Aloha Hawaii 2016

Where does one begin... As Glinda the good witch of the north ( more appropriately, Minnesota ...) said,"It is always best to start at the beginning."

11 packed and ready to go seasoned travelers setting out on another adventure! This time to the South Pacific islands of Hawaii. Little did we know what lay ahead ...  The first clue, unbeknownst to most of us, was one of our travelers had in her possession a rock originally from the big island. The task to be completed is to return it to its home on the big island. For readers who are not familiar with the lore that if anyone takes a rock or something from these islands, Pele will become angry and the person in possession of the rock is doomed with bad luck. Whether this is superstition has substance or truly lore.... There is no doubt, this 11 are true believers.

Right off the bat, found out when doing on line check in, there was an aircraft change, which you guessed it, changed 4 of our seat assignments. People were not seated together and a couple not even in the upgrade seats to which they paid extra. The gate agents did their level best to correct the problem so that we could sit next to our preferred travel companion. 

Here we are in Honolulu waiting to catch the wiki wiki shuttle to the inter island terminal. 

Successful transfer to Maui, in our rental cars,  ABC store for provisions (one of my favorite stores 👍🏻 !) 

After a little panic regarding making the required payments (another story), we checked into our rental condominium units. None too soon for a night cap and tuck in for a rest. Most welcome cause by this time it was nearly 10 p.m, Hawaii time. That's about 2 a.m. CDT .

Awoke to beautiful sunshine, Pacific Ocean and other islands in site from our lanai. Paradise! 

Did I mention our little cove is loaded with a whole herd of turtles? So cool!!  People went our separate ways a bit today. One contingent went into Lahaina to shop and a bit of lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise. -- lots of atmosphere ... Then back to Napili Point to snorkel with the turtles and more. Note to self, it is in your best interest to try getting into and out of the water from the old lava rocky shore at low tide and on its way back in. Most were able to get in and snorkel a bit, the getting out was a whole visit with hell. That darn Pele rock. :(. Not worse for the wear, all successfully got on to shore, a few of us with a blood running down our legs, but smiles on our face. 

Tomorrow, we catamaran to the Molokini crater for lots of snorkeling! Keep reading! Find out whether or not the Pele rock will darken our day ....