YouTube – Turtle off of Kama’ole II

Here’s the video David shot earlier today of our new turtle friend, who lives about 250 yards in front of our condo. It was pretty choppy as there was wind kicking up, so we didn’t stay out long for our first snorkel outing of the trip.

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We had a nice breakfast of Kona coffee, toast, and passionfruit jam, after getting up at some ungodly pre-dawn hour because of the time difference – as per usual, David was up before me and made the coffee.

Soon the cameras got packed up and we went down to walk the beach for the first time, and encountered some people who were excitedly pointing at a couple of fin-shapes in the water and exclaiming over the “shark.”  A second glance revealed (to us, at least) that it was at least one big stingray, and we both fumbled for cameras and telephoto lenses. I’ll be uploading photos later after I move some files around on my laptop, but I could clearly see that it had a pattern of white spots on a dark background on its “wings,” and the underside was light.

We continued up the beach, encountering everybody and their dog, and continued as far as the next rocky dike of lava, which forces either a scramble, or you backtrack and go up and around via the street or a stretch of grass above.  That was when we opted to return for the rest of our breakfast and hang out on the lanai.

A bit before nine a.m., I got the “church impulse” and took off for Trinity-By-The-Sea, and was late because I made a bad decision re: taking the most direct (but slowest) route. They worship in the open air, in a church set up within the low, ruined walls of one of the oldest churches on Maui. Their altar is directly over the foundation of the original altar, and there is no roof other than the trees and sky.

Given the outdoor setting, they opt for amplified music and sing a variety of unfamiliar hymns that have been translated into Hawaiian in addition to standard 1982 Hymnal fare. Try sight-reading something new in phonetic Hawaiian some time, it tends to make you forget your cares. Problems? What problems? I’m trying to follow this line and get all the glottal stops in amongst all these vowels, bruddah. Don’t talk stink like dat.

I enjoyed chatting with everyone afterwards for “juice time,” and then made a stop at Long’s Drug to pick up my favorite smelly stuff – pretty much all the hair and bath products made by Maui Island Secret.

After my return, we walked to lunch at Cafe O Lei after some window-shopping, and went for a further walk up the street as far as Kalama Beach, watching people, watching waves, listening to surf, and getting our heads adjusted to “island time.”

Tonight for dinner: if the rooftop deck (where the grills are) is open, grilled tuna with soy/sesame/citrus and maybe jazz it up with some Asian seasoning as a crust, and rice.

It looks like it’s shaping up for a decentish sunset  tonight, if the clouds stay off the horizon as they seem to be doing. Last night after we got in, it was very overcast and there wasn’t much of a sunset.

Tomorrow morning, early, we’ll go to Ahihi Cove for snorkeling, and possibly one or two other spots in that direction depending on conditions, and grab a bite in Wailea on the way back. We’ve missed Ahihi on the last few trips we’ve been on but hope to hit it before the chop sets in again.