The glass-bottom boat left from Slip #6. Incidentally, the website and all the printed materials used two words for the boat's name, Reef Dancer.
The first thing that I did after rising from bed was to check my email. There was no answer from the lady on Moloka'i. If we did not hear from her some time today, we would probably be wise to scuttle the plan to go to the Friendly Isle.
The hotel's breakfast area was much more crowded than on Monday. I presumptuously sat at the only empty table, but I was soon chased away by the waitress. Evidently another couple had been waiting for it. Sue and I had to mill around for another five minutes or so until another table had been vacated.
I tried the Eggs Florentine, a dish that I had never before sampled. They were tasty enough, but the texture was a little slimy for my taste. Sue really enjoyed her French Toast. That surprised me because she usually was insistent upon smothering pancakes, waffles, and French Toast in real Vermont maple syrup. Almost no other tourists came to the breakfast area after we did. Donna complained that she had never had to work so hard. Evidently everyone had decided to eat breakfast at almost the same time.
These cannons were made in Russia.
Back in our hotel room Sue disclosed that she would like to take a ride on the Reef Dancer, the glass-bottom boat. I investigated it on the Internet. I recognized it as the yellow submarine-like vessel that I had photographed on Monday. Tours cast off from the Lahaina harbor, a short walk from the hotel. Three departures were scheduled, two lasted an hour and one ninety minutes. We purchased tickets online for the 3:15 departure, which was the longer trip.
This was the Lahaina Court and Customs House.
We also decided to go to Gerard's for supper that evening. Sue called the restaurant and reserved a table for 8:00. So, just like that our entire day was planned.
Ruins of the old fort.
We had quite a bit of time before the boat trip. Sue and I walked down to Front Street. We turned left and walked toward the harbor. We easily found slip #6, which was the Reef Dancer's home base. We then walked over to the gigantic Banyan Tree and took a few photos. We sat together for a while, and then I announced that I was interested in checking out the “Historic Lahaina Trail,” a circuit of the oldest buildings in Lahaina. It was much too hot for her to partake in an exploratory hike, and so we split up.
The Historic Trail. The details can be read
here. 
The episcopal cemetery.
I strolled south on Front Street past the semi-resort hotel operated by by Best Western, some vacant tennis courts, and the Kamehameha III school. The walk to Shaw Street was longer that I had reckoned, and the sun was relentless. It did not get any cooler after I turned the corner. I was able to take a few interesting photos of churches and cemeteries on Waine'e Street, but by the time that I had reached Prison Street, I had had enough history. The sites were not well marked, and I did not have printed materials with me to explain what I was looking at. Besides, the history of this maritime/plantation town, while interesting, was not as compelling as, for example, Rome's.
Seamen once were buried here; later Catholics were.
Instead I continued on Waine'e Street past the hotel to Foodland, where I purchased a sandwich. I walked back to the hotel and sat by the pool. I washed down the sandwich and some potato chips with a Diet Coke from the machine. The twelve-ounce can from the soda machine next to the hotel's ice machine was by far the best bargain I had encountered in Hawaii.
 This was the Buddhist Hongwanji Temple, which was erected in 1910. |  Some sort of Christian church. |  Lunch by the pool. |
While we waited Sue took photos of the boat.
We were supposed to meet under this portico.
I remembered from 1997 that we noticed many small stores offering a
kamai'ana discount, which allowed locals to pay significantly lower prices than tourists. The former could often obtain a discount by flashing a Hawai'i driver's license if the proprietor did not recognize them. I did not see any such transactions on on this trip. Maybe the practice had gone out of favor. Come to think of it, the only local non-touristy stores that we had patronized had been in Hana, and the tourists must be easy to recognize in such an isolated community. After lunch I met Sue in room 15. We walked down to the harbor together, where we arrived in plenty of time for our excursion. I checked in at Slip #6. The lady there gave me our tickets. She said to wait in the shade. A representative for the excursion would call for us to assemble “under the portico” just before embarking. While we were sitting there a geezer who was at least as old as we were entertained a young girl by pulling pennies out of her ear and presenting them to her.. He told her that she needed to wash her ears more carefully. Eventually she challenged him to pull some quarters out of her ear.
Sue's scorecard.
Adrian Monk would never enter the Reef Dancer.
The promised assembly under the portico never happened. Instead, we took the initiative to walk down to where the boat was docked when we noticed several other groups boarding. In fact, we were the last to board. Everyone descended some stairs to an area that had windows and small seats on both sides. One young man served as our guide. He distributed “bingo cards” that had pictures of various fish and other denizens of the shallows that we might come across on our journey above the reef. He also informed us that two divers were aboard. They would try to find interesting critters for us to look at. The other passengers consisted of two approximately equally sized categories — children and their parents. We were the exceptions. Sue took the fish identification challenge quite seriously. It took her all of thirty seconds to memorize the card, and a few minutes into the voyage she had checked off about half of the nautical creatures. On a few occasions she consulted with the guide to verify what she had seen.
