Boat ride to Lanai

We had the wonderful opportunity to go on a boat to Lanai with family-there was only room for 13 of us + Captain Dan and his crew . It was a 5:30 AM!!! meeting time at the Kihei Boat Ramp. . .luckily, the beach is SO beautiful in the early morning, especially when the sun is rising over Haleakala. The water was so flat.

We were beyond excited to run into a ton of Spinner Dolphins-they came right up around the boat. They were swimming towards the beautiful Sweetheart Rock.

Here's the cousins having fun snorkeling, enjoying Hawaiian juices and a few of them jumped off the boat. Dylan and Brendan even took a nap. When the boat was anchored, it was really rocky on the boat, enough to make you seasick, which unfortunately some of them had to deal with.

Me and papa-this was the first time I had ever been in a wetsuit-they work amazingly to keep you warm. Our first stop was at Cathedrals-one of the top diving spots in the world: it is a large lava tube and some of the walls of the cavern have holes in which the sunlight shines through it and it looks like stained glass windows in a cathedral. There is also an altar looking rock in the middle and when there is a high surge there is a spot called shotgun, because it shoots you out. The next  spot we went to was called Manpache caves. I actually go to SCUBA DIVE! (as and Introductory dive) even if it was only for 5 minutes. Hope to try it again soon!! It's a whole other world down there.

Ethan found a sweet spot to get soaked-the waves were really choppy!

Kathryn, Stacie, Grace, Dylan, Ethan, Brendan, Rachael, Me, Rich, Ryan, David and Ryan-on our way back to Maui-it was about a 45 minute boat ride.