Aloha~~~~~~

My fondest memory of the places I've been to in the Hawaiian Isles..... Greg and I had made reservations to go to Maui for a week around Veterans Day. We were flying on Hawaiian Airlines and Greg had insisted on bring his big, thick Alaska coat. He put it in the area below his seat. Meanwhile, I'm dreaming that I'm in Sing Sing prison and I'm dreaming my feet are tied only to awaken with my feet all tangled up in Greg's coat. I then am trying to free my feet from the coat and making faces at Greg while attempting to do so. We arrived in Maui and the air was slightly humid and fragrant as we walked off the airline. We pointed our rental car in the direction of Wailea. During our drive, we kept commenting on how dark the road was (we later found out we had been driving in the middle of sugar cane fields). We found our hotel and were very pleased with it. It was right on a beach and had a linai, palm trees and a restaurant. I had identified a safe beach (with no undertows) for us that had excellent snorkeling (many beautiful fish). On our second trip to Maui (this time renting a lovely condo near our favorite beach)through vrbo.com; we were on a boat and I had a 10 minute lesson in scuba diving. The boat had taken us to the most murky water (near Sugar Beach). I'm standing on the diving board of the boat and I have my oxygen tank on and flotation devices & weight belt. I thought to myself, "I'm going straight down to the bottom and I'll die. What have I done?" Trusting that I'll be fine, I jump off and sure as shooting, I come to the top. To my disappointment, I had trouble with my eye mask(?). It kept filling with water. I adjusted my ears and swallowed. I went down in the water. I started to just take off and swim down. The young teacher caught up with me and motioned for me to rise and said, "where are you going?". I told her that I wanted to go down and take a look at what was down there. I don't think she had been around people that were very comfortable in the water. I was raised to be very comfortable in water. My mother taught swimming and water ballet and I learned well. In any case, a friend of mine who has lived in the Hawaiian Islands, told me that the best way to get swimming eye wear is to buy your own, fitted for you. We had a wonderful time in our travels in Hawaii. We have stayed in Waikiki several times (not the real Hawaii as most people think of it). We stayed in a house near an Air Base on a beach; and then the two times on Maui.