Thursday Summary
Thursday was the next of our pre-planned days this trip. Our main activity scheduled for Thursday was going back to the Maui Ocean Center. In addition to our trip out there, we also ended up having my birthday dinner at Leilani's a day later than originally planned, which was fine.

The Ocean Center is a really neat place on Maui, especially for people like us that don't do any snorkelling or scuba diving. You get to see all sorts of fish, reef life and other animals. Cindy and I each have our favorites. She loves seeing the sea turtles, and the Turtle Lagoon exhibit has about five adult turtles (30+ years old) that swim in their little habitat. You can watch them from above like we do from our lanai at the Sheraton, or you can also watch them from the side of the tank with the large viewing window and see them swimming underwater.

My favorite has to be the sharks in the Open Ocean Exhibit. It features a 750,000 gallon tank with over 2,000 different types of sea life, from sharks to manna rays to all sorts of smaller fish. The sharks are by far the coolest, because they'll swim right up along the window and you can get up close an personal. Also, near the end of the exhibit, there's a large tunnel you walk through where you can see almost completely around you, ceiling and all. It feels like the fish are swimming right along side, over and even under you. Really neat.

Our dinner plans carried over from the previous night, which was my birthday. Leilani's is our favorite restaurant in Whalers Village and there's really not a bad spot in the place. We got there a little before 6pm as usual, since the place fills up pretty quick around sunset. Obviously, because the views at sunset from Leilani's are spectacular. We had planned on the sunset being nice, even though it was a little too overcast for our liking. What we didn't plan on, however, was a playful whale out in the water, splashing away in the ocean and making for some excitement throughout the entire restaurant and with the folks standing along the beachwalk.

Of course, no dinner at Leilani's would be complete without sharing a slice of Hula Pie. This time it was representing my birthday cake, and it probably could have served a few more people. This photo from last year shows a better perspective of it's size, compared to my hand and the spoon next to it. With my mom with us this year, three of us did a lot more damage to it than two people could.

I mentioned it was overcast earlier, which kind of put a damper on our stargazing from the beach later that night. We were able to make out bits and pieces in between the clouds, but it was nothing like last year when we had a new moon and no clouds. Still, sitting out on the beach, listening to the waves and staring at the heavens is a magical feeling.

Itinerary - Thursday, April 17th

• Sleep in, skipping breakfast
• Visit the new Barnes and Noble (across from the Cannery)
• Lunch at the Food Court at the Cannery
• Visit the Maui Ocean Center
• Dinner at Leilani's at Whalers Village
• Share Hula Pie as a belated birthday cake
• Stargazing on the beach

Thursday Timeline

9:34 AM HST

Slept in late this morning, just waking up now. Perhaps a little too late, but that's okay.

Starting to get used to the daily schedule now, sleeping in started to become more frequent.

10:09 AM HST

Blogging for Wednesday. I think I'm caught up now (yay!)

From this point on, I was pretty proud of the fact that I was keeping on top of blogging each day. The first few days were just too busy.

10:31 AM HST

Checking out my whale photos, uploading a few to Flickr

Even though the whale watch wasn't completely pain-free, seeing some of the photos I was able to get of the first few sightings was a real treat. Shot at least one nice photo with the whale's fluke (tail) coming out of the water like you see in some of the postcards. It still wasn't that close, but I have already started looking into renting a longer lens for my camera to bring with in February.

11:15 AM HST

Heading out to the new Barnes across from the Cannery.

We were surprised this was open already. When we were on Maui in September of last year, the signs had just been posted and it didn't look like the construction of the buildings in this complex had even started yet. But sure enough, Barnes and Noble was open, and Outback Steakhouse above it on the second floor had it's grand opening while we were there.

There wasn't much else in the shopping center yet, but there were plenty of storefronts which I'm sure will have tennats by the time we return in February. It will be good to have yet another place to walk around and window shop, although, I don't know what all the extra cars and parking will do for the traffic nearby.

12:00 PM HST

On to the Cannery for lunch

Since we were nearby and skipped breakfast, we stopped over at the Cannery for lunch. We thought about eating out at the Ocean Center, but didn't think we would make it there without eating first (we were sort of starving). We had sandwiches at the little italian place in the food court, and while the food was good, the prices were a little high, especially for lunch.

2:53 PM HST

Finishing our visit to the Maui Ocean Center

We got to the Ocean Center and dove right in (figuratively, of course). We were happy to see the Turtle Lagoon exhibit was open again, since it was closed for maintenance last year during our visit. It was pretty neat to see them swimming underwater like I've seen on so many photos on Flickr.

Also, back at that Open Ocean exhibit, I was finally able to get my photos of the tiger shark, who was too elusive last year. We also spent quite a bit of time in the giant gift shop they have at the end of the tour through all of the exhibits, but luckily didn't leave with too much.

4:00 PM HST

Back at the hotel.

Just like the other days, it was good to get back to the hotel at least once to cool off and just relax a little. Especially after the long winter we had, the warm air and the hot sun certainly took some getting used to.

4:37 PM HST

Checking out my GPS logs from the Road to Hana and our whale watch. Looks like all the data is there. Sweet!!!

At this point, Cindy headed down to the pool for a late afternoon sun session while I was out in the upper, open-air lobby at the Sheraton soaking up the wifi. It was a little faster than my Sprint broadband card, but not too fast.

I was excited to find out that my GPS logs from the Road to Hana tour on Tuesday were in tact. I had some doubts because of the lack of cell reception and some of the areas that we went through had a lot of trees and cloud cover. All in all, they came out great.

5:03 PM HST

Heading back to our room. Almost time for dinner at Leilani's. Hula Pie, here we come.

We all regrouped and cleaned up before dinner.

5:47 PM HST

Ording drinks at Leilani's

Just a small typo, left it in for humor sake. Still getting used to the mini-keyboard on my phone and trying to type faster than I really can with just my thumbs.

5:47 PM HST

That would be ordering drinks. Honestly, I haven't started drinking yet. :)

One of my favorite drinks at Leilani's is the Hawaiian Punch, which tastes just like the children's drink with the same name we all remember from growing up. This one, however, doesn't come in that giant tin can and it has a little punch to it. Cindy's favorite is the Lava Flow.

6:15 PM HST

Dinner entertainment provided a whale enjoying a late afternoon swim.

Everyone in the restaurant is just sitting and chatting, nibbling on their appetizers and waiting for the sunset. All of a sudden, someone spots a splash out on the water and before long all eyes are out on the water watching a whale trying to steal the show.

Remember, this is mid-April, when the whales are supposed to be all but gone back to Alaska for the summer. I can't wait to see all of this again in February when whale season is at it's peak.

6:43 PM HST

Full of lots of Hula Pie (and sugar). Time to walk it off.

Three mouths are better than two. Not sure anyone has actually finished one of these things before.

8:15 PM HST

Sitting on the beach under the full moon, but not too many stars

Even though it was cloudy in various parts of the sky, we were still able to sit out for a while and gaze at the skies. The full moon was coming over the mountains to the east of us, which made for a pretty scene as it lined the hills with moonlight, but soon washed out much of the stars in the area.

Still, the sounds of the waves and dancing fire on the torches along Black Rock were worth the time.

Related Links

• Blog Post - Maui Ocean Center Visit
• Maui Ocean Center
• Leilani's
• Stargazing
• Photos - Maui Ocean Center
• Photos - Stars over Maui (mostly from '07 Trip)