EXOTERIC - Information Worth Sharing: ex·o·ter·ic
-adj
1. Not confined to an inner circle of disciples or initiates.
2. Comprehensible to or suited to the public; popular.
3. Of or relating to the outside; external.

Had a wonderful time in Hawaii! It is so nice there. We had wonderful warm and dry weather. We did a lot of sightseeing. We got to our hotel late Friday night and then spent Saturday just hanging out at the beach. The Kaanapali Beach Hotel was holding their annual hula festival for children called Hula O Na Keiki. Arts and crafts, live music and dancing all day long. We did some snorkeling over at Black Rock and got to see lots of fish and a sea turtle. In the late afternoon we headed down to Lahaina and walked around the shops there. We ended up at the Pioneer Inn bar for Mai Tai's and watched USC beat Cal. Then out to dinner and back to the hotel for an early bedtime.

Sunday we had to get up at 5am to catch the dive boat we took over to Molokini Crater. I did 2 dives and Christine snorkeled. The water is amazingly clear at Molokini. Visibility is over 150 feet. Got to see lots of interesting and rare fish, along with Garden Eels and Sea Turtles.

Pyramid Butterflyfish

Garden Eels

"The Aquarium" had fish everywhere

Green Sea Turtle

Monday we headed over to Hana on the wet side of the island. The road to Hana is very twisty and there are some 65+ one lane bridges. It took us almost 3 hours to drive out there and it rained most of the way. At Hana we had lunch and then visited the small church where Charles Lindbergh is buried. We also walked around the Oheo Pools and stopped at several waterfalls along the way. The weather improved on the way back, so we saw lots of sunshine and several rainbows.

Upper Oheo Pools

Lower Oheo Pools

Tuesday we drove up to Haleakala. The weather up there was cool at over 10,000 feet, but the views were amazing. We could see the Big Island to the south. The top of the volcano was very desolate.
Haleakala Crater

At the summit

On the way back to Kaanapali we stopped and visited the Iao Valley.

Iao Needle

Wednesday we packed up and did some final shopping on the way to the airport. Our flight got back into LAX late and then we had a 2 hour drive home. I'm ready to start planning another trip to Hawaii!