I did not have time for a run today. We left our condo at 5:30am to head to Kihei to began our full day trip. We got on a powered ocean raft that held about 20 people. We cruised down around the South end of the island to explore volcanic ocean caves and see sights that a lot of people do not get to see because there are no roads in that area. On the way down we saw a pod of spinner dolphins that cruised by our boat. When we got on the south side the swells were at least 10 feet high and we were getting soaked. It was well worth it as the sights were incredible. Our driver was able to get us in and out of these huge caves even with the high surf. It was amazing! Our first snorkeling spot was at an underwater lava rock formation that was full of coral and really cool fish. Then we headed out to Molikini, which is a partially submerged crater with only about 1/3 or the circle above the water. It is a very popular snorkeling spot and there were several other boats there. We snorkeled there for a while and it was great. These huge fish would come right up to you. Then we boated around to the back side of the crater where most of the other boats don't go. The back side has a huge coral reef right next to a 300 foot drop-off. There was one section right next to the wall they call the "elevator". When you are in there you literally go up and down over 10 feet with the rise and fall of the surf and take a ride with the fish. It was unbelievable. After Molikini we headed back to another bay and spotted some sea turtles. Several of us were actually able to swim right up to this huge turtle and take his picture while we were in the water. I can't wait to see how my pictures turned out. The turtle swam with us a bit and then submerged slowly and out of sight. On the way back in we saw some humpback whales so the driver turned off the motors and we watched them breach and blow water for a while. There was a group of 3 of them, a mother, a baby, and an escort. They come to Hawaii to have their young and then head to Alaska for the summer so we were lucky enough to catch them before their trip. The driver then dropped an underwater microphone over the side and we could hear their whale songs even as they got farther and farther away. He said you could hear the sounds underwater for up to 2 miles. We had lunch on the boat so we were not very hungry when we got back to shore. We decided to head over to a local beach before our almost 1 hour drive back to our condo. We swam in some HUGE waves and got swept to shore a couple times and had to be careful to not get hurt. All in all it was an awesome and exhausting day.
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