Adieu, Maui

Aloha

Goofy and I are busily (haha) preparing to head home tomorrow. We have to run up to Lahaina (poor us) to pick up our gear and say goodbye (for a while) to our dive buddies.

Wow! These past two weeks have flown by...it's true that time flies when you are having fun!

We have had (as we've said before, too many times I think) a fantastic time!

The diving has been great and even amazing at times. We've seen so many sea creatures and fish that we hadn't seen so closely before. We've done three specialty certifications (in buoyancy, boat diving, and digital underwater photography), and both Goofy and feel we've become much better divers. Our course director and teachers all saw the improvements and have been very kind in encouraging and cheering us on as we improve. If only we could get paid to dive every day and visit with friends....hmmmm. :)


Here's a very rare glimpse of a frogfish "running" across the open sand. I still have to work with the image a bit to bring out his best, but you can actually see the fish here. He uses his pectoral fins more like hands/arms and with a combination of using those fins and jet propulsion (he gulps water through his mouth and ejects is under pressure through gills toward the back of his body) he can get along pretty well. He's usually very sedentary, preferring to hang around and wait for dinner to come to him :)



This is a school of goatfish hanging around out at Mala Wharf. They pretty much ignore the divers, just edging away a bit if we get too close :)



Goofy found a new shark out at the Wharf...




I'll get more posted later...but for now...aloha!

M&G

Under The Sea

Aloha!

Sadly, Goofy and I have pretty much finished up our diving for this trip...gotta get the gear dry enough to pack!

It's going to be hard to go from lovely 85 degree days, with 80 degree water temps, to cold and rainy Seattle, but it's home, and hey, we miss it (really...ok, not the cold, but we like the rain :)

We have gotten a ton of diving in this trip, and really feel like our dive skills have improved greatly too! It's been just a great trip all around...can't say it enough!

It's also going to be harder leaving this time, as we'll be saying adios (for now) to our Maui friends too. We've gotten to know a bunch of folks here well, and will miss them when we are home like we miss everyone in Seattle (and Santa Cruz, and Austin, and Beaufort....and...well, you get the idea!! :) when we are here in Maui.

On our last dives, we had some amazing time with turtles (my favorite!)...one turtle in particular was very content to just sit on the sand and watch me, while I sat on the sand and watched him. We musta stayed like that for about 20 minutes...looking at each other, not saying anything, just chillin' in the sand.

It was Awesome!

At the time I was communing with the turtle, almost everyone else was turned the other way looking at the sharks (about 20 feet away under some fallen pier)...not me, though, I've seen sharks....it's turtles all the way!

Here are a few pics...




Just hangin...at the Wharf...




Still chillin'...in the sand...




I'm good...you? Feels a bit nappish, though! :)

We have lots of pics to go through...and several that are worth printing, so should be seen on a wall around the house soon!

We'll be flying home on Thursday...hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving, and take a little time this year to remember the things that are most important to you.

Love y'all!

M&G

Intermission...

Aloha!

Friday was a lovely, mellow day for Goofy and I.

We went into Kahalui to do some shopping, fill up the SUV with gas ($3.72/gallon - not that much more than Seattle, unfortunately), and then headed up to Lahaina for a leisurely afternoon.

It's been an amazing trip so far :) We've gotten to do a lot of diving, and we've also gotten to spend time with new friends here in Maui. Today, we are heading out with our real estate agent to look at a few condos - and then we are off to hang on the beaches and do some photo safaris :) Guess life really can't get much better, huh? Now if we could only figure out a way to live without money, we'd be set :D LOL.

Tomorrow, we are looking forward to a dive out at Lanai and the cathedrals. I'm hoping to get some good shots with the camera, and improve my ability to actually stop in the water where I want to (instead of 5 feet past the fish I wanted to photograph lol :) It's all a matter of practice, I guess...

Mike makes it look so easy...swoops in, stops on a dime, gets the shot, swoops out looking for the next shot...here he is with his brother John getting a shot of a frogfish and Santa :D



Have a great day wherever you are!

Aloha!

M&G

Here fishy, fishy, fishy...and turtles, and...woohoo, look at that!

Aloha from Maui!

I thought that I'd post a few pics of the cool fish and other creatures we've seen in our various dives. Remember, you can click on any of the pictures to see a bigger version if you'd like.


Here's a green sea turtle flying by out at Jodo Reef



This is the elusive (and crazy fast swimming) Juvenile Peacock Razorfish.



Goofy got this shot of John and a Green Sea Turtle out at Jodo Reef



Goofy also got a pic of this Lizard fish out at Jodo



This little octopus was totally into checking out an old bottle we found nearby



A Peacock Flounder scurrying along the sand



An Undulated Moray trying to get back in a his hiding spot




Here is a very small hermit crab hanging out in a shell...John is holding the shell, so you can see how small it really is. Click on the image to see it a bit bigger...he's in there.



I like the look on the face of this Bluefin Trevally (aka Bluefin Jack)...you lookin' at me? LOL



And last, but not least...a Frogfish. It mostly looks like a lump of stuff, but it's a fish. These fish are masters of camouflage. Their fins are more like "hands" and the move around more by walking than by swimming. They mostly hang out and lure their prey to them...check it out! Way cool!



So there you go...just a small sampling of some of the stuff we've seen (and managed to get a picture of) under water this trip.

We have a ton more too...maybe we'll get some prints made this time :)

Hope you all are happy and well! Aloha!

M&G

PS: I turned on comments for this post...let us know what you think!

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!