Travelogue Day 3 - Snorkeling Misadventure

Getting up at the butt crack of dawn was not as hard as I had expected, and I attribute this to the time zone difference between Hawaii and Wisconsin. Hawaii is four hours earlier than Wisconsin, and so 4:30 AM in Maui (when I got up) equated to 8:30 AM in Madison WI (later than I would typically get up). My jet lag was slowly recalibrating to the new time zone, but had not yet fully stabilized, which worked in my favor for getting up a bit earlier than Deborah to prep a quick bungalow breakfast before we headed out at 5:30 AM toward the Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) enterprise that would facilitate a couple rounds of snorkeling on Hawaiian "reefs" today.

I would recount the excursion in more detail, if it had exceeded expectations. But it did not, despite me setting those expectations very low. I would give the total endeavor about a C or C+ (with the plus being for the fact that they attempted to accommodate our vegan diet). We signed in at the PWF establishment and then boarded a small ferry that would transit us to the snorkeling sites. The first "reef" site had a plethora of colorful fish, but the waters there were choppy and rough, and there were too many people in the water - notwithstanding the "small group" snorkeling activity that it was marketed to be - making it cumbersome to get about. There had been some promises made by the PWF and boat crew of potential green turtle sightings at the second snorkel site, which we proceeded to in short order, but these promises were shattered when the turtles decided not to show up. The waters were calmer at the second snorkel site, but there was very little to see, even fewer colorful fish.

Back at the PWF establishment, after exiting the boat, we bought a few overpriced souvenirs at their gift shoppe, in lieu of tipping the staff (since tip worthy services had not been rendered to our expectations, in my view, and staff had over sold it). When we left the parking area of the PWF, we discovered a parking ticket on the windshield, indicating that we had parked illegally without paying some sort of parking fee. I was infuriated by this, because there had been no observable signage about this in the lot (I determined later that there was signage, but it was not "observable" at the dark, pre-dawn time of our arrival). But we paid the $21 fine regardless, because refusing to do so would purportedly, according to the fine print of the ticket, bring down a world of pain on us if we ever parked in that lot ever again EVER (which we were slated to do tomorrow, for a whale watching excursion led by the PWF).

The snorkeling had ended around noon, and we had driven back to the resort, where we spent the afternoon once again lounging by the beach and going on a short two mile walk along down the same beach path I had explored yesterday.

I made us a dinner of salad (again) and a leftover arepas bowl before we watched some entertaining shows on Deborah's tablet and then retired.

Tomorrow would theoretically comprise a morning and early afternoon of idle tropical lounging before returning to the PWF for said whale watching tour. I set my expectations lower still for the whale watching, if it were to be anything like the snorkeling, and hoped for the best.

Stay tuned!