I am not sure exactly why the snorkel companies make you arrive that early. I think that the ocean is generally calmer in the morning so they like to get out to sea to avoid any seasickness. After a 40 minute drive to central Maui, we hopped on the boat at 7am. The trip started out great...it was a bit windy but we were inside chomping on bagels so we didn't really care. It took about 35-45 minutes to get out to Molikini crater, a popular snorkeling spot just off the coast of Maui.
Just before reaching our destination, we notice clouds starting to move in and the captain comes onto the speaker and tells us that many boats are not staying out at the crater that morning and instead going to another snorkel spot because it is so windy and not ideal snorkeling conditions...Read: incredibly bumpy water. And wait, isn't this why we got up early? To AVOID this??
But we hear him talking to another boat and he says, "Ah, screw it, we're here, we'll just stay," even though the other boat captain told him how nice and calm and clear the other spot was that morning. Tim and I looked at each other and just groaned. There were already people who were starting to look slightly green. It was not a good indication of what the next 4 hours would hold.
If anyone knows me and my issues/phobias/whatever you want to call it with puke, you would be saying a big "UH OH" in your head about right now.
We park the boat and get all of our snorkel gear on. It is not a good sign that there are white caps in the water because it is THAT windy and choppy. Tim and I are the first couple of people to jump in. We both have wetsuits on but it is cloudy and windy so it's pretty cold in the water. You can see some fish but not like we were expecting. Most of the time you are just fighting to not get tossed into the rocks of the crater because the waves are that turbulent.
We get out after a while because we are cold. While we are out we notice that 1) They are serving lunch already... IE: burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, etc. Um, it's 9:30am! 2) While we are sitting there, we just happen to look over right as a lady is completely yakking for about 5 minutes straight over the side of the boat. UH OH. And, um, DISGUSTING.
From there, it went downhill. I have never gotten seasick before. Probably something to do with the fact that I don't have much experience being on the ocean or water since I grew up in the dead center of the US, not even remotely CLOSE to water. But I do have a pretty strong stomach (mainly due to my puke issues I guess). I did not get seasick on the snorkel trip. I felt it, for sure, but did not get seasick. Tim on the other hand has before... and definitely did that day. I don't think watching that lady toss her cookies helped much. After that, he started to feel really bad. We got back into the water thinking it might help with the choppiness. Not so much. He almost puked in the water.
We get out and spend the next two hours of our time there huddled together inside the cabin. It was choppy, cloudy and not fun. We were both so ready to get off that damn boat that I seriously considered diving in and swimming back to Maui.
Once we took off, it got much better. Tim started to feel a bit better and on the way back we saw turtles and dolphins. That, by far, was the best part of our whole snorkeling adventure.
On the boat on the way out to the crater. It was sunny then!
Almost at the crater- you can see it behind Tim.
All dressed up and ready to go in my snorkel suit. Why is it so brightly colored you ask? They gave me a kids one! Lame!
A little sea turtle that we saw on the way back from the crater. We didn't get any good pictures of the dolphins.
When we got back to the hotel that afternoon, we ate lunch. We successfully avoided the boat lunch at 9am. It smelled gross and it was 9am for the love of god! We went back to our room and had this HUGE bouquet of flowers in our room from my mom, dad and brother with an awesome card basically telling us congratulations on our wedding. It was so nice. Shortly after that we took off for Lahina on the east side of Maui for the Luau we had scheduled for that night.
Pictures of eastern Maui on the drive over to Lahina. I think Tim was bored riding shot gun. He got a little camera happy on the drive.
Pictures of the beach on the way to Lahina.
Beautiful picture of the sun starting to set.
Just relaxing in the sun and waiting to get into the Luau.
Sitting at the Luau enjoying the sunset after taking pictures and getting "leid"... again! We got so many leis over there. And did I mention that our table at the luau was front and center? It was the best luau ever! [It's the Feast at Lele for anyone who is planning a trip to Maui. Pricey but worth it.]
Our table. Oops we already spilled some salsa that we were eating with our taro chips. Oh, and the drinks are amazing, unlimited, and included in the price! Score!
Waiting for the luau to start. 
Still waiting on the luau to start but this is not a self portrait like the one above. A nice guy was nice enough to take our picture (he and his wife sat at the table beside us. They became our new friends from Minnesota!)
Drinking a lava flow... Lava flows were probably Tim's drink of the trip. They were good, but nothing beats the Maui mojito!
Beautiful sunset.
Beautiful hula dancers. This luau, like many others, explores all of the island cultures- Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, and the Samoas. With each course, they bring out food for each of the islands and then the dancers come out with the dances that relate to each island's culture. It's pretty neat. And of course, there is a fire dancer at the end!
We got our own little unique dessert plate. It says congratulations in Hawaiian at the top for our wedding (actually I think they thought they were there on our honeymoon, but whatever! It was still awesome). At that point, though, we were so full from the entire 4 course dinner that we didn't touch a whole lot of dessert... enough to try everything but we certainly didn't eat all of this. We left the Luau feeling very content and happy. The ending of the day was so much better than the beginning on the snorkel boat. We couldn't have been happier with the luau. We did end up buying ridiculously expensive pictures that they take at the beginning of the luau but oh well, it is all part of the experience, right? We drove back to Wailea at around 10pm, with the top down on the convertible. Ah, seriously gotta love Hawaii...
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