Dive Oahu

This afternoon I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the reenlistment of one of my Sailors just forward of the pilot house on the wreck of YO-257. YO-257 was a Navy oiler that was intentionally sunk off the coast of Waikiki to create an artificial reef. This was my first chance to go scuba diving in Hawaii, and it was AWESOME! We hired a charter with Dive Oahu, and David, Hector, and Ike did a great job.

Time: We met up at Dive Oahu to get our wetsuits and stuff at 12:45. The boat actually left the dock around 1:30 p.m. and got back about 4:45 p.m.

Temp: The water temperature was around 73 degrees, so we wore "shorties" (a 3mm thick wetsuit with short sleeves and short legs). I guessed at 18 lbs on my soft lead weight belt, and it was perfect.

Visibility: I think visibility was probably about 75 feet, because from the surface we could see the top of the wreck and the top of the Atlantis submarine going by, but not the bottom.

We did our first dive on the YO-257 down to a depth of about 90 feet. As the boat slowed to tie up to the mooring buoy, we could see the large white blob of the Atlantis submarine below us. We all descended to the main deck of the wreck and did the reenlistment ceremony there in the company of two sea turtles. Then we swam around the rest of the wreck to check out the hundreds of beautiful tropical fish.

This was the first time I have taken our Cannon PowerShot A520 with the underwater housing down scuba diving. I didn't want the first test to be at 90 feet. Plus, it's been a few years since I've been scuba diving and this was my first dive in a new (different) wetsuit, so I left the camera on the boat for the first dive to just get used to handling my buoyancy control. As a result, I don't have any pictures to show you from the first dive.

Update 4/4/08: Here are a couple of pictures from one of the guys who took a camera on the first dive:

That's the Eng on the left and me on the right.

This is me looking into the pilot house.

That's the EA (Electrical Assistant) checking out one of the two turtles that were on the main deck of the wreck.

For our second dive we went to a reef in closer to shore in about 40 feet of water. This time I took the camera, and it worked like a champ. I was really pleased with the pictures I got (even though the colors are subdued without a flash - I forgot to get batteries for my flashlight, too).

Traditional Blunoz Self Portrait.

This is to give you a feel for the visibility.

Today was the first time I've ever seen a moray eel with my own eyes underwater, and I actually got to see THREE of them. Two were these really pretty white ones with yellow spots. The other one was a green and blue one in the rocks. Note, I did not dumb-down the resolution of these photos, so if you click on the picture above you can check out the details on the moray eel. I would estimate it was about 3 feet long.

Another first for me was getting to see a white-tipped reef shark. It was about 4 to 5 feet long.

We saw tons and tons of tropical fish, too.

Before climbing back up on the boat, I took one last Blunoz Self Portrait, trying to get Diamond Head in the background, but I mis-aimed and got Waikiki instead.

LW and I used to scuba dive a lot together back in Monterey before we started having kids. We would really like to go scuba diving together again sometime soon, especially while we're living here in Hawaii.

Maui - part 4 - wrap up with a trip to Lahaina

This is Part 4 of 4 about our trip to Maui. Click on the links here to visit Part 1, Part 2 (Iao Needle & drive around the island), and Part 3 (Snorkeling Trip). Also, for a comparison of Maui versus the Big Island, see this post.

Today was our last day in Maui. We got up and checked out of the hotel this morning. We said goodbye to the wonderful "tree tunnel" as we left the driveway of our hotel for the last time and hit the road for Lahaina on the western end of the island. It was a pretty and scenic drive that took us by the spot where we went snorkeling on the Four Winds II yesterday.

Downtown Lahaina was nice. This is a shot of Front Street in downtown Lahaina. The Maui Revealed book said if you came to this side of the island and DIDN'T go for a walk down Front Street, then you were missing out. I found it to be a typical upscale coastal tourist trap sort of like Cannery Row in Monterey, California, or Mystic, Connecticut or Newport, Rhode Island, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. There were lots of art galleries, restaurants, historic sites, and of course the touristy t-shirt shops.

On the site of this lighthouse, King Kamehameha III ordered the first lighthouse (well... a pole with a light on it) erected in 1840 - the first navigation aid in Hawaii. The current lighthouse that is there was built in 1915. (Yes, this was a virtual geocache).

Believe it or not, all the leaves you see in this picture is ONE banyan tree. It's over 100 years old!

This was absolutely THE COOLEST shop we saw in Lahaina. They had all these really cool ship models made out of wood. I was surprised they only cost on the order of $300 bucks! If I were playing The Price Is Right, I would have guessed upwards of $1,000. They had lots of historic ships like HMS Victory and USS Constitution. They even had the Mount Washington (the ferry boat that runs across Lake Winnepesaukee, NH). Anyway, LW had to drag me and the boys out of there.

Oh, yeah, did I mention they had the stereo-typical tourist t-shirt shops? Some people wonder why I have a problem with our kids glamorizing pirates.

