Hawaii Trip Day 7: What's So Great About Snorkeling...Oh That!

8:02 a.m. - I wake up and head straight for the shower. I guess some things are such a habit you do them without thinking. As snorkeling was the only thing on the agenda all morning, I'm still curious why I felt the need to shower. At least I would be at my non-offensive best for the tropical fish and sea turtles later.

8:47 a.m. - First order of the day, breakfast. We drive through at McDonald's. All the fresh fruit we could ever want available within seconds of our hotel room and we've eaten at McDonald's twice now. They should revoke our Hawaiian passports immediately.

9:04 a.m. - We stop in at a place called Snorkel Bob's where you get...wait for it...snorkel equipment. I'm sure your surprised. They tell us the best way to get to Napili beach and we are off.

9:13 a.m. - Napili Beach is about half a mile down from Kaanapali Beach where we are staying. Napili Beach has a much steeper entry into the ocean and is...well, let's put it this way. We are on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale at Kaanapali and quite a bit higher at Napili. I feel as if I am one of the more fit and trim people on Napili Beach. Not so at Kaanapali. For my over all self-confidence, we should have been hanging out here the whole week.

9:30 a.m. - Finally get into the water. Being as how I hate swimming, I am using a noodle to snorkel with. So much for my self-confidence gains. To make me feel better Shannon also uses a noodle. However, we are the only ones snorkeling with noodles. I would have stopped immediately out of embarrassment if it weren't for my overall paralyzing fear of death by drowning.



9:36 a.m. - All week I'd known today was about snorkeling. I was not looking forward to it. I couldn't get what the big deal was all about. Now I do. We are seeing some amazing fish. Once we figure out how to use our newly acquired waterproof camera, we get some incredible pictures.



10:21 a.m. - Been at this a while and I find I'm having my best luck seeing the most fish if I stay near this area filled with rocks. Seemed like a great idea until I got pounded into those rocks by the waves several times. I get out of the water and realize I'm bleeding in several places all over my legs. Ah well, it has been worth it...Except now the salt water is getting into the cuts. I'll get back with you on the worth it thing later.

10:34 a.m. - I had a falling out with the fins we rented right from the get go. I can't understand how to walk in those things without tripping all over myself once I got in the water. Decide to try again now that I have a little bit of experience under my belt.

10:36 a.m. - Nope, fins are just as stupid as I remember them to be. Meanwhile, Shannon has realized what her version of heaven will be. She is having the best time.

10:46 a.m. - Decide to just float and see what I can see without coming up for a while. Eventually I hear Shannon yelling and I look up. I have drifted about 50 yards from the shore. Not a big deal for most people. A huge deal for me. I do everything in my power to avoid panicking and begin to make my way back. It is slow going with the waves, but eventually I made it. That is probably my least favorite thing about snorkeling. The constant visions of me drowning and my body never being found.

11:01 a.m. - Get out of water and leave Napili Beach to head to a cove where there are apparently a great number of turtles. Nothing as comfortable as walking the streets in wet clothes and water shoes.

11:14 a.m. - We find the bay and begin looking for a way to get in. Where we are at is a possible entry point, but it requires you to slide in from slippery rocks into a small area filled with more rocks. Looks a little dangerous. The other option is to walk all the way around the cove and get in on the safer other side. We ask a guy who has obviously been there a while and he tells us getting in where we are isn't that bad. In hindsight, I can only assume this gentleman's favorite pastime is taming Cobras with an east Indian flute. I felt sure death was arriving at any second as we tried to enter the water with out bashing our bodies to bits on the rocks.

11:39 a.m. - How do you describe perfection. We swam with turtles all around us. I looked down and saw a turtle that had to be half the size of a car. It was amazing. It was one of the few times I truly wished I was a stronger swimmer. I was enjoying what I was seeing, but it was tempered by the constant fighting of panic attacks. I swam the full lagoon once and then stayed fairly close to the exit point where I could still see some quite amazing fish. Shannon swam the entire cove three times and got to swim between no less than 30 turtles or more. Truly amazing. The only downside was even though she was wearing sun screen, she spent so much time with her back exposed that she got a pretty good sunburn.





12:48 p.m. - Shannon would have stayed all day. I on the other hand was now ready to start preparing for the thing I had spent all week looking forward to. So reluctantly, I pull Shannon from the water and we head for lunch.

