Wa’akaulua, honu, napo’l ‘ana o ka la (canoe, turtle, sunset)

Last year when Karen and I were here, we paddled with the Kihei Canoe Club.  We had such a good time that we wanted to do it again.  We decided to paddle this time with the Mana’olana Pink Paddlers out of the Maui Canoe Club.  The Pink Paddlers are a non profit Hawaiian outrigger paddling organization focused on helping cancer survivors regain health.  Every Tuesday and Thursday, visitors are allowed to paddle along with the members.

It took us only about five minutes to walk down to the canoe club.  After we paid our $15 and signed a waiver, we were shown to the canoe we would be in and introduced to Julie who would be our captain.  Julie explained to us how to get in and out of the canoe and then she demostrated the proper technique for paddling.  Once she was done, it was time to get paddling.

There were  twelve people in the canoe … seven club members and five visitors.  We were in a double hull canoe which is much more stable than a single hull canoe.  Launching the canoe went smoothly and I was happy that I actually got into the canoe without getting hurt.  We paddled for about ten minutes and then all of the canoes gathered together.  Once we were all assembled, we did a chant to ask for healing and another chant to say thanks for the beautiful day.  The hour went by very quickly and soon we were back on shore.

We were tired from all of that paddling, that we spent the rest of the morning relaxing on the loungers by the ocean.  We ended up picking up lunch from Dina’s Sandwitch Shop which is located right here on the resort.

We had no real plans for this afternoon so we headed back to Ho’opika Beach Park to watch the surfers.  While checking out the surfers, a vendor told us that there were turtles down on the beach.  So we decided to go and see them.  When we go there, there were eight turtles.  As time went by, six more turtles came out of the water to enjoy the sunshine on the beach.  I could have spent all afternoon sitting there watching them.  It started to rain so we left and went into Paia to do some shopping.

We wanted to enjoy what would probably be our last sunset at the condo tonight so we picked up dinner from Eskimo Candy and enjoyed it on the lanai.   We ended our evening in Kahului shopping at the Costco and the Queen Ka’ahumanu Center.

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