Thanksgiving

Turkey day was a good day in the Quinn household, a very full household indeed. Teri, Joe, Marisa, Trevor, Alexis, Johnny, James, Melissa and Melissa's son Preston all joined Jeremy, Kali, and I for the holiday. Turkey, stuffing, spinach salad, roasted veggies, mac n cheese (which no, is not traditional thanksgiving food, but we like it!), deviled eggs, rolls... everyone was moaning and groaning from eating way too much!

Jeremy made a beautiful homemade apple pie for dessert, accompanied by flourless chocolate cake.

Thursday: Molokini & Cheeseburger in Paradise

Thursday started at the crack of dawn, with a chilly top-down drive to the Maalaea Harbor, about 30 minutes south of Lahaina. Maalaea Harbor is known for being the windiest harbor in Hawaii, but on this day, it was still and serene. In fact, the boat crew couldn’t stop commenting on the absolutely perfect weather that we had on this day.

Once at the harbor, we found our boat, The Four Winds II, and were Molokini-bound. Molokini is a half-submerged crater in the channel off Maui, and is a federally-protected bird sanctuary for the frigate bird. It’s also the home of some of the best snorkeling on the island, with crystal clear blue water like I’ve never seen before.
Once on board, we confirmed our reservation for snuba. Snuba is a cross between snorkeling and scuba diving, where you breathe through a regulator attached to a hose, which is attached to an air tank that floats on a raft above the water. This enables you to go 20 feet down, but avoids having to carry your own air tank. We also rented an underwater digital camera, and were able to get some great shots of the reef, and of ourselves underwater.
Geared up in flippers, snorkel mask, and weight belts, we got into the water and swam a few feet away from the boat. Knowing that I needed to get through the inevitable breathing under water panic, I put my face into the water, and breathed through the regulator. A minute later, my brain came around, and accepted that today, we’d be breathing under water. Once the entire group was in the water, we started on our journey under water. As I was struggling with actually diving under the water, the instructor added some weight to my weight belt, and lo and behold, I started to sink.

The hardest part of snuba is learning how to clear your ears. Every 2-3 feet you descend, you have to clear your ears by pinching your nose and gently blowing. We did finally get a hang of it, and enjoyed a wonderful half hour swimming with the fishes.

After our snuba tour was done, we outfitted ourselves in standard snorkel equipment, and swam around on top of the water, exploring the rest of the reef.
The tour included a continental breakfast, and an all you can eat lunch, which, after all of the swimming, we were both very grateful for.
Before the boat picked up anchor and left, I jumped off the side for one last swim in the pristine waters.
On the way back, we stopped in the so-called “Turtle Universe,” with the hopes of seeing a sea turtle or two. I was able to get one decent shot of a sea turtle swimming near the boat.
That night, we hit the Lahaina tourist landmark, Cheeseburger in Paradise. After some questionable service from the hostess, we were seated upstairs, and enjoyed tropical drinks, excellent burgers, and a beautiful sunset. A great end to a perfect day.

Wednesday: Jet Skiing & Snorkeling

After making a full recovery from the nearly disabling seasickness the day before, we started Wednesday off with breakfast at the Sunshine Café, and then drove to Kanapali to jet ski.

Originally, we’d planned for Wednesday a trip down to La Peruse Bay for a lava hike and snorkeling at the Fishbowl/Aquarium. However, the local government decided otherwise, and had closed the public access point to the hike. So, it was jet skiing and snorkeling at Honoloa Bay instead.

We had signed up for a full hour of jet skiing, and met the company on the beach behind the Hyatt Regency. They loaded us onto a raft, and drove us out to the jet skiing platform in the middle of the ocean. We were given about five minutes of brief instruction, and then set free for our hour of jet skiing fun. Being the picture freak that I am, I paid for their professional action photographer to take pictures of us on the skis.

I should preface this part by stating that I’ve never been on a jet ski before. Ever. Jeremy is an old pro, so he immediately took off on his, pushing the ski as fast as it would go. I started off at about 20 mph, driving in slow circles around the platform. It took me a good twenty minutes to find my jet ski legs, but once I did, I was able to punch the speed up to a wild 30 mph. As my comfort level increased, so did my speed, topping out at about 58 mph.

