Very cool.

Thanks, Bill.

BTW

We will be renting out our 1BR/2Bath timeshare at Maui Sunset this year May 16-30, for just what it costs us, $1500, which is half of the going rate. It is a great place, quiet with excellent views and amenities, close to shops and other fun stuff. Photos and details about the building are at www.mauisunset.com. Let me know if you or anyone you know has any interest!

Geckos on Parade

This week has been very windy, with sustained winds of 30 mph, and gusts up to 50 mph. So -- no snorkeling, and not too much else. The winds were worrying, especially since two schefflera trees next to the kitchen were thrashing around so much. So, knowing that they will recover in a couple of months, Tom climbed up and severely trimmed them. Severely as in there are almost no leaves left. But what we have learned is that on the mainland, you plant something and hope it will grow; here you plant something and spend the rest of its life trying to control its growth.

The whale-watching boats must be beside themselves, since there is a lot of action with breaching whales, making enormous splashes as the wind catches the spray, but the ocean is too rough -- so they are relegated to the calm coves which seem to have no whales at all.

Today during a brief respite from the wind, I discovered green geckos having a field day on the giant bird of paradise, occasionally drinking from its flowers. Tuesday I will continue my Photoshop Elements class to find out how to make my photos better; in the meanwhile, I'll try to figure out how to take better pictures so I don't have to!

And of course, we had a lovely sunset....

A Whale of a Week....

Stacy, my former legal assistant, has come to visit, but only for five days. So we are packing a lot in. The theme for the visit is whales, which we can see breaching and splashing from our lanai. but we have to fit in a few other vistas, so on Day One we went first to Haleakala crater, then stopped for a terrific lunch at Haliimaile General Store.

The tiny video here is unsteady with a weird sound-track, both due to the wind.

The theme for the visit is whales, so we left just enough time after to get to Ma'alaea for a whale watching cruise. At the end of the two hour cruise we were delayed about a half hour. A group of male whales was fighting over a female, and they kept approaching the boat. Since they were too close for the captain to start the engines, we were kept captive while they fought. It turns out that while this behavior is not unusual, catching them at it so close to a boat is, so we are lucky to have experienced it.





On Day Two Stacy started with a trip with the Kihei Canoe Club, which I declined since my arm is still bothering me from the Italy episode entitled "Wrestling with Luggage." No whales were spotted up close, but there was a turtle-spotting.


The main activity of the day was we took a ride around west Maui, stopping first in Lahaina for lunch at waterfront Kimo's, then near Honolua Bay where we stopped to check out the surfing.


Day Three we started with snorkeling at Ulua beach just down the street, which was an almost-first for Stacy, and the first time in well over three years for us, since the distractions of home ownership/improvement have kept us from the water. We had a pretty good day fish-wise, and spotted three excellent turtles. It was an excellent snorkel whale-wise -- we could hear the whales singing under the water, a first for all of us.

Snorkeling was followed by lunch and another whale tour -- not nearly as interesting, in part because the wild winds kept the boat from going along the Kihei coast where the whales seemed to be quite active, and instead out of the wind toward Olowalu, where the whales were not so numerous or active. One behavior we saw was "sailing", where the female lefts her tail above the water for an extended period, thought to enable her to nurse her calf.


Day Four -- more snorkeling, this time at the Ahihi preserve. Then Stacy headed back for yet more whale watching, while Tom and I sit listening to the winds whipping through the trees, suspecting that the whale watching will not be the best out on the white-capped water.


Tomorrow -- perhaps more snorkeling, a spate of shopping, packing, and then off to the airport to deliver Stacy to her red-eye home.... And we will be red-eyed, too.

Remembering Bertrand

We miss him so very much.