Hawaii - near death experience #2

Maui, Hawaii
The final leg of the trip.

On the first day in Maui we thought we would check out the activities the hotel had to offer. We found a booth near the water that rented snorkeling equipment for the day. They pointed out a near by reef where several of the local sea creatures could be observed. We sized up the gear and set out for the adventure. It all started out very romantically holding hands swimming out to the reef. We squeezed each others hand to point out a colorful sea creature moving in our direction. I soon realized that the fish was coming towards us full force. Maybe half force, ok just swimming but it was not wavering. I mean we are bigger than it, right? So shouldn't it turn around. So I freaked out a little and let Michael's hand go and swam in the opposite direction. I was having problems with mouth piece. Water kept seeping in. Mike at this point knew it was going to be an interesting trip around the U shaped reef. So he decided we would take a short cut across the reef to cut the trip short. So we moved our way across the reef. The waves were coming in high and strong and it kept knocking us around. I was really freaked out I was sqautting on the reef thinking how when coral is touched it dies... so i freaked out more. My mouth piece fell out and I was trying to fix it when a wave came in and knocked me and the mouth piece down. Mike told me later that I had the fear of death in my eyes. He gave me his mouth piece told me to say a prayer and swim in that direction as he pointed to the north. He retreived my lost mouth piece. I did what he said I kept praying until I got to clear water. Once there I could see blood in te water from the coral cutting me up from the waves tossing me around. So the first thing I thought was sharks to I freaked again and swam to shore as fast as I could. Mike was not too far beind me. We both got to the shore at this point I was crying and breathing heavily so we sat on a beach chair for about 20 mintues catching our breath. Needless to say we didn't go out again. Forty minutes after we rented the snorkeling equipment for the day it was returned. We sat by the pool for the rest of the day!

A few days later we went to the top of Haleakala mountain to go ATVing (All Terrain Vehicle).

Haleakala mountain is 10,023 ft high so Michael was taking in the sights. So was I!




We had a great time on the mountain that day. But man did we get dirty.





We had to take two showers just to get all the dirt off.






This is Michael at dinner. He was kinda thirsty.













The hotel had a luau. we were excited to experience some of the Hawaiian culture. We were so dis- appointed with the cultural experience thus far. Everything was so Americanized. I can't tell you how many Starbucks we saw. We thought for sure we would experience Hawaii at the luau. The dance was pretty neat. Here is a photo of a fire dancer. We also have a video of Mike learning a traditional Hawaiian dance. And once I figure out how to post video on this thing I will definitely share it.