While I was baby-stepping my way in to jet skiing, Jeremy was riding like a rock star. Pushing his jet ski as fast as it would go from the start, he topped out at about 65 mph. I could see him in the distance, executing crazy turns and catching air as he jumped the wake created by the others in our group.
On the whole, I have to say that it was a really fun experience, being out on the warm, blue, open water, surrounded by the islands of Maui, Lanai, and Molokai. An hour was definitely the right amount of time; it took me a good 40 minutes to really find my comfort level on the jet ski. An experience I’d recommend! Jeremy spent the next two days recovering from the experience, walking funny with legs sore from standing on the jet ski and keeping his balance at break-neck speeds.
After jet skiing, we stopped by Boss Frogs and picked up snorkel equipment, for our venture up to Honoloa Bay. Honoloa Bay is a decent sized inlet without a real beach, instead you find a spot among the boulders, and make your slippery way down an old boat ramp to the water. The walk down to the bay is a short but beautiful hike, and it gave me a chance to take some scenery shots.

The snorkeling here was pretty incredible, warm water and colorful coral abound. We spent a good, long time working our way around the reef, and then took a break on the shoreline. Quickly realizing it was one o’clock, and that we hadn’t eaten since 7:30, we decided to head back toward Lahaina for lunch.

On the way back, we spotted the Maui Brew Company, and decided to stop there for lunch, so that my beer aficionado husband could try the local brew. The lunch was decidedly successful, as Jeremy found an excellent stout called St. John the Baptist, I believe, and I had the best local-brewed cola I’ve ever had. Maui ____ Soda. I can't remember the middle word, and the waiter said that they sell it at Whole Foods. No luck yet, but I will persevere!

Tuesday: Molokai

The morning of our ferry trip to Molokai dawned clear and beautiful. We walked to slip #3 in the Lahaina Harbor to check-in for our trip. Our package included round-trip ferry rides, and a rental car for our use to explore the island for the day.

This is the Molokai Princess, our ferry:
All that wear and tear on the ship may inspire reservations in some, but sometimes you have to ask yourself: do you want a little adventure in life, or do you want a boat that’s sound? It’s really all about your priorities. That is, until you’re bouncing like a cork in the middle of the channel, not puking your guts out by sheer willpower alone; hoping to avoid embarrassing yourself in front of the group of 70+ year old travelers who are oohhing and aahing with every dip and sway of the ship, while you slowly turn green… but not until the trip back across the channel. On the way there, it was an enjoyable boat trip on a sunny morning.

Once we arrived on the island, we were given our rental car, and a couple of suggestions for destinations. Settling on the Kalaupapa overlook and the Halawa (pronounced Halava) Valley. We stopped for lunch at the Molokai eating landmark (their claim, not ours) the Kualapu’u cook house:

Jeremy would like to take a moment to testify to the religious experience he had eating the roasted pork locomoco there: OMG. Imagine roasted unicorn meat atop fluffy perfect white rice, a wonderful fried egg cooked over-medium, and brown gravy that could only have been cooked in heaven by the angles responsible for such things. I knew immediately this was something special. Before I indulged in the first bite, it whispered to my soul. Sweetly… Saltly… So yeah- Molokai. Do the roasted pork locomoco. Period. Tell ‘em Jeremy sent you.

I bought a t-shirt.

We then ventured to the Kualapu’u lookout, which overlooks the old leper colony (or Hansen’s disease/leprosy patient colony, as they really don’t like to be called lepers). The view was pretty amazing, and makes me wonder why the lepers complained so much about being quarantined there – blue water, sandy beaches, beautiful landscape, what’s a debilitating chronic illness when you’ve got all that? (Random leprosy fact: only 4% of the world’s population is susceptible to leprosy).
We also checked out Phallic Rock after the lookout. Phallic Rock is a sacred spot for Hawaiians that represents fertility. See the picture, it’s pretty self-explanatory:
After this, we drove around to the other side of the island to the Halawa Valley. It was a pretty drive over a single-lane road with hairpin turns (very similar to the road to Hana) to a lovely valley with two waterfalls. This is Jeremy trying to figure out where the trail to the waterfalls starts.
We couldn’t find it anywhere. Our guidebook said to look for the no trespassing sign, and then trespass. They failed to mention which of the 10 different no trespassing signs was the right one. More frustrating was that we’d just met a group returning from the falls. Guess we should’ve paid more attention when they were demonstrating the secret handshake on the boat. Instead, we tromped around in the burned out shell of a church, and I acquired 15 bug bites.

After giving up on our waterfall hike, we ended up taking a nap on Murhy’s Beach and then took the ferry back to Hana. If you were reading carefully above, you have a pretty good idea how that 90 minute ferry ride went for me. Nevertheless, I was victorious in my efforts. No puking on the ferry! (Pardon the blurriness in these pictures, the camera lens got wet from one of the many water sprays we endured on the way back across the channel.)

(Victory Shot!)

View of Maui from the water, heading back to the harbor

Lahaina Harbor at sunset