Aside for anyone else shopping for t-shirts in Maui: We shopped several places all over the island for our souvenir t-shirts. Out of all the places we went, the place I liked the best was the shop in Kihei downstairs from Denny's. They had the best selection of t-shirts that I saw in any of the stores we went to, and the prices weren't bad. By "best selection," I mean that they had a variety of nice, classy looking, conservative Maui t-shirts, unlike the stereotypical tourist-trap obnoxious-slogan, cheap, or cheesy t-shirts.

Okay, so now for the best part (in my opinion) about Lahaina. I wrote previously about LW's propensity to look for things that had cross-referenced good reviews in multiple books. Both the Maui Revealed book and the Frommers Hawaii with Kids book contained high praises for Cilantro.

Looks can be deceiving. It may not look like much from the outside, but...

[Cue sound effect: Angels singing the hallelujah chorus] This place was AWESOME. They take "fresh" to a new level and put one of our old NoVA favorites, Baja Fresh, to shame. The food was both SO fresh and absolutely-to-die-for-delicious. I don't think I've ever had tortilla chips that tasted THAT good. The guacamole was ALMOST as good as LW's fresh guacamole. The pork adobo burrito I had was legendary. The churros were even better than Costco's! If you like Mexican food and you go to Maui, then you absolutely MUST go to Cilantro. This place ROCKS!

Of course, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that seeing this sign made my day!

After our awesome lunch, we hit the road toward back toward the airport and stopped to look for a couple of geocaches along the way. The boys entertained themselves with the camera in the backseat. Now we have hundreds of pictures of YB taken by ES and ES taken by YB, plus pictures of their stuffed-animals. Thank goodness electrons are free (in the 2GB SD card variety in the digital camera I mean).

Those darn paparazzi found this celebrity dude again.

Luckily for us, Maui is mostly a rural type of place and Kahului is not a big town. The power was out, so all the traffic lights were out. It was chaos on the roads. Plus, we couldn't buy gas for the rental car, so we just sucked up the penalty at the rental car place and turned the car in with a half-full tank.

Follow-Up: Now, sitting in my recliner watching the evening news, I see it's a big story that they lost power on almost all of Maui today. The other big news around here is the impact of Aloha Airlines going under and all the people stranded at the airport. The news crew interviewed one couple that's been stranded here for 3 days. Yikes! That's why I just sucked it up and bought new tickets for a Hawaiian Airlines flight back - I didn't want to take any chances with the "space available" travel with so many people holding useless Aloha Airlines tickets and trying to get into those limited available spaces.

Overall, we had a great trip and really enjoyed having the family vacation time and the opportunity to see another one of the islands.

Follow-Up 4/12/08: I had a hit from someone doing a Google search for BlackbBerry signal coverage on Maui. In all the places we went on Maui, I always had a good signal on my BlackBerry. Even when I was over the side of a cliff searching for a geocache, and all I could see was the ocean on one side and sheer rocks above me on the other side, I was still able to access the internet on my BlackBerry to review the geocache listings.

Maui - part 3 - snorkeling trip

This is Part 3 of 4 about our trip to Maui. Click on the links here to visit Part 1, Part 2 (Iao Needle & drive around the island), and Part 4 (Trip to Lahaina). Also, for a comparison of Maui versus the Big Island, see this post.

We got up at the crack of dawn this morning, put the boys in their bathing suits, grabbed our snorkel gear, towels, and sun screen, and got in the car to drive 30 minutes to the marina for our snorkel trip. A few friends of ours recommended taking a snorkeling trip to Molokini. In the Maui Revealed book, we read good things about the Four Winds II charter out of Maalaea.

When I checked out their website, I noted their afternoon snorkel trip was considerably cheaper than the morning trip. When I called, I tried signing up for the afternoon trip, and the lady on the phone explained to me the difference. The Trade Winds generally pick up here early in the afternoon. She said if we went on the afternoon trip, we had about a 50/50 chance of making it to Molokini because conditions are frequently too rough. If we went on the morning trip though, she said we had about a 98% chance of making it to Molokini because it's generally calm in the morning. So I signed us up for the morning trip.

It was very windy when we boarded the boat at 7:15, but the guide book said Maalaea was the windiest spot on the island, and the Captain didn't seem concerned. We got underway and headed out toward the Molokini Crater. About half way there, the Captain noticed all the other charter boats were LEAVING Molokini and heading back toward Maui. He got on the radio with them and found out the winds were bad and the conditions too rough. Big bummer :-(.

Since it was too rough for Molokini, we went and anchored in the lee of the western end of Maui and still had a great time.

This is where we ended up anchoring.
(View looking east toward Maalaea)

Customary Blunoz Self Portrait.

YB initially went in the water with me like this. He wore his swimming goggles and enjoyed sticking his face in the water periodically to see the fish. Eventually he opted for one of the really cool plastic things that kids could ride on and look down through the window to see the fish. ES snorkeled for a little while and then decided to join YB on a white board, too. (You'll see pictures of these in a minute).

There is a professional photographer on board who goes in the water in scuba gear and takes pictures of everyone. On the way back to the harbor, he sells the pictures on CD for you to take home.

