Maui Trip - Day 3 (May 13th)

We were at Lahaina Harbor at 7:30a.m. for our first excursion. We booked a 5-hour ocean rafting trip to the nearby island of Lanai hoping for some good snorkeling and dolphin and turtle encounters. This was a really fun outing. The boat was small and there were just four of us that went. At our first stop, the fish were a little sparse, but the water was crystal clear and we saw four turtles just hanging out. It was really cool. At our second stop we came across a huge pod of spinner dolphins and we were right in the midst of them. We weren't allowed to jump in right there and snorkel with them, but we had a great view from the boat. They were nearly close enough to touch. Our captain, Bob, offered to dangle us over the side of the boat so we could put our faces into the water to see the dolphins down below. If we thought there were a lot of dolphins at the surface there were even more underneath. It was incredible to see them close-up and in their natural environment. After that, we went closer to shore for some excellent snorkling. Our third stop was back at Maui, right at an old pier that had collapsed during a hurricane several years ago. We saw more turtles and overall had a great time. The only downers were that my flipper tore the first time I put it on (Bob tried to tape it together - it didn't really work) and that we got FRIED despite our efforts to not get burned. We figured our sunscreen's SPF was too low and we didn't apply it often enough. We should've known better since our pasty white bodies haven't seen much sun in four years, literally.

We came back to our hotel for lunch and a nap. Then we went back to Lahaina to walk Front St. and to have dinner. We passed a little shop that advertised "Ice Cold Coconut Juice". We were sucked in and purchased one. It sounded so good. It was cool to drink directly from a coconut, but it was nasty stuff! The worst part: it cost $6. We went to Kobe for dinner, a Japanese Tepanyaki restaurant. It was a fun place and the food was to die for. We had a fun time there.