point, Paul grabbed me and showed me that something was stirring down below. First we could not see it well. We thought it might the eel that the others saw. What we actually saw was a three foot turtle coming out from a little cove down below. We were so excited. The turtle came up and got some air, then it swam with us for about 5 minutes. We touched her shell and fins. The greatest things was that there was no one else around at the time, so we had her all to ourselves. It was one of the most exciting things I have ever done! I could not believe my eyes! I actually saw and swam with a turtle! What a thrill! We took some pictures with a disposable water camera. I hope they turn out.

Day two

Our second day in Hawaii dished out some disappointment, but ended up being a lot of fun. We had plans to go para sailing that day, but due to strong wind, the trip was cancelled. The worse part of it all was that we could not reschedule. The next day wale season would start officially which means no more para sailing for a while. I was sad, of course, because this was one of the things I looked forward to the most.

To distract ourselves from our unrealized plans, we decided to drive further up the coast to Black Rock to go snorkeling. This would be a first for me. Paul gave me a quick run down on how its done before we swam out in deeper water. I immediately liked it. We saw some people feeding fish while snorkeling, so we came closer to watch them. It was amazing how close fish would get to people. And they were all so different: there were yellow fish, striped fish, big and small, long and flat fish. Most of them so colorful. We swam around for more than an hour, observing and diving to get close. Snorkeling ended up being one of my favorite things ever! After we left, my only wish was to see a turtle next time

Whale watching also did not happen that day. The boat crew did not find enough people for the trip, so they cancelled. We were tired and decided to go back to our "hotel". After eating some dinner, we jumped into the pool at our complex and enjoyed floating in 85 degrees water. Even after some disappointments, the day could not have been better.

Snorkeling and Surfing

Larisa has been having too much fun to write the next entry, so here's a quick update until she gets a chance. On Friday we learned to snorkel, and on Saturday we learned to surf. What will we pick up next?

First day in Hawaii

Larisa and I just got to Hawaii today for our week long vacation. Everything so far has been the dream we were hoping for. After getting here and renting the car (they gave us a funny looking Chevy because the smaller car we reserved wasn't available) we found the hotel without a map, address, or phone number (I forgot all that at home). Somehow I managed to recognize the street name and drive straight here. Then we tried out the water. It was cold to the touch at first, but after swimming for five minutes it felt like paradise. Then we changed and looked around for a restaurant. We set out to try some place that we found online, but luckily some local told us to try Sansei instead. It is a Japanese sushi-house with prices a little higher then we were expecting. We shared appetizers and one entree (crab and mango rolls, shrimp tempura, and salmon fillet and tiger prawn in some amazing sauce). With each new dish we were newly surprised at the burst and variety of flavors, as well as the small portions. Afterward we had fried banana cheesecake with ice cream, which was equally impressive. Larisa said this is the best restaurant she remembers ever going to. The flavors really lingered in our mouths; we didn't want to eat any of it to fast. I felt a little bit bad polluting my mouth with KFC after we left, but I had to fill up the tank somehow.

Travel

This Fall has been full of travel. First I went to Canada at the beginning of October, then we went to San Diego at the beginning of November, now Larisa is in Utah for the weekend visiting Alla (and doing something important that I can't disclose yet), and finally Larisa and I will go to Hawaii next week. And in the middle of that, Matthew, Summer and the family came here for Thanksgiving.

We dropped Larisa off at the airport this afternoon, and on the way home I decided to stop by at the mall to get some stocking-stuffers. I have Lydia with me for the weekend, so I decided to get some food before shopping, that way she might behave. She said she wanted cheese for lunch, so I got her a baked potato covered with cheese, bacon, and sour cream. Those are all things she should like, but she's been refusing the eat potato lately. Anyway, she wouldn't even try the food. I spent 20 minutes negotiating with her ("Just eat two bites and we'll get some juice. Do you want juice?"). After I practically gave up I finally managed to get her to try a bite. Of course she liked it and the rest was history. Sometimes Tyler does that same thing with formula; he resists until I give up, then with one last try it works.

Summer, Matthew, Russell, and Natalie were here for almost a week during our Thanksgiving vacation. It was a blast. We did some golfing, shopping, a Google tour, and dance-dance-revolution (and the ever exiting Thanksgiving-day football). Unfortunately, Matthew got quite sick and spent a couple of days under the weather, so that dampered our plans a little. We had a great time anyway, but when they go to all the effort to travel across the country we just wish everything could be perfect. On top of that, a speeding ticket and missed flight (on separate days) were unpleasant for them.

Larisa and Lydia set up the Christmas decorations this week. They look beautiful. We got a new building (a church) from Mom and Dad for our Christmas village.