1:12 p.m. - Eat lunch at Maui Tacos. Incredibly good. They have a salsa bar with over 10 salsas. A couple of them I could do without, but they had a green salsa that was to die for and a pineapple salsa that was sweet but also incredibly good. However, the best was their corn salsa. How can we get one of these in Safford?

1:57 p.m. - Arrive back at hotel. I get showered and Shannon heads back to the water for a while longer. Upon further examination, I am cut up even worse than I realize. Oh well, the scars will make for a great story later.

2:35 p.m. - Leave to go play golf. All week I had seen golf equipment rental stores everywhere I looked. Now that I am ready to see if I can get a golf glove before we get to the course where it will undoubtedly be three times what I want to pay, I can't find one anywhere.

2:50 p.m. - Stop to drop off our snorkel equipment at Snorkel Bob's. Their closed for...no reason. In Maui you don't need a reason. We wait ten minutes and she eventually arrives. In the meantime we meet a nice couple from Southern California. Shannon loves the woman's swimsuit cover and asks if she got it locally. Nope, a Ross special.

3:10 p.m. - Arrive at Kapalua Golf Club Plantation Course. Now I know what my version of heaven looks like. This is the most amazing course I have ever seen.



3:17 p.m. - Check in and it looks like I will be able to get out a little early. I have to buy a hat. I just do. Also, I had to rent their clubs. They gave me two free sleeves of balls for renting their clubs. That was nice. It also happened to be the most expensive free stuff I've ever gotten.

3:41 p.m. - After warming up, I step up to the first tee box and we are off. This course is where they play the first PGA tour event of the year. It is amazingly difficult. It is so hard I put up a score on the first hole of...par? Who said this course was difficult?





4:01 p.m. - Hole 2? Double bogey. Oh yeah it's hard. I'm fairly certain the first hole may have been a fluke.

4:39 p.m. - The elevation changes on this course are amazing. One time I had Shannon drive the cart up to meet me. She misunderstood and went too far. I had to pull a Family Von Trapp hike just to meet up with her again.



5:02 p.m. - That's a first. I have never seen a course with a sand trip on the side of cliff. If you swing too hard, you are likely fall to your death. I've heard people say sand traps can ruin your day, but this is a bit ridiculous.



5:56 p.m. - We arrive at a par three hole that you have to hit over a 200 foot deep gorge to get to the green. On Maui, the trade winds blow constantly down those gorges and that makes this hole pretty tricky. I hit my tee shot and it is beautiful...until it gets half way over and then it appears to hit a wall and drop straight down. I fell victim to underestimating the trade winds. I'm pretty sure I am not the first.



6:06 p.m. - The ninth hole is so steep coming up to the green that I am forty yards away and still can't see anything except the very tip top of the flag. I hit my chip shot and it lands, I'm not exaggerating, six inches from the lip onto the green. Close, but not close enough. That ball rolls all the way back to me. I wish I was kidding but I'm not. I was able to hit again without even moving my feet from the shot before.

6:22 p.m. - For the third time that day, I get so caught up in looking at the beautiful course around me that I run into the curb and nearly wreck.

6:30 p.m. - The course has backed up and so I start playing with the twosome right in front of me. Jeff and Mike are really nice and they are on Maui with their wife and girlfriend respectively. Not that they'll being seeing much of the ladies as they have at least four tee times scheduled over the next few days.

6:41 p.m. - Poor Jeff. It seems like every time we've seen him take a shot over the whole round, he's been hitting out of sand traps. Now that we are playing with him, I can see that he hits pretty good shots, they just gravitate to sand like nothing I've ever seen.

7:05 p.m. - Now too dark to play anymore. I managed to get in 16 of the 18 holes and it was amazing. I also managed to lose 10 balls in the jungle surround the course. That sounds bad, but I'm actually amazed I didn't lose more. What is even better is that Shannon seemed to have such a good time as well. She had brought a book in case she got bored and never opened it once. I appreciate her efforts in taking so many photos of this neat experience for me.



7:12 p.m. - I'm so excited I have to call someone. I call Heath even though it is 10:12 in Arizona. When I tell him what I've been doing, he doesn't even seem that upset at me. Finished with four legitimate pars. Pretty proud of myself.



8:03 p.m. - After a very full day, we spend our last night in Hawaii eating Panda Express in our hotel room watching Hawaii 5-0. While that may sound pathetic, as tired as we were, it was perfect.