Getting there was easy because with the time change, we left at 6 am SLC time and even with a 2 hour layover, we got to Maui at 11 am Maui time. (they are 4 hours behind us) so we still had that whole day. There was a beach right across the street from our hotel and I wanted to play in the ocean right away. Sadly, it was very windy and the beach stole my lovely beach dress while I was in the waves. Mean beach :(
Snorkeling got thrown off because there was a shark attack that closed a lot of the beaches. However, when I finally got to snorkel, I decided it was the neatest thing I've ever done. You just float there and look at hundreds of pretty fish swimming all around you. There was a big beggar puffer fish that came right up to everyones' mask looking for food (even though you're not supposed to feed the fish, some people do)
It was my goal to see a famous Hawaiian sea turtle, and on my last day out, I finally got to. I was looking for her where the turtles are supposed to hang out and all of a sudden, there she was coming right at me. I swam above her for as long as I could, but she was a lot faster and disappeared across the ocean floor.
I loved the smell of the ocean and the trade winds (even though they were so strong some afternoons) I loved drinking guava juice in the morning and eating passionfruit cheesecake. I loved the palm trees and bright flowers. But mostly, I loved that turtle.
This is the beach where we snorkeled the most.
Lava rock flowed down here and made these cool formations. This is right next to the coral reef.
This is a baby version of the sea turtle that I saw. This one is in the aquarium.
Everything was so beautiful.
Coming home sucked. We left at 8 pm Maui time and arrived in Salt Lake at 10 am the next morning. Even though we hadn't, it felt like we'd been flying all night. Stupid time change.
