Learning to Body Surf

Since we spent much of Thursday in the rental car on the road to Hana, we decided to have a low key day today.  We spent about two hours on the lanai drinking our coffee, eating breakfast and reading.  Then we walked down to the beach to get some sun.  We noticed that the ocean was rougher today and sported much larger waves than the previous days.  We still enjoyed bobbing in the ocean and seeing little tropical fish swimming by.  Jennie decided we needed to go out farther to prevent getting in the "break" zone of the waves.  She was right, Linda, Julie and I were in the "break" zone so we decided to walk out a little farther.  Just as we were waking to deeper water, a HUGE wave hit us.  We all saw it coming and we tried to bob over it but it was just too big and it broke right on Linda, Julie and I.  It swept us off our feet and rolled us to shore.  It felt like the rolling was never going to end.  Once I caught some air I was rolled again.  Now I know what surfers feel like with they get crushed by waves.  Finally, I touched bottom and stood up.  Then I realized I lost my sunglasses but thankfully my swimming suit was still on!  Julie lost her hat and sunglasses and poor Linda lost her prescription sunglasses.  Jennie then comes swimming to shore to check on us and see if we were alright.  She was lucky enough to have been out just far enough to miss the wave breaking and saw all of us being overtaken by the huge sneaker wave.  I think I noticed a slight bit of laughter in her voice once she knew we were alive!  We then spent the next 15 minutes searching the ocean floor looking for our glasses and Julie's hat.  Jennie found my glasses first, then Linda's and finally Julie's.  We could not find the hat and Julie said she would be fine without it.  Then about five minutes later a man body boarding was waiting for a wave when all of a sudden he reaches down and pulled up Julie's hat.  YAY, we were so excited to have found everything we lost.  After that incident, we took a break from the ocean and relaxed on the beach to tan and get the water out of our ears and noses.  We all had our sinuses cleaned out today and found sand in place we didn't know we had!  I learned today that I will need to work on my body surfing skills! After tanning for a while we decided it was time for lunch.  We ended up at Lulu's where I had a yummy chicken ceasar salad.  We did some shopping after lunch at the local shops which always have pretty sea shell jewelry and sundresses.  Nothing caught by eye but it was fun to see all the hard work these Maui locals put into their crafts.  After the shops, Julie suggested we go to the Maui diving company.  We walk in the door and a lady quickly gave us a shell lei and then another lady quickly had me pick a coupon from a basket.  It was for 50% off a fresh pearl.  Why not...I'm in Maui so I picked the ugliest shell, tapped it 3 times with large chopsticks, then yelled ALOHA as the lady rang a bell!  Sounds exciting, I know!  The lady cracked the shell open and out popped a perfect pearl.  She cleaned it up then set it in a setting of my choice.  I chose a curly one to remind me of the road to Hana.  It is really cute and I can't wait to wear it.  After our shopping we headed back to Kihei and went to Kama'ole beach to watch our last sunset in Maui.  The sunset was pretty but not as stunning as the ones we had seen.  After the sunset we went to Fred's for some late night appetizers and a yummy Lava Flow.  Yes, my legs went numb...they always do when I drink (which is not often) but it happened.  We all shared nachos and chicken quesadilla.  After our late night snack, we took a fun picture with Fred!  Only Julie and I were brave enough to get our photos taken.  After our fun photos, we decided we needed some ice-cream to end our day...why not, we are in Maui.  The fact that we were stuffed from our appetizers didn't seem to bother us or change our minds!   We found ourselves even more bloated and uncomfortable after our ice-cream but it tasted good and there is always room for dessert, right!  Back to the condo we went to enjoy our last evening together.

Julie, Fred and I!