OMG! It's stampin' hell LOL

save me...I'm in a stamping' card class...but at least I'm with my friends...oh, wait, they are the ones that got me into this. ;)

Gotta go now...


K...now I has pictures...LOL...too much time with "cheezburgers" cats.

It's that kind of day...

So...

...no one is lurking? Or at least they aren't commenting, lol.

Imagine my disappointment? I was thinking we could have some interesting dialogue here

I guess I'll just go on talking to myself then...not really a problem for me, as those who know me know well...

Goofy and I will be posting more pics as we dive and travel more...but I'm going to turn off comments...it's just too painful to see the big goose egg there...haha!

Hey! Anyone out there?

Hey, Y'all...

If you are out there lurking, please take a moment to comment here (on this post), and let me know what you think. At the moment, I generaly keep the option for you to comment turned off, but I don't know whether or not you'd like to comment on the posts in general, so here's your chance...speak up and be heard :)

A Collection of Photos from the Deep

For those loyal readers that demanded more pictures, here's a collection of photos from the last couple of dive trips. All are in the Maui County area. Please let us know what you think by posting comments.

This is a Fourspot Butterflyfish. We saw this off of our favorite beach in south Maui: Ulua. Snorkeling here is great, & diving is awesome!


The famous Wedgetail or Reef Triggerfish. You say you don't recognize it? Well, you probably know it better as the world famous (drumroll, please) HUMUHUMU NUKUNUKU A PUA A. There ya go, Seiko!

Here is a Stripebelly Puffer - unpuffed :) Not much in the way of bottom scenery...but the fish looks good!

A group of Whitebar Surgeonfish...not a very imaginative name, but it fits the situation. These tend to swim around in little schools and are really interested in checking for food in the coral of the reef.


This is a Paletail Unicornfish...notice the "horn" on its head? These are actually pretty colorful in person. They have a "day glo" blue stripe along the top and bottom, and the glowing dots on the tail.

We've seen many of these brightly colored Yellow Trumpetfish around the islands..this one was about 18 inches long. They are pretty mellow and glide along unconcerned with us.


Unfortunately, this doesn't do the Yellowheaded Moray Eel we saw on our night dive any justice at all. I didn't have my camera, so this is a photo I found on the net to give you an idea. These eels are pretty agressive (they'll eat the other fish if they get close enough - even if they are bigger than the eel's mouth), and generally are nocturnal. The one we saw had a vibrant yellow head, was about 3 feet long, - and was none too pleased to see us either time we went by. Let us know that we'd be eel food if we got too close...lol.

So...there are some of the creatures we've seen on our first dive trips. Hope you enjoy seeing them as much as we've enjoyed the diving and exploring!

Aloha!

9/11

Amazing that it's been six years already. I'm taking a moment to remember that day six years ago, and all that means and meant.

I am also consciously taking the time to remember just how fortunate I am. My family, my friends. People that I've known and lost. People I have yet to meet. It's an amazing ride, and I think that I don't often stop to consider how all of these things - good/bad/happy/sad (real/imagined - lol) have brought me where I am today. The place I'm at now is a good one, and for that I'm grateful too.

And today, I remember the horror and tragedy that happened to us all six years ago - some more directly than others, but irrevokably to all of us as a nation. The end of our innocence really. No more invincibility or "that doesn't happen _here_". We have tried to grow up since then...I wonder how far we have come along that road...

Think. Breathe. Remember. Peace.

Home Again, Home Again...Jiggety Jig!

A lovely sunset taken from the balcony of our room at the Ka'anapali Beach Club. It's a nice way to remember how restful and beautiful this place was. Lucky for us to have spent our days and evenings basking here.

After a rather long flight, we are all home safe and sound again!

Yesterday, after some frenzied last minute shopping - involving a fast backtrack to Kihei - in which all participants (all of us, crazy people) actually purchased MORE luggage (unbelieveably) we managed to get to the airport, and through security. We put lots of suitcases inside of others to meet the maximum checked/carried on limits...but we did it!

Click on the picture to get a bigger view...

It's interesting to note that our somewhat late arrival to the airport actually seemed to make getting through to the gate quite a bit faster and easier. In the second to last store, as I was waiting by the door to get out of there, I mentioned to another customer that we were on our way to the airport. When I told him our flight was leaving in less than two and a half hours, he seemed very concerned.

"You are going to be late" says he.

"Aw, we have plenty of time" says me, "the airport is only about 10 minutes from here."

"It's already almost two hours until your flight leaves" he continues "and you are still shopping."

"I know"..."it'll work out ok, though...no worries."

- This before I knew that Goofy was having the store manager call the Kihei store for a stock check (which they had, do not fret). So...off to Kihei we go, on "our way" to the airport (as long as you drive to the airport by going backwards :)

Click on the picture to get a bigger view...there's something wrong with this route, dontcha think? LOL

Still...no worries...we are on island time, after all. (Problem, now is...having a hard time getting back to mainland time :P)

Still, he was quite concerned...I guess that the airscouts handbook is read by some people :P

"AirScouts": my label for those lovely folks that know (and follow) "all the rules" at the airport, and are more than happy (fervent, even) to help you understand how you've gone wrong and are in violations most foul. :)

Seems like all of the "right thinking" people that arrived at the airport two plus hours prior to departure - for a domestic flight, as per the AirScouts' handbook - just got the hell out of our way so that we could breeze through without all the fuss and muss of waiting in long lines.

