Beaches Day 4

We were ready to explore the beaches on the island by day 4. All we wanted to do was snorkel, boogie board, swim, and play in the sand. Which is exactly what we did all day!!!
We started out pretty early and headed to the place the local said was the best place to snorkel. We hit one beach, got ready to enter, and a local told us it wasn't very good. So we headed back up the road to the beach before this one. Although we are sad we didn't even try that other beach we found a spectacular place to snorkel. It was gorgeous and we saw lots of firsts here that a local told us was rare to see.
This was Brian's and mine first time snorkeling. We paid the extra couple dollars to get some nice equipment too. But I still had a panic attack the first time I got in because I slipped into the water, got water in my tube and therefore in my mouth, then tried to look into the water and my body freaked out. I was able to stand up though, take some deep breaths through the tube, and then go and I was fine. It was the best adventure ever and I am hooked. I can't wait to go snorkeling again!!

First beach that we hit and then left.

Ready to snorkel

Brian snorkeling

Me snorkeling

 So this is the first rare thing we saw. It is a school of fish that surrounded Brian and I. The local at the beach said this was the biggest one he had ever seen. Pretty cool.

These two enjoyed diving down to scare the creatures out more. I didn't even want to attempt this.

This is the best shot I got in the water of the color and clarity I was seeing. It was so pretty and very colorful!!

There is a trumpet fish in this picture.

See the sea turtle? He is there on the bottom blending in.

Another angle that is easy to find him in.

 So after seeing the sea turtle Brian and I swam around a little more away from him. Then we realized we were missing Spencer. We went up to talk about it and then found him swimming toward the shore. Brian then asked where the turtle was again so I took him back to it. I sat up in the water again to see that Spencer had gotten out of the water when I noticed a brown spot next to me. I freaked a little then looked under the water and there right in front of me swam down a baby turtle.

I don't know how this was taken. The camera sits in the case pretty tight so the slightest bump will take a picture sometimes.

 After this picture I started to swim back to where we got in. When I got to the shore finally I turned around to see if Brian was there and he wasn't but the worst part was when I went to grab the camera and it wasn't on my wrist attachment anymore. It had broken away some how. I had a freak out moment and jumped back to in find Brian to have him help me look for the camera. When I finally found him, he had the camera. It was funny because he went out at a different location, stood up and the camera floated by in front of him. I was super happy that happened since I love taking pictures and was so sad thinking about the pictures I would have just lost.

If you look closely you can see the male monk seal that was on the shore. These guys are super rare as there are only 200 of them left in the world. Males are really rare to see. Most of the locals we talked to said they have only seen 2 to 3 of them themselves. Another rare find.

View from our spot on the beach where we snorkeled.

It was rocky but very beautiful.

Even when I was bleeding due to the "bite" I had received from the coral.

I actually got two "bites".

 After snorkeling we hit up another beach. Brian and I snorkeled here for a little bit just to do it. It was fun and we saw a few things but we left the camera behind this time as to not even chance having it get lost. It was fun to swim here but the waves were huge and the current was super strong this day....like over the top strong. I should have taken a picture of how many signs they had out warning of the current. Brian and I got swirled up in it while we were getting out from snorkeling. We were almost out of the water, reaching down to grab the fins when we were swept up and thrown down onto the beach. It was enough force to rip off my fins and send me in a somersault again as I reached to find them. You could feel the current through. Sometimes it was nice and gave you a gentle push back when it came out and other times it pulled so hard I could barely stay standing and where I was as it pulled out. This was definitely not a beach to just play at, we had to be on guard for each and every wave. But we did our best to be smart tourists and not dumb ones and had a ton of fun boogie boarding these waves since you couldn't miss a wave. They were so easy to catch up to shore and so much fun. You just had to jump early or not even go for that wave since it would catch you up in it if you were too late and it sent people hard to the ground. One girl got hurt really bad while we were there.
All I know is that I wasn't hurt there but I sure had sand everywhere and did for a couple days after this. Oh well, it was worth it to catch the waves that we did. We had so much fun!!!

Jan and Brian talking about the ride they just had.

Jan coming in on one wave.

Brian rode this one up right next to me.

Caught another good one.

You could ride these waves forever if you caught them right.

Jan and Spencer in a wave.

They all 3 caught it but Jan was far enough back that it buried her right as I took the picture.

The place of great waves!!!

 After the morning we went back to our place and relaxed for a little bit, I cleaned up my wounds (that hurt) and then we grabbed some lunch and got some shaved ice. This was our last time getting them. Oh did we savor each bite. So delicious!!

 Then we hit another beach. This one was called "Cheng's" by the people we were staying with. That wasn't its name but it had some great waves for boogie boarding when we first got there and then they dies down. But it was fun to swim around and play in the sand.

Such a pretty view and we had the whole place to ourselves when we first got there.

First picture of me on a wave but I caught lots of them

The real name of "cheng's"

 That was the end of day 4 and our final day in Maui. We got a delicious dinner at a local place and I couldn't walk by the end of the night since my big cut had become infected. Believe me it was worth it but oh the pain was intense when I had to clean it that night. It hurt so bad. Luckily that was the worse of it and it felt better after the good hour of torture and I finished getting it deeply cleaned when we got home.
Now here are some more pictures of our day that got out of order.

Playing with rocks while we snorkel.

Spencer would dive down and so he got some really good pictures.

See he got a good close up of the turtle.

Parrot fish

eel

Monk Seal from another angle.

This is the name of the place we snorkeled.

The whole drive to these beaches were super rocky on both sides of the road.

How we kept the baby contained with the crazy waves.

He simply loved being in a hole with just enough water.

After our toss with the waves while snorkeling we were trying to decide if it was worth pulling out the boogie boards while the life guard cautioned against it. We watched some of the people in the water first before jumping in.

We definitely all finished up the day super sad that we were leaving this beautiful island the next morning. But all trips do come to an end eventually.