She's Baaaaack!

She's baaaaaaaack!!!.....Darlene, that is.....and Honolulu missed her. Yep, the company was kind enough to send her back for a 10 day visit instead of me taking a lot of time off to get home. In light of her excitement, I thought I'd stir the pot a bit and find something flashy to pick her up in, so the fine folks at National Rental Car hooked me up with a new Sebring convertible.

Oh, by the way, you can click on most of these photos for a larger view.

She arrived late Wednesday night and spent most of the day Thursday recovering from a very long flight. While Maui is her first choice, she does enjoy Waikiki and does a lot of people watching.

Friday afternoon, we hopped an Aloha flight over to Maui, dropped in to the Maui Dreams Dive shop and booked dives on the Maui Diamond II for Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday's trip to Molokini crater was interrupted several times by whales. Each time we spotted one within 100 yards of our trajectory, we were obliged by law to stop. Really, there were no complaints because we really enjoyed the sights of the whale calves cruising around our boat.

Arriving at Molokini crater, we suited up and after a briefing from the dive masters, took the plunge into 50' waters with 125 foot visibility. Now that's great visibility. I've seen worse on dry land back home in Louisiana.

After that dive, for reasons still unclear to me, we decided to head back toward Wailea Point on Maui. While it was still a great dive, it didn't have the visibility of Molokini. Our dive master has a favorite spot she likes to go to where there's a lot of native species of fish and sea creatures and gets pretty excited about it, so off we went to greet various fish, shrimp, mantas and turtles.

One thing that kept us mesmerized was the constant sounds of the whales in the water. We were never without that sound and made you wonder if you might find yourself face to face with one at any moment 50 feet below the surface.

Late Sunday morning, we met a Maalaea Harbor and cast off up the coast in the direction of Lahaina. The water was pretty choppy at first and again we had to stop several times to let the whales get out of our way. At a distance we were treated many times with breaches out of the water. Our destination was the sunken schooner, Carthaginian lying at 95 feet. It had been in the Lahaina harbor for a few years and eventually towed out to sea where it had been sunk for recreational diving. Captain Don had arranged to rendezvous with a small submarine that brought tours by several times daily. It was pretty neat, seeing the masts, ropes, and cables still attached. We were somewhat unclear as to whether we were the attraction for the tourists in the sub or they were the attraction for a bunch of divers. Either way, it worked out.

The late afternoon dive brought us back to a Manta Ray cleaning station where cleaning wrasse (fish) would eat away algae from the gills and bodies of the manta rays. The mantas are graceful creatures that seem to fly through the water and remind you of stealth fighter planes as they bank over you. The trick to seeing mantas is to stay low in the water and ignore them. The moment you rise up high or head in their direction, they leave as quickly as they come.

As bad as we hated it, we were back on a plane to Oahu Monday afternoon with photos, memories and just a little salt water still in our hair.

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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Ms Darlene had to go back. We had a wonderful time here and she hated to go but knew she had to. Sometimes, you have to face reality and realize there are other things and people needing attention.

She was supposed to arrive in New Orleans at 8 AM Sunday but since this was Delta, she was on, you have to either expect delays, missed connections or lost luggage. Never would she have dreamed that the last leg of her flight to New Orleans would have generated so much excitement. As it turns out, just as the plane was coming into Louis Armstrong Airport, they lost power from one of the engines. According to Darlene, there were a few tense moments when the pilot said there was nothing to worry about because he and the co-pilot had to do it a couple of times before. I don't know about you, but I'd think once was enough. Anyway, they did land safely even though firetrucks were chasing the Delta flight down the runway as it taxied in.

Hallelujah, she's safe! Personally, I think she's earned her wings.