Up again with the birds – this time Lis is up with me. It’s quite nice, sitting on the lanai in the early morning, listening to all the birds. We’re hoping to keep our early rising ways the whole trip.

Yesterday we went snorkeling at Malu’aka Beach in Wailea. It was super fantastic. The books said to go to the South end of the beach, and that if you swim out toward where the tour boats were anchored you’ll see turtles. A person we passed as we walked toward the beach also told us that the good snorkeling was to the south (or to the left as you face the ocean). So we felt well informed.

The beach was pretty, and not crowded. We put on our sun protection shirts (We are very well covered at the beach. Lis has a swim suit with legs that come down to just above the knee, and I wear my tri pants that do the same, and then we both have long sleeved sun protection shirts, and yesterday Lis bought a sun protection swim cap – we are just this side of the burkini) and snorkel gear and headed in. It didn’t take long to hit lots of coral and lots of fish. It was really great – there were tons of different varieties, large and small, all brightly colored. The coral was very pretty, too. A great site – highly recommend it (one of our guide books said it was their favorite snorkel place).

But no turtles. The guide book said to head in the direction of the tour boats, so we started to, but this took us in to deeper, murkier water with mostly sand bottom (thus no fish). We did this for a while and didn’t see anything, and were thinking about heading back to where we knew there were tons of fish. Then we saw some divers heading back to shore, and asked them if they had seen any turtles. They said “Try over there to your left” and we did and voila – turtles! It was very exciting.

We hung out with them for a while, waiting for them to surface. Then one did, swimming about 5-10 feet from us toward the surface. Just before it surfaced, I did, too, so I was able to see its adorable turtle head break the surface – they are very cute this way, and their colors are deeper seen above water. Later Lis told me that she did the same thing (see how we’re meant for each other).

Meanwhile a tour boat of divers arrived, and some snorkelers, so it started to get somewhat crowded – though it was cool to be at the surface and watch a diver with an underwater video camera swim down and film a turtle. But we decided to head back to the less popular snorkel area where the fish were.

Once there we were swimming around, looking at fish, when I saw a turtle resting on the bottom about 6 feet or so below us, just underneath a huge school of long yellowish fish. The water was pretty clear, because pretty shallow, so we had really good visibility. It was very exciting. We floated above them for a bit, watching, and then we surfaced. I said “Wow, how cool.” Lis said “Yeah!” I said “And all the fish are so awesome, too.” Lis said “What? Aren’t we looking at the fish?” I said “You don’t see that turtle directly below you?” We both put our heads back down and I pointed and I heard her say under water “Wow!!”

We stayed with him (her? Lis just told me that you can tell by the length of their tails – boys = long, girls = short – but I don’t remember now anything about the turtle’s tail) until he surfaced, then watched him from above water like before. This one, though, stayed at the surface and started swimming along, so we swam along about 6 feet behind. He went up for air three more times, then dived back down and settled himself in to the sand. The cool thing about this whole episode (besides the awesomeness of swimming with a sea turtle, of course) is that we had him to ourselves – no other snorkelers or divers noticed him.

We snorkeled for a bit longer and then decided that we were done. On the way back to the car we walked through the grounds of what used to be the Maui Prince hotel, which were very pretty. At one point we were walking under a grove of plumeria trees. At the car rental place, the woman who checked us out was wearing a plumeria flower in her hair, and it was so pretty that I asked her about it. She said that that one was fake, but that she has a tree in her yard and often wears a real one, and that they are very fragrant. I thought to myself then that I wanted to wear a plumeria in my hair at some point this trip. So here we were walking by some plumieras, with tons of fallen flowers on the ground. I picked up one that had just fallen and was in good shape – it smelled divine – and put it over my ear and felt very Hawaiian.

We were now starving, so went to the condo and showered and then went in search of food. The woman at the condo office had given us a list of local restaurants that they recommended – we picked Café O’Lei. It’s in a strip mall among a bunch of other strip malls along the Kihei main drag, and was very good. I had a turkey sandwich and Caesar salad, and Lis had mahi mahi. At a table near us were some girls with big beautiful fruity drinks with pineapple slices and umbrellas. Of course one must have fruity umbrellas drinks in Hawaii – I asked what they were. The waiter said Lava Flows – blended rum, pineapple and coconut layered with strawberry puree – a definite must-have. We decided to wait until dinner, though – any alcohol now and I would settle down for my nap right there at the table.

After lunch we went in search of a grocery store, and found a nice natural foods store in the next mall over – and also Snorkel Bob’s. I had read Snorkel Bob’s tips for saving the reef yesterday, and he seemed pretty hard core environmentally, so I thought that would be the place to get recommendations for Snorkel trips and things that wouldn’t be bad. Also, Lis wanted to get some stuff (such as the aforementioned sun protection swim cap). There was a very cute girl named Katie working there who spent all kinds of time with us, helping us find what we needed and also setting up a Molokini snorkel trip for us and making our Old Lahaina Luau reservations – she was very friendly and helpful, and I was glad that Snorkel Bob’s lived up to my expectations as a neato place.

We came back to the condo and rested for the rest of the afternoon, then set off in search of pupus for dinner. This time we went to Moose McGillicuddy’s, because Lis had read somewhere that it was good. We ordered Lava Flows and tacos off their happy hour menu, and they were good, but the service was slow and the waitress became mildly hostile when she realized that we were cheapskates ordering cheapskate things (I believe that our failure to add avocado to our tacos was the last straw). And it was a little young and loud and party-y. Plus we only got pineapple with our Lava Flows – no umbrellas. We decided we had no desire to come back, and when we got back to the room and consulted our local restaurant list, we saw that Moose McGillicuddy’s was not on it. So now we know – don’t deviate from the list.

Petty Note from Lis: It is very normal for us to go to a restaurant and share a meal or just order appetizers, and when we have not spent a lot of money I tend to tip higher – 25% or more. When we don’t order much and because of that the waitress is a bitch (dirty look after we say no to an offer of guacamole, for example) I believe I should tip lower. I had already decided that this evening’s waitress did not even deserve the normal 20% we tip when we order a full meal. I decided to tip 15%. But there was the Oregonian dilemma. Those of us from Oregon pay no sales tax, so everywhere else I am never sure whether to tip on the tax. I grew up in California and my mother taught me not to tip on the tax, but being the researcher that I am, I have learned that many people DO tip on the tax and that you may be considered a cheapskate if you do not. So now I usually tip on the tax. At Moose McGillicuddy’s, I wanted to tip 15% and NOT on the tax, but Mary said that would be too cheap. So I did what she said. But I immediately regretted it, especially when we left and the hostess said, “Goodbye!” and our waitress standing with her couldn’t even look at us. So …. Watch out, next bitchy waitress we come across. You’re not gettin’ no tip on the tax! Okay, back to Mary.

Back in the room we played Who Wants To Be a Millionaire (boardgame) until about 8pm (Lis won, but I made a run at the end), and then off to bed, where I was out by 9pm. I slept pretty well, but Lis was awakened by loud people from the condo complex across the street (our condo complex is wonderfully quiet, and has some fairly strict no-noise rules, which is partly why we chose it). They have awakened her both nights so far, so she is a little bumming. But otherwise it was a fabulous day.