Maui - Day 5 (Part 1)

Something different today!

We decided on Thursday that it might be fun to try a snorkeling trip with the kids, since both older kids had become so comfortable in the water. Mike and I hadn't done the trip to Molokini in years, so we thought that if we could get a reservation for one of the boat trips, we'd give it a try. We had no trouble getting on a boat, so that's how we spent the morning.

I tend to get miserably seasick, so I wasn't completely enthusiastic about the trip to start out. I did take Bonine ahead of time and I felt fine the whole trip, luckily. It was a bit rocky getting out there, so I was glad I had taken the drugs. The kids enjoyed the boat ride and had no problem at all. The little one did end up falling off of a bench and scraping her knees, so we had to do some minor first aid, but that was the only hitch.

Once we got out to Molokini, everyone got in the water to snorkel. Mike and the two older kids went off together while I tried to deal with our youngest. She was less than thrilled with the idea of being out in the ocean, even with a life jacket and riding on a float, so she and I got back on the boat and waited for the others to return. The kids didn't want to stay in for very long; even with wetsuits, it was cold for them. So after a turn around the reef and seeing some of the fish, they, too, got back on the boat. Mike took some time to snorkel on his own while I rode herd on the kids and when he came back to the boat, the two older ones spent some time going down the slide and jumping off the side of the boat. Our son even did a flip off the side at one point! There was a group of guys and girls who were maybe in their early twenties who were doing tricks for each other, so our son had to follow their example. They were really nice and very sweet to the kids, so it was fun for all of them. Mike came back on the boat after a while and I went in to snorkel for a bit. It was super clear and neat to see the amount of coral along the walls, but the fish life wasn't any more exciting than what we were seeing right off of the beach by the condo.

On the way back to the marina, the boat stopped at an area just off the shore at the north end of Kihei where turtles tend to hang out. There were 24 of them that our son counted, and many of them were huge. Definitely the biggest turtles I've ever seen out there! That was probably the highlight, as far as sea life was concerned.

We all had a really good time on the boat and I'm glad we decided to do it. I think we even managed to avoid major sunburn out there, which with our complexions can be the biggest challenge.