Feb. 15, Sunday: Whale Tales, West shore sights.

Today we woke up to clear sunny skies and very little wind.  A perfect day for snorkeling----except that it poured yesterday and the tremendous surf pounded so hard that the water was still filled with sand and debris.  So we decided to give it another day before going snorkeling.  It's almost like the first 2 times I came to Maui and I was with non-snorkelers (my Dad the first time and my sister the 2nd time).   Maybe I'm just not meant to snorkel Maui!?  Too bad, I'm going to keep trying. 
Anyway---we decided to head up to Lahaina for the Whale Tales presentations at the theater in Lahaina.  It was a nice ride to the West side.  I was surprised to see how much greener it is this trip then 2 years ago when we were here about the same time.  The horses actually have green stuff to eat now---2 years ago I was wondering what they were eating.

  As we got to the cliff overlook just past the marina, we saw a whale continuously slapping the water with it's tail.  It did this for about 20 minutes. 

  Then there was a tiny tail slap.  Shortly after that they both left.  Note the baby whale and the momma here.

 We got to the Maui Theater about 9:30 and headed in for the show. The 10:05 presentation was "IMAX: Behind the Scenes on Hump Back Whales 3D"  I mistook that to mean they were playing a 3D show about the whales.    Guess I'll have to wait until I get home to see that at our St. Louis Science Center.  This was a talk about the making of the show, but it was also interesting.

  There were a few amusing problems with the power point programs, but the speakers did a great job covering for it.  There was a lot of humor in the presentations.

  The 2nd presentation was Ken Balcomb from the Center of Whale Research about "Whales as Sentinels"---mainly about how the Navy's sonic testings have been killing whales.

 After the first 2 speakers, they broke for lunch.  So we walked down Main street to get lunch.

  Ended up at Kimo's.  LOVE their coconut pineapple cheesecake with  lilikoi drizzle.  Also had fish and chips.

  Found their umbrella system really unique---1 pole holding 4 separate umbrellas. 

  Then we headed back for a couple more speakers.

 Here is Lindblad of Lindblad Expeditions.  He talked about responsible tourism.  There was also a speaker about dolphins by the Golden Gate bridge.  And an attendance drawing which we did not win.

 About 3pm, we headed down the road some more.  I wanted to check out a few snorkel areas and see how they looked for tomorrow.  So we headed to Honolua.  It was very dirty. 

 But the waves outside the bay were huge, so we went and watched the surfers for awhile.

  riding the curl

  out of the curl and fist pump

  Wipe Out!

 Another look at Honolua Bay.

 On the way back, we stopped at Kapalua to check it out for possibly tomorrow.  It looked great and there were several snorkelers there.  Guess we could have snorkeled today!  But getting educated was rather fun for a change.

  We drove through Lahaina again and wandered around by the big tree.  What an amazing tree!

  If there were no streets around, the tree would probably be even bigger then the block.

  Back in Kihei, we picked up a smoothie from Jack in the Box and a couple sandwiches and tacos for dinner and sat at the rock wall at Kalama Park and ate while watching the sun set.

  I don't recall seeing the sun flatten out at the horizon like this before---looked like it was melting. 

 After sunset we headed to the heated pool and Jacuzzi for awhile.  Another great day!