Whales of Fun

I am now sitting poolside after an adventurous day. We decided to head to a black beach, the only other one in Maui that isn't on the road to Hana. We loaded up with a plan for lunch. The way of the sub was our desired destination and after some trouble with Tomacita, our navigation, we finally found it. It was literally a hole in the wall. There wasn't really room to stand in there to order and the soda machine was out of ice. No!!!! Even without ice the place was packed like a can of sardines. I've never seen such a busy sub shop. We had some kids that were in need of a restroom and for some reason no businesses on the island have restrooms. Weird. I guess they expect everyone to just step into the ocean to relieve themselves. I was having none of this place and we decided to take a gamble and head to the next town.

We had a nice drive along the beach and saw at least 10 whales jumping out of the water, proudly displaying their tails and shooting water up into the sky. Amazing. In all the times I have been to Hawaii I have never once seen a whale. This trip, which happens to be mating season, we see them every day. Who needs to pay money to get sick on a boat to watch whales when I can see them from the beach in front of our resort? Don't get me wrong, it would be pretty incredible to see one jump out of the water right next to a boat, but it might be terrifying as well. Especially if there is vomiting from sea sickness happening around me.

We stopped in the next town and found a nice brand new looking way of the sub shop and........the line was to the door and it took forever. Is this place something special here. Are islanders passionate about their choice of subs? There was ice though so we figured we may as well wait it out. This was an exercise in patience to say the least especially with 2 of my children, who don't eat sandwiches, were dying of hunger and there was no sign of chicken nuggets in sight. We are referring to the experience as the sub fiasco of 2011.

We finally arrived at our desired location to see for ourselves a black beach. It looks brown not black were the first word out of the kids'
mouths. Great, we just endured sub fiasco of 2011 to arrive at a black beach that looks brown. The kids quickly decided not to car and had fun running from the waves and looking for treasures along the shore. Having grown up in western Washington, it looked like the sand I grew up with. The water is also filled with rocks and the surf is pretty dangerous there so snorkeling was not recommended. So we hung out for a bit and then headed back because the " big beach" access that was just down the street had no parking avail so we headed back to the nice white smooth sand at our resort. All in all the trip was worth it because of the whales. Truly amazing to be driving along the coast surrounded by beautiful greenery and lush mountains watching whales.