July 3: Day 7

Today was to be our big adventure on the high seas. We booked a snorkel trip to the crater of Molokini--home to some of the clearest snorkeling in all of Hawai'i. It was a morning trip and the boat was leaving at 730. Of course the marina was also 30 mins from our hotel, so this meant getting up at 530AM.


So we gathered all the supplies..towels, sunscreen, snacks and packed into the car.

Unfortunately, all was not well.

Liz hadn't been feeling hot since we woke up (perhaps because of this the night before) and despite hopes that it would pass before we got to the boat, that didn't happen. Rather than risk getting on a boat and feel awful for six hours, we aborted the mission as soon as we got to the marina.

Liz looked legitimately ill, so they were kind enough to refund the non-refundable $150 we had already paid in advance.

After eating a moderately OK breakfast at Hecocks in Lahaina, Liz was starting to feel better.


Still feeling the itch to snorkel we rented equipment from Snorkel Bob and hit the rocky outpost near our hotel. Sure, it wasn't superclear like Molokini, but four a pair of newlyweds that rarely sticks their toes in the water, it was really fun and there were plenty of fish.










It was incredible to see the tiny fish that would hang out right by the beach. These fish would literally ride the waves all the way in and then float back out. I couldn't believe the little things weren't left stranded on the sand.

Despite the rumors of a turtle or two calling Black Rock home, we never saw one. "Turtle Town" remained elusive.

We hung out into the afternoon at the beach and watched the cliff diving ceremony and the sunset behind blackrock. There's a dude jumping into the water here...you'll just have to trust us since you'd never know from the picture.


This very very drunk older couple was sitting near us and the husband took this picture. Based on their conversation with the waitress I think they had been there since morning. Not a bad picture considering the photographer...


After sunset we went back up to the room to get ready for a sushi dinner at a highly recommended restaurant a bit up the coast from Ka'anapali. On the way out we stopped at a Long's drug to get another disposable underwater camera.

It was here that the day went sour when I tried to pay and realized I lost my wallet. After needing the hotel key to get out of the parking garage, I left my wallet on my lap. When we got to the store it must have fallen when I got out of the car. We searched the whole place, we talked to security, we searched the car from top to bottom. The wallet seemed to be gone.

There would be no sushi on this night.

We went back to the hotel and began the ritual of cancelling credit cards.


Here's what was lost:

• A Coach wallet Liz had given me.
• A "lucky" 2 dollar bill. (or maybe it was unlucky)
  
• Two personal notes from Liz.
  
• $110 in cash. (Only hours earlier I had taken $100 from the wallet so this could have been worse)
• Driver's license
• ATM card
• Several credit/store cards
• A $50 National Parks non-replacable annual pass purchased the day we went to Haleakala.

For a brief time we had a huge freakout because we thought access would be lost to all our money with five days remaining in the trip. Fortunately Liz's personal account is with the same bank as our joint account (and the lost ATM card) so we were able to go online and transfer cash to her account and still have a card to pay for hotels, car rentals, etc.

So that was a big relief. The other major luck-out was that I happened to have a passport in my carry on bag. This meant I could actually get on the plane to the Big Island the next afternoon. (And still drink--they carded everywhere in Maui!)

So in the end, knowing how much worse my stupidity could have been, we were happy that things would be OK and our trip wasn't ruined. After about an hour of panic followed by damage control, we walked over the Westin and had some dinner.

All in all it wasn't a bad day, because we had loads of fun snorkelling. It did start out and end on an off note, but in Hawai'i it's hard for anything to actually be ruined.

Postscript: 12 days later I recieved a call from National Car Rental in Maui. They found my wallet in the rental car we returned the day after losing the wallet! So National shipped it back to me (on my expense those cheap bastards). By the time I got it back I already had a new ID and credit cards, but it was nice to have the wallet, the notes, and the National Parks Pass wish is good for another 11 months. There was $50 cash missing--odd since it came back still holding a $50 bill, a $10 bill, and the apparently still lucky $2 bill. I'll just consider that a tax on my mistake. I was just glad to get it all back. We seriously searched that car for over an hour so I don't have the slightest clue how we never found the wallet!