Day 7: Diving #2 & my parents are here! [Maui 2025]
Today was a very early rise; we were out the door by 6am to get AJ to his boat dive with NeverDry Divers. Luckily my parents arrived the day before and were able to come to our condo to allow Ayla to sleep while I drove him to the Kihei boat launch. Getting out the door so early, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise. The sky was so pink and the winds were finally gone, it was a very pleasant morning.
When I got back to the condo Ayla was still sleeping, so my parents were going to head out to do their grocery shopping, but right as they were getting ready to leave Ayla woke up. She was excited to see her GG and Grandpa; she insisted she get dressed and ready so she could join them on their errands. So we all packed into the car and headed to Foodland grocery store. After a quiet shopping trip we went to Nalus for breakfast. I had a client recommend this restaurant and a local raved about it. When you arrive you order your food before you can be seated. We got there right when they opened at 8am, so we had no line, but when we left about 90 minutes later, there was a line of about 10 families. While that may sound like a decent amount, they move through people pretty quickly, but I never felt rushed at the table. Every person, no matter their role, was extremely nice and helpful. The food was next level! I couldn’t believe how good it was, and the prices compared to the portion sizes were very generous. Their vanilla latte was also a perfect side to my omelet. Almost every table around us ordered a Bloody Mary, so if we go back that will definitely be on the order.
After a filling breakfast, we stopped at Starbucks so my parents could get their mocha and latte and Ayla could run around a little and burn some energy while we waited for the drinks. We then headed back to our condo to give them a tour of the grounds. Ayla really wanted to go swimming with her GG and Grandpa, so I dropped them all off at their condo and I headed back to my condo for some, always appreciated, alone time. I was able to get some laundry done, straighten up the condo, worked out and caught up on my blogging. My workout today didn’t last as long as I would have liked, but it was still good to get the movement in. I started talking to another person about their injuries they’re rehabbing and we also discussed some exercises he could add into his current program. He was a super nice guy, and it was an enjoyable conversation and by the end he said he’s going to go back to Canada and look for a trainer for himself. I gave him some pointers of what to look for when he’s searching too. By the time we ended our conversation I needed to head back to get ready to pick up AJ.
Workout:
- Circuit 1: repeat 3x
- 2 leg extension
- 1 leg deadlift
- Cable crunches
- Circuit 2: repeat 3x
- 1 leg hamstring curl
- Cable double rope tricep push down
- stability ball crunches
- Circuit 3: repeat 3x
- Walking lunges
- push ups
AJ had 3 dives planned to complete his Advanced Open Water certification. The first was a deep dive at Molokini crater. Since he was one-on-one with his Dive Master, they got to jump in as soon as the boat was attached to the mooring line. It was a good thing too, because he got to see a pair of dolphins playing with some sea cucumbers on the ocean floor. Sadly, they didn’t want to be watched and quickly swam off. AJ and his guide went to 80 feet, and then descended along the sand to 105 feet. Off in the dark distance, at the edge of sight range, 10+ white tipped sharks slowly circled in and out of the shadows while AJ worked on his deep dive skills. They slowly worked their way up and they saw many eels and fish varieties. While the dive was great, the visibility at Molokini wasn’t great due to overcast skies.
For dive two the boat was moved to an off shore dive site called “5 graves.” Since AJ and his dive master had done that dive site from shore several times, they took the opportunity to instead dive out 10 minutes away from the coast to a separate reef system. He described this area as containing “clouds” of fish, there were so many schools. They sat in awe watching all the schools interact, before making the long swim back towards the boat.
His final dive of the trip was using an underwater scooter. The original plan had been to use the scooters to get out to a wreck. However, the depth of the second dive meant they wouldn’t be able to safely go deep enough for the wreck. Instead they left from the northern most area of Keawakapu Beach. The scooters allowed them to head out and across the area in front of the Kihei Boat Ramp, out to a reef that was virtually untouched. AJ described it as the healthiest coral he’d ever seen, “National Geographic” colorful, and the reef was very diverse. Since he had the scooter, he didn’t take his camera on this dive, which was a bummer! They scooted through that reef, and over large algae fields covered in hundreds, if not thousands, of spiny sea urchins. During this dive they also encountered two different Eagle Rays, which are rare, so that was a treat. There have been a few sightings of a Coastal Manta in the area, but AJ unfortunately didn’t see it during our trip.
AJ & I then headed to my parent condo to enjoy an evening at their pool and dinner as a group. Outside their condo is the food truck Kinaole Grill, while we don’t make this a must stop on our Maui vacations, they are consistently delicious. My favorite plate lunch from them is their calamari; however, they were sold out so I ended up getting the coconut shrimp, another winner. AJ order the seared ahi with wasabi cream sauce, he thought it was very good, but would go back to Coconuts for Ahi if he was really craving it. After dinner we were off to our condo to get Ayla and ourselves to bed.
Tomorrow is our first day we have no real set plans/goals. I’m thinking a lazy beach day sounds good but we’ll see where the day takes us.
