Last day in Maui

Today is our last day and we started it with one last snorkel by Black Rock. This time, we arranged to meet Sharon and her family at the beach. I figured out that the snorkel mouth piece I was using the other day was leaky, plus we brought along better float gear, so I was able to get out deeper into the water. The turtles were back again. There were 3 today floating around by the rocks, eating, being buffeted about by the tides, swimming among all the gawking people. It's kind of amazing that they are so calm about the whole thing. I accidentally touched one of them when it swam under me from behind. I thought there was a rock all of a sudden that I didn't notice before! You're not supposed to touch the turtles and I wouldn't have if I'd realized what that was. At one point, I was watching two turtles swimming together and it just felt like I was in Finding Nemo. The variety of fish is amazing, with little weird noses, long trailing fins, stripes, fluorescent purples, long skinny ones. I was also able to check out some brain coral, anemones, and sea urchins that live amongst the rock. It was a really hot day today, the trade winds have died down, so the water felt really good. Mei's kids and Sharon's kids got along famously. You'd never know that this was the first time they'd ever met. By the end of the day, the girls were holding hands.

After snorkeling and the exhausting task of washing the sand out of every nook and cranny, we headed back to the Westin where Bryan and Vivian had an informal grilling party for their guests. The hot dogs, steaks, tortilla chips and cookies really hit the spot. The grills are set up by the hotel for their guests and it's first come first serve, a very nice set up. It was really hot and sunny though so the crowd kept drifting along with the shade. After lunch Mei, Sharon, Shih Ah-yi and I headed with the kids to another pool area where there was a shallow kiddy pool complete with giant pirate ship full of slides, nets and other fun things. The kids invented all kinds of amazing ways to get down the slide together. After a few hours in the pool, we headed up to Shih Ah-yi's room to get the kids changed and head to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. I was still stuffed, so I didn't eat much, but it gave us a chance to catch up with Sharon and GP, who we don't get to see often. After dinner, we all walked down Front St. to Ulalena's Shave Ice for one last taste of the island treat. Before we got in the car to head home, we stopped at Hilo Hattie's for a last shot at souvenirs and I finally found a nice flip-flop pendant at a good price, something I've been looking for all week! It was a nice way to end the day. All that's left is the packing, heading to the airport tomorrow with a brief stop at Costco for some Macadamia nut chocolates for Mei.