Too Much Information: Maui: Day Six

Tuesday

June 7, 2016

Today we decided to have a beach day.

The first beach we decided to go to was near the hotel and was known for having great snorkeling.

As we arrived, so did an ambulance.

There was someone stretched out on the beach surrounded by people...

we never did figure out what happened and we never saw them take anyone away so we either missed it or the person was ok.

The "beach" area was very rocky and not good for relaxing so we went right in and did some snorkeling. This bay was the place where all the snorkeling tours bring their groups and although it wasn't the clearest water near the beach because of the recent rains, it did have some good snorkeling farther out.

We had purchased a handy little waterproof bag to put Carter's phone in so that we could take underwater pictures while snorkeling...which we left sitting on the kitchen counter back home in Utah.

So, no pictures.

But there were quite a lot of colorful fish to see and it was fun.

One of the things on our "must do" list was to eat breakfast at Gazebo restaurant. This restaurant was probably less than a mile from our hotel so that was awesome. It is known to have a long wait for breakfast but we found that it was open until 2:00 so we decided to go for lunch

(but eat the famous breakfast foods of course).

The reviews weren't wrong, it was a tasty breakfast!

Not much of a wait at 1:00 pm

Frank's pineapple, banana, macadamia pancakes

with his omelet in the background.

Fried rice with eggs on top.

This was a half order for all of us to share and it was huge.

Sorry, didn't take the picture till after we had started eating...that's why it looks so bad.

We really wanted to return to the beach with the turtles but I wasn't sure exactly where it was because we had just sort of happened across it that first day. Frank thought he remembered though so we were hopeful.

We actually found it with very little difficulty so that was awesome!

We set up our chair, umbrella and towels and enjoyed watching the turtles and gorgeous water.

This beach is actually sandy and much better for relaxing.

There was a very large turtle sitting on the beach, sunning in the sand.

We enjoyed watching him (her?) until he decided to move back into the water.

That was really fun to watch...it looked like so much work for him to move across the sand. He would wait until a wave would come in and he would give a great heave and take a few "steps" toward the water. Then he would rest for a bit until another good wave would come help him out.

Here is the video I got of him making the final push into the water.

We did some snorkeling as well and it became clear why Frank could never find the turtles even though they were right by him...the water was very murky!

We did see some colorful fish but it was just impossible to see the turtles

unless you were right next to them.

So I was swimming along and I would lift my head occasionally to see if I could see a turtle along the surface and then I would swim that direction to try to get close enough to see it underwater.

There was one smaller turtle that was eating near the rocks and he was just completely content to hang out there no matter what was going on so I swam that way.

The waves were really strong in that area and it was impossible to keep still...we were being knocked around so much.

So at one point I look over to my side and the turtle is right there.

I didn't want to get in his way or scare him so I just kept my distance as much as I could with the waves knocking me about and I watched him eat and swim around.

It was super cool and I was really wishing I had an underwater camera.

We also watched another turtle eating in the very shallow water.

We tried to keep our distance so as not to freak him out but the turtles really don't seem to care about people at all. They are known for being very social apparently. They definitely didn't seem to mind us being nearby.