We took a ferry from the Lahaina dock out to the Submarine and felt lucky when we learned that our tour guide was a marine biologist! Very personable guy with several humorous stories, but the story that Joani and I found the funniest was when he pointed out the town inn and told us quite proudly. "That building is the oldest building in all of Maui. It is over 100 years old and Mark Twain once stayed there!" Joani and I have, over the years developed an unspoken understanding with each other as most married couples do, and at that moment, we looked at each other thinking; Wow, we're supposed to be in Italy looking at ruins over 2000 years old and here this guy is proudly showing off the town inn, that is over 100 years old. It just seemed ironic in a very amusing way.
When we got to the submarine it got interesting. I'm a little claustrophobic but Joani is full on, so you have to know what a giant step it was for her to get in what was essentially a shoe closet, with about 30 other people and sink down to the depths but she was game so away we went.
I, even with my claustrophobia found it super cool!!
It was definitely a small confined space and we were under much water. The Pacific Ocean!
I'm lucky because even though I suffer a bit from several phobias, heights, enclosed spaces, darkness, etc., my adrenaline usually kicks in and overrules these problems.
While down there we saw tons of interesting things including a sunken ship covered in barnacles and corrosion, but as we were finding all of this very interesting we were also the subject of observation from one of the ocean inhabitants.
This guy seemed to be as interested in us as we were in him and followed us for quite a distance, peering in our window and checking us out. Joani has told me on occasion that I seem to have an affinity for animals and in this instance it seemed to extend to fish. How cool is that?
Over the next several days we drove around the island seeing as much of the scenery as time would allow and I'll tell you honestly that while we missed being in Italy, we still really enjoyed Maui! It was exactly what we needed to see. Being in Italy would have been touring around an old world country with medieval towns and cities seeing ancient ruins and art.
This was a trip through a pristine beautiful scenic paradise with waterfalls, beaches and some of the most breathtaking natural sites you'll ever see.
On our second last day we left our rental car parked in the hotel lot and took a tour bus on the Road to Hana. This is a single lane highway that goes around the uninhabited side of the island. Our bus driver turned out to have what could politely be called a quirky personality that at times made me wish I had taken our own car, but even so we saw some beautiful sights.
The aforementioned waterfalls
Lava caves
Uninterested, bored inhabitants
The seven sacred pools of Maui.
The girl swimming was a precocious looking 12 or 13 year old, who was standing at the top of a rock formation and I asked her if anyone swam in these pools? "Hell yeah" she said, ran and dove off a 15 foot drop to do a cannonball into this particular sacred pool. Joani and I declined. Hey we weren't chicken, these were just sacred waters!!
It was a terrific day and that evening we went for a walk on the beach in front of our resort where I took this photo of a sunset.
The symbolic sunset of our vacation in Hawaii.
A beautiful place to visit.
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