This is the picture he took of ES and LW.

This is the picture he took of YB and me. This is that white board with the window I mentioned earlier.

ES really impressed me with how calmly he handled that hungry shark that tried to devour him. Oh, wait, that was just one of the goofy things the professional photographer did with his toy shark.

We did see a LOT of tropical fish (too many to name them all). I figure you can look up pictures of tropical fish on the internet and don't need them here. They'll be on shutterfly later.

Here's LW, ES, and YB watching the fish, while Daddy swims ahead pulling the boys along.

Periodically I would dive down to check something out and pull the boys along to watch me.

LW took this photo of me looking back up to her and the boys.

I took this photo looking back up at the boys.

There was a cool glass-bottom section of the hull where the kids could sit and watch the snorkelers and fish. ES went back up on the boat first because he wanted to watch YB and me out in the water.

Later, when we went back on board for lunch, I took this photo of the boys watching the fish.

Daddy keeping YB warm on the boat while everyone else is looking for whale spouts.

On our way out and on our way back, we saw several whales and a couple of sea turtles. That was pretty cool to see.

ES took this picture of LW, YB, and me during the ride back to the harbor.

In spite of our disappointment over not going to Molokini, I give Four Winds II two thumbs-up. Captain John and his crew were all very professional and friendly. Captain John was really funny and provided a nearly-continuous commentary on the PA system that kept us laughing most of the trip. The food was decent and plentiful. The boat and the trip were all very kid-friendly.


The boat got back to Maalaea about 12:30. We took a drive through the business area in Kihei, stopped to get some Lappert's ice cream and look at some souvenir t-shirts. When we got back to the hotel it was still early enough that we were able to spend a substantial portion of the afternoon at the pool. I didn't bother taking any pictures since it was just more of the same, but we had a blast playing in the kids' pool and rode the water slide what seemed like a hundred times. YB got so used to the water slide that he stopped waiting for LW or me to go with him. He just started heading up the steps and coming down on the water slide on his own.

For our last dinner in Maui, we decided to splurge on the hotel restaurant again and enjoyed a delicious meal with fantastic service and another spectacular sunset.

Tomorrow we hope to do a little bit more exploring around the island before we fly home.

Maui - part 2

This is Part 2 of 4 about our trip to Maui. Click on the links here to visit Part 1, Part 3 (Snorkeling Trip) and Part 4 (Trip to Lahaina).

This morning, we enjoyed our very convenient and affordable breakfast in our hotel room (cereal and milk we bought at the store yesterday) and then headed to the pool.

First steps - getting used to the water.

YB the Water Monster.

ES Stuck in "Jail"

As I mentioned before, we could have paid for four tickets to Hawaiian Adventures Water Park and almost equaled the price we paid for our hotel room here (not including all the resort fees and taxes they add onto the "price" of your hotel room). Sure, we could have stayed home and just gone to Hawaiian Adventures every day, but then we would have to put up with the drive whereas here we just walk out of our hotel room and into the kids' pool. So I think we're getting a pretty good deal in that regard. This morning we did a lot of this...

and this...

The boys liked what a big splash Daddy makes at the bottom of the water slide.

We spent some time diving for toys in the bigger pool, too.

Aside: Man... whatever happened to my little baby boy??? How'd he get to be 6 years old??? He's swimming like a fish! Look how deep he is in that second picture!

Just like yesterday, we got cleaned up and headed into town for lunch. We went to an Italian placed called Bada Bing. The service was friendly and prompt, although they didn't bring LW what she ordered. The food was good and reasonably priced (which is saying a lot for most of the places around here).

After lunch, we took a scenic drive around the coast, found a couple of geocaches, saw some whales, and stopped at the Hula Cookie shop recommended in the Maui Revealed book. The boys each got an ice cream cone, but I got one of the Hula Cookie Ice Cream sandwiches. You get to choose the type of cookie and the flavor of ice cream. I chose the Hula Delight cookies (Morsels of Mango & Pineapple with Ground Coconut and Macadamia Nuts) with Haupia (coconut) ice cream, and it was FANTASTIC!

Hula Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich

LW taking pictures of whales at a scenic overlook on the west side of Maui. Our hotel is somewhere across the water in the distance in the background.

While LW was taking pictures of the whales, I headed down the cliff for another geocache.

Oh, and YB had another run-in with the paparazzi.

For dinner, we more than made up for the savings we had at breakfast. Note to self: READ THE MENU before you go in. We thought the Longhi's restaurant sounded good. I checked the menu on the website, but based on the prices of their salads being cheaper than the prices of the salads at the hotel restaurant, I made the erroneous conclusion that everything else on the menu would also be cheaper.

We walked into Longhi's in our t-shirts and shorts from having explored the island all afternoon and felt severely underdressed, and I just about needed to sell one of our children to pay for dinner. Yikes. The service was good. The food was okay, but not worth what we paid for it. Thank goodness we ate cereal for breakfast! :-)

Tomorrow, we're off to snorkel at the Molokini Crater.