Day 2: Maui

 No relation to THBob

Royal Mauian, room 503, one floor down from top, hiding being the top of the palm tree

View from nice, long sandy beach 

Quote of the Day: 

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Weather:   Actually cool in the early morning, nice in late morning until around 1pm, wind started to come up and by 2:30 back to gale force

Your basic 4 door white sedan, on of 1000s on Maui 

Our first choice to snorkel

Long way back along road to safe put-in point and there is a good size chop we have to get through between put in and this cove

THB is up early, still on E-ville time. LB waits until it gets light and we head further south for our first snorkel. Maybe being the 2^nd car in the lot was a hint: this spot is a preserve, nice parking lot, well signed, and very few good put-in points for snorkelers. Plus there is a bit of a chop.

 

Second snorkel spot before crowds arrived

We go back north closer to the condo at the Royal Mauian, and find an un-named well-known site with very easy in/out. It is also a great place for junior scuba divers, kayakers, paddleboarders and large snorkeling boats. Turns out that boats have an advantage because the best snorkeling site here is quite a ways from the put-in beach. No problema, it gives THB a chance to adjust his mask before we get to the main event: a “shelf” or series of upturned rock formation running away from shore. Very interesting though not many fish.

Pic from internet site; the one we saw was on almost black rock and blended in well enough that THB needed LB's help to see it

Even better: there are turtles canvasing the rocks nearer the beach and we swim with them for a nice amount of time. Also see a playing dead octopus, a crown of thorns starfish, and most of the fish we see are very good size.

Late breakfast with very nice view

Back at the condo THB has his usual breakfast of grape nuts, apple and berries at an unusual time: 10:15. Around 11 we stroll up the street, rent chairs and a beach umbrella (comes with a warning about the wind picking up and $30 charge for broken/damaged umbrellas) and set up. A few hours later, THB heads back for lunch (excellent poke) and half a heated up Arizmendi roll, ice tea.

Quiet time in the condo, THB finishes a short book, starts a longer non-fiction book, tries to avoid reading articles about coronavirus and DJT, leaving not much to see in NYT or SF Chronicle.

By late afternoon the cloud layer has settled in so it seems no sunset again tonight. With the wind it is too chilly to sit on the balcony.

Dinner: quesadilla, black beans, salsa, potato chips and Maui Brewing Co Bikini Blonde lager.

Book Review: The Godmother, Hannelore Cayre (novel, well translated by Stephanie Smee): A very short, fast read first published in France in 2017.  A 50 year-old unmarried (single child) in charge of her ailing mother working for the Paris drug enforcement agency as an arabic translator gets caught up in the drug world. Even a Cesar award ending didn’t spoil it too much. Recommended (reco of CYS)

Pics from here and there:

 

Do we have to be in condo for the inspection?

It's been over 2 weeks out of order. Guess the first floor got tired of subsiding those expensive motors that take people to upper floors

Guess they don't have to wait for us as road narrows to 1.5 lanes

Roadside shrine Hawaiian style