This is not a photo of a healthy reef.
Anyone could readily notice that the reef that was closest to the shore was in very bad condition. This was obviously the result of its very foolish decision to locate itself adjacent to what would eventually become an ideal spot for all kinds of activities that, while deadly to the coral, would generate precious tourist income.
This was a black dragon triggerfish.
I saw some fish, too, but I was never sure what I was looking at. I just could not get into this frustrating activity at all; I have always been notoriously bad at finding things. Instead I tried to get some good photos, but this was not the kind of setting that my camera was designed for. The only good photos that I shot were when the divers brought something right up to the window. When they did this, they swam or groped their way around both sides of the boat so that everyone could see it.
 A sea urchin. |  The divers dug around looking for animals. |  A sea urchin found by a diver. |
 When a diver got close to the boat things were much clearer. |  He held a starfish right up to the window. |  A sand dollar. |
After an hour or so the guide announced that there were some snacks topside. I went up and had some Cheezi-Its and a Diet Coke. A big turtle surfaced while I was up there, but I was occupied stuffing my face or trying to take a shot of something else. I was almost certainly the only person who missed seeing it.
 I think that this was another type of urchin. |  The parasailors were tethered to one of the two boats. |  One of my most impressive photos ever. |
The shore as seen from our boat.
From my seat on the deck I noticed that someone was parasailing quite a long distance behind the ship. I steadied myself as well as I could and set the lens to its maximum magnification. The resulting photos exceeded my most outlandish hopes. I could scarcely even see the parachute with my naked eyes. I could not see the boat to which the parasailor was tethered at all. I should actually have written “parasailors” because one of the photos clearly showed that the parachute was shared by two intrepid people.
A good view of Lahaina and the mountains. The tower at the left, which was on Lahainaluna Road, was a smokestack from the Pioneer Sugar Mill.
My underwater photos were almost all horrible, but I also took some pretty impressive photos of Lahaina and the mountains as we returned to the harbor.
The class menu from Gerard's.
I can't say that I had a great time dancing on the reefs in our yellow super-marine, but I definitely preferred it to the maritime adventure of the previous day. After we returned to the hotel room I listened to podcasts and did Sudokus. I also read some more about the drive around the West Maui Mountains. I really wanted to do it. I had read that the Nakalele Blowhole tended toward the spectacular at this time of year.
I did not bring my camera to Gerard's. I found all of these photos on the internet.
We dressed for dinner. For the first time on the trip I donned my slacks and sport coat. I pulled the dress shirt that I had worn on the dinner cruise out of the suitcase. I wore black socks with my black sneakers. The supper at Gerard's was nothing short of fabulous. Sue asked that they seat us on the porch, and they accommodated us. There were three or four other couples there, but it was not at all crowded. There also was no view, but this did not bother me in the slightest. I have never felt the need for dining and sight-seeing to be combined in one activity. Actually, IMAO the fact that the setting makes diners feel isolated from whatever was going on on Lahainaluna Street a few meters away added to the atmosphere.
The porch was nice by day.
It was romantic by night.
Our $50 voucher required us to order two three-course meals. We both had the escargot. I ordered rack of lamb as my entrée . Sue had some kind of fish. My dessert was the double sorbet. She had crème brûlée. We both also enjoyed a glass of wine. Mine was red, but I did not make a note of the type of vintage. Sue drank white wine. Everything was beyond delicious. To me the most amazing thing was the eggplant that accompanied the rack of lamb. It was served in very thin oval strips that were seasoned and lightly fried. I have always considered eggplant as a rather blasé vegetable more designed for adding texture rather than taste, but these were absolutely scrumptious. I made Sue try a few bites. She said that she thought that she could cook them like that.
 The escargot. |  My rack of lamb came with thin strips of eggplant. |  Dessert. |
Some day?
There was still no word from the lady on Moloka'i. We decided to write off the side trip to that island. If I ever get back to these islands, I swear that I will do whatever it takes to take that donkey trip down the cliff from the topside part of Moloka'i to Kalaupapa. I may put in my will that I should not be buried until my corpse has been tied to one of the mules and transported down to Kalaupapa. Sue would never assent to that, but she did agree that on Wednesday I could attempt the coast road around the West Maui Mountains. Sue always wanted to participate in any activity. However, when I explained that it would be similar to the road to Hana except sunny, windy, and much hotter, she agreed that her time could be better spent exploring Lahaina on her own. We also decided to spend our last day, Thursday, at the Maui Ocean Center, a rather small aquarium, and the nearby bird sanctuary. The latter did not exist in 1997, but we did visit the bird sanctuary. I did not remember it as a highlight of that trip, but we would pass right by it, and it was free.
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