Maui - Day 4

Day 4 on Maui was another extremely busy, but extremely fun and memorable day for the DeGroots! And this one also started bright (actually dark!) and early, before the sun came up. Although we did get to sleep in a few more hours compared to the day before – we woke up at 5 AM. I’ll share more info with the pictures below, but to summarize the day: we took a catamaran 9 miles out of Ma’alaea Harbor to snorkel at Molokini Crater, one of the most well-known snorkel sites in Hawaii. It’s an extinct volcano that is now designated as a marine life and bird conservation area…you are not allowed to touch or step foot on the land or coral reefs under water. The pictures below are only from our (non-waterproof) digital camera, so there will be more from the waterproof camera once we get them developed. We saw tons of tropical fish and coral reefs. After the crater, we got back on the boat and headed over to “Turtle Town” which is a hot-spot reef for some of the largest sea turtles on the island. WOW – this was so cool to see. In fact, one kept coming closer and closer to us and actually got within 3 feet or so (they told us not to get closer than 10 feet or they get “scared”). I also had the chance to hold a few different types of sea urchins, which was pretty neat. My Jacque Cousteau career dreams were coming back to me! =) After several hours of snorkeling at both sites, we jumped back in the boat, where they had a BBQ lunch and an open bar waiting for us! As we were about to start heading back, the captain spotted 3 humpback whales playing around in the water – a mom, a calf, and an escort (a male hoping to father the next baby!). It was so neat to see – these creatures are huge and almost surreal.

After a full morning of snorkeling, we jumped in the jeep and headed to South Maui towards some of the super nice beaches. We made our stop at Makena State Park, better known as Big Beach. This is now our all-time favorite beach!!!!! It’s just a vastly open, white sand beach with beautiful, crystal clear, blue-green water – AMAZING! Dustin played in the water quite a bit, caught some waves and body surfed while I did a lot of laying out and soaking up the rays. I did get in the water once to cool off because it was pretty hot. After a few hours, we jumped back in the jeep but this time we were finally able to take the top off and head home in the sun and wind.

Waking up at 5 AM - you can see it's still dark. We were standing outside on our porch!

It was kind of cold and windy on the boat on the way out to Molokini...it was only like 7:30 AM!

Molokini Crater

The water out there was just as pretty...so blue and clear!

Pacific Whale Foundation let us rent some wetsuit jackets cause it was chilly!

Ha'leakala - the place where we watched the sunrise the day before!

One of Tiger Woods' houses....on Wailea Beach

Blow hole!

Arching its back....

...and then showing its tail. I almost missed it but caught it at the last second!

A Blue Hawaiian....they served those plus Mai Tais and other tropical drinks!

Dustin had a blast all week playing in the waves. Without a boogie board this day, he went all out body surfing and did a great job! I loved trying to capture his expressions while riding these waves into shore.

He got knocked around a bit on this one - shaking the sand out!

I took A TON of pictures of the waves, trying so hard to catch the moment when the wave breaks and curls. Since I don't own a super awesome camera, this is what we got....plus you can see how stinkin' clear and gorgeous the water is!

A few of the "locals" out with their boogie boards....they were fun to watch!

These black clouds were coming over us from behind....thankfully it didn't rain on us this day!

We were so thirsty by the end of the afternoon and this water tasted so good! It's probably not much different than any other bottle of water, so it must be the "presentation!"

Check out the shadow of Dustin's hand - I love my husband! =)

Dustin's "end of day" departure pose....

...and then mine!

A view of Big Beach from up above. There is a small cliff you can climb to overlook the beach...and also it's the way to get to Little Beach. See the picture below...it's the nudey beach on Maui!

He loved his jeep, especially when we finally got to ride with the top down!

Just before we got home, we saw a rainbow in the West Maui Mountains.