Aug. 20, 2016---Snorkel Keawakapu, wander around Kanaha Beach, and checking out Kealia Coastal Boardwalk:

We played super tourist today.  Helps when you get up early and are out of the condo by 8am!  But we've learned that the winds do pick up here on Maui in the afternoon.  I don't recall that happening so much on Kauai, but maybe that's because we don't get going that early!

First up---snorkeling.   We had an "owners update" at 11:45, so we stayed close.  We had never been to Keawakapu, but saw that it was close.  So figured we'd give it a try.  Besides all the snorkeling, I love seeing all the tropical plants again!

The snorkel area at Keawakapu didn't look all that big, but we spent about 2 hours there snorkeling.

My feet really liked this beach! 

 Never seen a surgeaonfish like this before.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a better picture of it.  White spotted Surgeonfish?  (only one I saw for the whole 4 weeks)

general underwater snorkel area of Keawakapu. 

 young  eel

 an Ambon Toby

 octopus

octopus changing colors

This is definitely the place to go if you want to see a ton of turtles.

Pinktail triggerfish

a saddle wrasse

Ken hanging around

turtle hanging around

 colorful parrot fish

 four spot butterfly fish

Hawaiian spotted puffer fish

Where's Waldo, the turtle?

 love gazing at the water.

spiny puffer fish.

 a really large coronet fish---note how small the average sized unicorn fish off to the right looks.

 colorful Manybar goatfish

large barred trigger fish and a Christmas wrasse.

 male spotted trunkfish

My Dad wasn't much of a snorkeler, but he did like watching the ever changing wave patterns on the sandy ocean floor.  I think of him whenever I see them.

view towards the West mountain

About 10:30 we headed back to the condo and got ready for the "owner update".  The salesman was a nice guy.  He did show us a piece of property to buy, but we're maxed out.  Mostly we just visited and enjoyed the views from his "office".  We were done in about 20 minutes and took our gift credit card and 1000 extra points. 

 Then it was time to get some breakfast/lunch.  We had a great meal at Cafe Ole last time we were here so we decided to go back there. 

  We both got the special of the day---crumb crusted mahi with a butter/honey sauce, rice, and Caesar salad. I was a little unsure about the honey sauce, but it was really good.  especially on the rice.  Very reasonably priced at $13.99, too.

We finished it off by sharing a piece of lilikoi cheesecake.  It was very good, too!

View of the inside of Cafe Ole after a late lunch.

 Views from Cafe Ole from one side of the restaurant.

From there we headed towards Kealia Pond.  The signs said it should be open, but it wasn't.  So we continued on to Kahului. What I've been wearing as a rash guard doesn't seem to have much SPF factor.  I'm getting pretty red under my long sleeve shirt!  So we went to K Mart and I got one with an SPF of 50.  On our way there, I took this picture of the fire.  We heard on the news tonight that it's part of a sugar cane field burning and no houses were in danger.  It does seem to help with adding some color to sunset!

Since we were on that side of the island, we went over to Kanaha Beach and I strolled the beach while Ken watched the kite surfers.  

 Along my walk.

 On the way back, I thought I found a walkway to the parking lot.  Turned out not to be.  Apparently it's the path less traveled!  I did finally find my way back, though.

then we both watched the kite surfers for awhile.

Since we were so near Stillwells Bakery, we had to go see what we needed from there.  Turned out we needed more lilikoi cheesecake, peach cake, and a macadamia nut  muffin.  Didn't eat them yet---just knew we needed them.

 Then we rode around the cruise ship area for a bit.

Back on the South side, we went to the Kealia Boardwalk.  As we were getting out of the car we were treated to this rainbow.  We haven't had any rain yet, but have seen several rainbow (which always remind me of my Mom because she use to write to me, "I wish you rainbows")!

Since we lived in Florida last year, I got into bird photography.  This was nothing like Wakodahatchee  (click on Wakodahatchee to see my bird pictures there), but there were quite a few birds at Kealia.

 the ocean side of the boardwalk.

 we arrived as a wedding party was having photos taken.

 ducks and a hidden heron

I thought these were blue winged teals, but someone else said they were green winged teals.

 This is obviously a heron, but I didn't see any like him in Florida.

a moorhen

 it really was a pretty walk.

there were a bunch of these stilts, too.  They're posted as an endangered Hawaiian bird, but there are some of these in Florida, too.

looking back towards the fire.

and the boardwalk

Part of the way back I walked along the beach.

 Didn't get a good look at this guy.  Some sort of plover?

 Got back to the car shortly before sunset, so we headed into Kihei to find a spot to watch it. Ended up down the side street next to Time's Market. 

I thought this was an interesting view of the windmills.

 Too bad the clouds were so heavy,  There was some pink from the smoke, but not much.

By now we were hungry again.  We also really liked Roundtable pizza when we were here before.  After driving in circles for a while, we finally found it.  We had planned to eat it there, but there was a party of adults in the front of the restaurant and all their toddler kids in the back of the restaurant where all the non-party guests had to sit.  With all the screaming and running around---mostly by the kids---, we asked for our pizza to go.  I still can't believe the parents didn't try to maintain order.  So back to the condo we went and ate our pizza there.  It was still a great pizza!  Wish we had them in Atlanta and St. Louis.