Valentine's Day (Saturday...married for one week!) started off the way we had hoped it would. It was to be our only day without some planned activity on Maui, and we took full advantage by waking up late and securing a spot by the serenity adult pool. As the whitest skinned people out there, we needed some sun!
We relaxed and enjoyed some "Hula Girl" drinks (a frozen concoction of orange, mango, pineapple, rum, and who knows what else). We had early dinner reservations at 5:00 to watch the sunset, so we had to call it a day at the pool around 3:30. Remarkably, we did not burn (thank you sunscreen!).
The place we went to was called Sarentos on the beach. We ordered a bottle of Italian champagne and enjoyed a really nice dinner and dessert, while watching the sun set from our table.
Very romantic. It's going to be hard to top that one next year. By the way, the couple in the shot below is quite possibly a future look at Marlana and I at advanced age. ;)
We woke up Sunday morning to our 6:30 am wake up call and began to get ready for our snorkeling trip. We had no idea what to expect, and were pleasantly surprised to meet our friendly crew aboard a sailing catamaran named Trilogy V. Trilogy was the name of the company, and our captain and his two crew were very nice guys who immediately offered us coffee and hot chocolate when we boarded the boat.
There were also about 20 people on the trip with us. After a few ground rules were explained, we were off and sailing southwest toward the tiny island of Molokini.
On the way there, we must have seen at least 20 different humpback whales surfacing to catch some air, or calves playing, or males fighting. It was amazing to see them from such a close distance. The blurry shot below is evidence of how fast they would surface.
The crew gave us cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit for breakfast. They fitted us for fins and masks on the way. Once we reached Molokini, we saw that it was a u-shaped island crater that was about half a mile in length. The water there was amazingly clear, as the island has no water runoff, but still has a nice sloping coastline basin. As a result, we could clearly see the 50 foot bottom from the boat.
We put on our fins, masks and wet suit jackets (it was cold!) and jumped right in. We had purchased an underwater film camera, and I immediately started snapping some shots. There were fish everywhere swimming only inches from us, and the coral reef below us was enthralling. I started to feel a little queasy because the wind was making the waves kick up pretty high, so I headed back to the boat and Marlana stayed in the water.
After spending about 45 minutes at that spot, everyone gathered back on the boat and we began to make our way towards "Turtle Town" off the coast of Maui. This destination is aptly named because of the giant sea turtles that live in the area. I was a little doubtful about actually seeing some turtles, but I was about to be surprised. On the way there we saw some more whales and it turned out that one of the crew members, Dan, was a whale naturalist who knew almost too much information about the large creatures. He was very knowledgeable and he told us everything I could think to ask about their size, migration, blow holes, reproductive cycle, eating patterns, etc.
We geared up once more and jumped into the ocean to find an even more interesting sea floor that consisted of caves, reefs, coves, and more. We swam for a while and Marlana and I approached what she thought was another snorkler, and nearly ran into a huge turtle! He was massive, and just kind of floated around on the surface. He must have gotten a little spooked by Marlana and I, because he soon dove down and made his way to the cave below.
We saw a couple more turtles, and couldn't have been more pleased by the outing. We then had a really nice "life changing" (as the captain called it) lunch and started to head back to the bay. We saw more whales, had some ice cream, soaked up some more sun, and bought a t-shirt down below to memorialize the event. We just had to take a picture with the Captain. This was a really great activity!
We hit a local spot for dinner at a place called "Pita Paradise" and had some great humus, pitas, and baklava ice cream for dessert. The end to a great day.
-Ben and Marlana
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