Every night at sunset, it’s traditional to blow a conch shell here at the Condo Called “Done Working.” I call it the Kihei Phillharmonic because everybody blows a different note, but they (mostly) are in harmony. Sounds like bunch of out-of-tune bassoons, but is not unpleasant. I don’t even know if conch shells are local – I think they’re actually imported from the Caribbean, or they’d be on all the trendy menu items here. Today’s activity was simple – head to Lahaina for a late brunch, which we had at the Pioneer Inn. Then we mooched around town taking pictures…

… blew right by some whales because we were on a schedule with the Pacific Whale Foundation. Grr! It was pretty frustrating – nice day for a snorkel cruise, good conditions, nice boat (the Ocean Voyager) with Pacific Whale Foundation. But because we were on a “tight” schedule, our 7.5 hour trip consisted of motoring right past pods of whales. Which, perhaps due to our high rate of speed and high engine noise, generally dove as we approached rather than hanging around on the surface. I did get some decent shots that will be useful for identifying individuals – they’ll…

We coffee’d up this morning and headed north with our cameras, as we decided the surf looked a bit high yet to snorkel off our beach. We noodled along in a relaxed way and drove as far as the Honokowai Valley, an area with one of the scariest roads EVAR. Normally, there’s a little school bus parked there at the top of the road, which acts as kind of a cue to stop and look over the one-lane road that goes down into the valley. But it wasn’t there today (maybe because it’s President’s Day, because I did see a…