I suppose it's not a good idea to rely on that as a strategy for avoiding long lines..but it's tempting ;)

Goofy is already busy planning the next foray into the lovely azure waters off of the coast of the Hawaiian islands. I cannot figure out where the energy comes from...I am still beat from the flight...

...speaking of which...

By most accounts it was a lovely trip. We'd thought about upgrading, but when they wouldn't take our lowball offer, we passed :P

Goofy and I ended up with a three seat row to ourselves.

A very nice arrangement other than the fact that the person across the aisle from me had a great need for some personal hygiene. I felt bad for said person, but frankly, I ended up flying with my blanket over my head so I could breathe.

When sis moved back to her own two seat row, Goofy says to me "...hey move over I need more room."

I say quietly back "but...there's an odor issue across the aisle"

to which Goofy says..."so what, move!".

(for the record) Goofy claims to have misunderstood my quietly whispered plea...a realization that was come to after about 5.25 hours of flight.

I'm a bit dubious, but like I said, once I had the blanket over my head, I was a-ok :) so no worries.

A Rare Turtle and A Day of Diving at Molokini

Here's a fantastic pic that our own Goofy took at Molokini today. A rare Hawk's Beak Turtle. It's about two and a half feet from head to tail...much smaller than the green sea turtles.

For the last 3 days, Goofy and I have spent almost all our waking hours diving or thinking about diving :)

It's been great!

Monday afternoon, we both completed our Nitrox Certification, and then on Monday evening, we used Nitrox (totally without need, but ya know....) on our night dive.

The night dive was at Ulua Beach (a daytime favorite of Goofy and I - great snorkeling too!). It was totally different at night. Although there were less creatures "out and about", the ones that did show up, were pretty interesting. We saw a yellow head eel - which you don't see during the day much. Vivid yellow head, yellow and black stiped body. We also saw a cool squid. In the beam from our dive lights it was a translucent pink color and more than a bit irritated that we followed it around for a while :)

On Tuesday, we did some buoyancy and navigation dives. We learned to use a compass and natural references to navigate. Very fun, and a good thing to know. We also got some good instruction on how to regulate our buoyancy in the water using our lungs alone - helped a lot in manuevering the very touchy DUI BCD's we have. :) Spent time navigating through hula hoops on a course (without touching anything to the rings)...very fun.

Today, we took a small boat out to Molokini to do some fun diving. On the first dive, we went to 104 feet depth. Interesting that it didn't feel much different at that depth than I feel at 35' or 40'. My wetsuit compressed to the point where I noticed - when ascending - that it was uncompressing (little ridges formed where air started to expand). It was cool...we even did a written test under water and compared it to the time we did the same task on the surface. It's a way to test for nitrogen narcosis. All of us did the test in the same or better time than when we were on the surface.

Grey Reef Shark at Molokini - scarey! The one we saw was about six feet long. Goofy's first reaction? Chase it to get a closer look...lol.

On the second dive, we had a lot more time for sightseeing. We went to the middle reef, and saw (among other things :) a grey reef shark, a BUNCH of fish, AND...can you stand it? TADA! A Hawk's Beak Turtle!!! That's what the pic is of - thanks to Goofy!!! It's a rare species in Hawaii...only one is known to be at Molokini, and there are rumors of a couple of others (although not verified) nearer to the Maui coast.


Here's a Coronet fish. It's about 2' feet long, and really cool. I just hovered over it for about 3 minutes, and it just stayed put. Me looking down at it, it looking up at me. The only reason I left was because I was being left behind in the dive :)

At the end of all of this excitement, Goofy and Magic got their Advanced Open Water Certification! Much fanfare! Can you hear the trumpets?

Tomorrow we are off for some sightseeing and photo ops...and probably some reef where we can do some serious snorkeling with Sis.

Until later...Aloha from the beach at Ka'anapali Maui!

D. T. Fleming Beach

This morning we spent our time at D. T. Fleming beach. It's a fantastic beach on the northwest side of Maui. D. T. Fleming was named "2006 Best Beach in America", and it's obvious why. The beach is beautiful, the snorkeling and swimming are awesome, and there is plenty of room to find a nice place in in the sand to lie around and people watch. Goofy took a few pictures, and I'll post them later on. It got pretty windy as 1pm approached, so it was time to pack up and go back to the resort for some quality pool time. Hey, it's a hard life, but someone has to live it, right? More later!

Here's a stock photo of the beach to give an idea...

The view from our room

One more quick pic...the view from our oceanfront suite...Kaanapali Beach, Maui.

This particular pic is through the living room sliders, but it looks about the same from the sliders in the bedroom :)

Aloha!

By the way...if you click on any of the pictures in the blog, they will often get bigger so you can see them better. Cheers!