What Day is It? Ah, who cares!

Wednesday was a VERY windy day.  It started out a little overcast with just a drop of rain and trade winds a STEADY 30 mph with gusts 50 to 55 mph. 



Clouds over the mountain by the hotel



We started the day out at the pool today.  Karen got to swim around the lazy river, which she really enjoys.  Then we went out to the beach and saw an area that was roped off.  Turns out an extremely rare Hawaiian Monk Seal had decided to beach herself right on our beach. 



Rosie (R017) Hawaiian Monk Seal



The hotel staff put out cones to keep everyone away, and then an aquatic response volunteer showed up to rope the area off and ensure no one disturbed the animal.  He also answered everyone’s questions about the seal.   Turns out she was just tired and decided to rest on the beach for a while.  I’m sure she read great things about the Sheraton on Trip Advisor as well!  Her name, according to the volunteer, is R017.  That seemed a bit cold so we decided to call her Rosie.  She lay there all day, and by the next morning she was gone.  The volunteer said this is usually very rare, but it had happened 3 times in the last 2 weeks-pretty amazing.

Next we went to a little seaside town up the road about 10 minutes called LaHaina.  We ate Oceanside at Bubba Gumps.  The seats were amazing.  The water was literally sloshing up a little below where our feet were and the breeze was amazing. 

At Bubba Gumps

The food was really, really good as well.  I got shrimp stuffed with crab with a garlic butter sauce, and jasmine rice.  Enough to make you wanna slap your mamma – sorry Mom!  The LaHaina harbor had a little bit of damage and lost 3 boats during the Tsunami. 

Capsized boat at LaHaina Harbor

Last but not least we came back to the hotel and went down to the beach to watch the nightly cliff dive ceremony.  A Hawaiian gentleman swims out to the rock, and lights torches along the rock, then he dives into the water below at sunset.  Pretty cool.  Then we just hung out on the beach until the sun disappeared over the horizon.

A crazy kid diving off of Black Rock (not the nightly Cliff Dive)