A Trip to the Carthaginian and Mala Pier

Aloha from Maui, Y'all!

Here are pics from the wreck of the Carthaginian and out at the wreck of Mala Pier. The Mala Pier was built by Dole when they were still growing pineapple out on Lana'i. They used it to move fruit off the boats and into the cannery (now the Lahaina Cannery Mall :) Hurricane Aniki collapsed the pier in 1992, giving way to a fantastic home for all sorts of marine life.



This boat used to be used as a maritime museum off of Lahaina. It was cleaned up and scuttled here a few years ago in about 100 feet of warm Maui water :) That's Magic lurking there on the starboard side (in the lower right corner)...musta been something shiny there :D



Here's Goofy at the wreck :)




A bunch of divers check out the top of the forward mast.

Meanwhile....out at Mala Pier...Goofy sees this white tipped reef shark




But not the one that was circling directly (seriously, right below) this sleepy turtle. :) Great pic of the turtle though!





We've been having a blast these last few days...lots of diving and visiting with friends. We plan to take a couple of days "off" to get some serious laziness taken care of ... maybe we'll even get down to the pool :)

Aloha! M&G

P.S. Today we went back to the pier and saw an Eagle Ray! First one ever...Way too cool!!!!

Magic and Goofy Dive the Day Away!

Hi All.

Sorry to be so slow in getting on the blog and showing you pics of our adventures this trip...we've been having a FANTASTIC time...getting to see old friends and dive buddies, and meeting new people...oh, and DIVING, DIVING, DIVING!!!! :)

On Tuesday, Goofy and I spent the entire day diving. What a treat! We did two dives out at Molokini crater, and then did two wreck dives closer to Lahaina.

Bright and early Tuesday morning, we headed up to Lahaina to catch a ride on the Dauntless out to the crater. It was a fantastic, sunny morning and we were really looking forward to trying out some of our new gear!

Sandy got some pics of me getting in the water...seems I made a bit of a splash :)





On board, observing my rather graceful entrance is Capt. Dan, and our dive buddy, teacher and friend John Cesere :)

We did two dives at the crater and got some really good pics. We were doing some of our digital underwater photography specialty stuff, and at the crater didn't use the strobes yet.

Here's a cool pic of a really big white mouth eel...




And...Goofy and John hanging at the safety stop...




I'll get more pics of yesterday afternoon's trips out to the wrecks posted later this evening...hope you all are having as good a time wherever you are, as we are having here!

Gotta run to the dive boat for this afternoon's adventures!

Love and Aloha!

Hello from Maui!

Hi Y'all.

We've been in Maui since Friday afternoon, and haven't slowed down for a minute since we landed! It's been a great time so far!

Friday, we drove into Lahaina to get some paperwork done for our diving classes, and visit with some friends. We got home late, and ended up sleeping early in prep for our dive adventure on Saturday morning.

Saturday, we were up at 5 am to head up to Lahaina to catch the boat out to Molokini crater. It was a beautiful morning, and the ride out to the crater was really nice. There are southern swells, which make the water a little rougher, but it wasn't enough of a bump to bother anyone on board.

Once we arrived at the crater, Goofy and I set out for our specialty dives in buoyancy and boat diving. Lots of fun, lots to see. A great day of diving!

Sunday, we went out to Turtle reef to do some underwater photography...again, lots to see and a beautiful afternoon for diving. Once we were back, we stopped to chat with the Cesere boys and their family, looked at their fantastic photos, and then headed to the shop to clean up our gear and get it hanging up to dry.

We are looking at some new gear - the DUI's are still a pain, and it's just interrupting our fun fighting the equipment to continue with them. We'll see how that works out.

Today, we are heading for the store to get some supplies and then we'll just chill for the day...we feel like we've been going full speed, but we LOVE it. It may be harder to get us back to the mainland this time... :)

We'll be heading out to dive tomorrow, and have more dives the rest of the week...pretty much a perfect time for us.

Hope you all are doing well...I'll post pics when I get them downloaded.

Aloha!

Magic and Goofy

iPhone, uPhone, we all want that iPhone! :P

Bourgeois or not..the invention of the year, baby! bwahahahahahahahahahaha!

Cheezburger of the week (month?)...whatever...

I love this pic...it messes with perception and reality a bit (at least for me...lol).

Babies....growing on trees, or what?

So...this past week, two close friends had babies arrive at their houses. Coincidence? Hmmmmmmm.

On the east coast, of a Hallowe'en night, Samuel Patrick made his debut into the world...much to the delight of his proud parents! He's been recently spotted chillin' on the couch with Dad...while Mom apparently stalks him and takes pictures as he sleeps :)

Meanwhile, on the west coast, a new little surfer girl decided to join her brother and Mom and Dad out in the world- November 1st. Violet Marguerite is her name, and keeping her Daddy amused is her game! She was born in a hurry (after only 2 hours of labor), must be a sale on flip flops somewhere that she needs to get to I guess! (her auntie K would approve). :)

Welcome, welcome little ones!

PS: I don't post pics of wee folk on this public forum, but they are amazingly beautiful children!

Arrrrrrrgh!

Ahoy there mateys!

Goofy and Magic went to the WAC for a Halloween party...Cleopatra and Sister were both there too....along with about 100 short people (most under the age of 10) and their parents.



The room was really crowded, but there was fun to be had...(even if Goofy and Sis were stuck at the craft tables the whole time). Cleo won a guessing game...only 17 candy corns away from the actual total of 717 (no one else even came close :)) There were also videos, a cupcake walk, a fashion show and (oooooooh scarey....) ...Count Wacula! as the MC.


Here's Sis in her pumpkin costume...dunno what the bat is all about, but it makes her happy :)

Magic became especially good at making spiders...they were, in fact, amazingly realistic and the envy of all the other kids. LOL

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN EVERYONE!

Someone Musta Known Ashleigh Cat :)

Here's a little animated blurb made by someone that obviously has a cat. :)

The Road MOST Travelled

Here's a little photo essay/slideshow courtesy of my iPhone camera and iPhoto (shameless Apple plug...lol ;).

I often have time to sit and enjoy the scenery whilst heading on downtown of an afternoon (or two)...this time I decided to play a bit while I was stuck in traffic.

Just a whim, really, but fun too...enjoy!

Through the Glass Eye

Today, regardless of what was promised, Magic went to the Glass Eye sale. For those of you that have never been to a Glass Eye sale, it's special indeed.

First, if you show up early, you spend much time milling about outside the "gate" created and heavily patrolled by Glass Eye Security. You can look into the parking lot - which is where this extravagant and high class sale is held - and see the things that they have displayed there on the asphalt.

The really fun part about this stage is to step back and watch the people that are on a mission. They jostle for position as the time grows nearer for the gate to open. But more interesting is the shopping commandos that bring recon equipment. They bring binoculars and shove their way up to the front so that they can see what is hidden from the ordinary mortal naked eye. LOL.

These people are the most entertaining of all. Until the gate actually opens. These people actually are quite insane...guerilla shoppers if you will...charging over every old lady and crutch-laden kid to get to those "special" items that they've scoped out with their night vision scopes and binoculars.

This year, we arrived at 9:35 (the sale officially opened at 9:30), zoomed in to a space only excellent parking kharma could have presented, power-shopped for about half an hour, then spent 45 minutes in line to check out.

All in all, not a bad time...got out of there and back up north in time to catch the second half of K's soccer game (cold, but no rain today :)