Day four... let's see, what happened next?

I must confess that my memory is getting the events mixed between one day and another. I will, however, attempt to get things straight and give a somewhat faithful account of day four, assuming anybody is still interested at this point.

Day four started much like the others - yes, with food. LOL. We spent the morning at the beach and pool and had lunch at the resort's restaurant. I enjoyed a Piña Colada and resisted the temptation to have a hamburger with fries...

We met James, Gina and the kids (by the way, their kids, our godchildren, are Noah and Hope) and headed down to Ma'alaea to the Maui Ocean Center. This was a trip mainly for the kids. Imho, once you've seen an aquarium, you've pretty much seen them all. I mean, it's not like the fish learn different tricks or speak in different languages. And save the occasions when you can find endemic species, everyone seems to be able to get their hands on tropical fish in addition to their local varieties, and somehow there's always a shark or two. Then there's the interactive exhibits where you can touch a sea cucumber, although I still can't imagine why you would want to, and the one where you can feed the dolphin/or-some-other-marine-animal. I should offer the following disclosure: I am not an aquarium cynic. And I do enjoy marine life - in fact, maybe in my next life I'll pursue being a marine biologist, and one of the things I must do in this life is participate in the Pacific Whale Foundation research intern program helping with whale research in the Galapagos Islands... but I digress.

Back to my thing about aquariums. Why am I sharing this, you ask? Because the Maui Ocean Center knocked down all those preconceptions. This is a small aquarium by standards such as the Long Beach Aquarium's. It is, however, much more impactful. I did want to see these fishes, every single one of them. Not just because some of them were pretty, but because there was education in each piece of exhibit. There were details on conservation, on coral rehabilitation, on creatures that prefer darker surroundings, on sharks. They had turtles, so I did have my turtle encounter, just not in the wild. And they had the expected tank with the expected glass tunnel, except their was smaller and nobody was in a rush to get through it. We sat there and watched as fish, sharks and manta rays swam around us. We sat in front of the glass and listened to the docent explain to us what we were seeing, and pointing a pregnant shark that was about to pop "anytime now" (turns out she's 12 months along, but they can deliver anytime between 8 and 15 months... forget that!!) Larissa learned to tell the difference between a female and a male shark and ray.

And then there was the expected diver, except this one wasn't cleaning the tank. She was there to feed the fish, and one of the rays got so excited, she actually started bumping her on the shoulder for her food and ate out of her hand. Then a second diver showed up, and this is where it gets funny: their names were Jim and Larissa, and I just couldn't get over the coincidence.

I highly recommend this visit. The kids had a wonderful time, and we came out grateful for the experience and more aware than ever of the fragility of our marine environment. I for one renewed my commitment to do my part in protecting it, or at least minimizing the harm I implant on this planet wherever possible. Yeah... I know. I'm a bit of a tree-hugger.

The day finished with another educational experience. He headed back to the resort for a special program. The staff at the Westin Villas had decided to have a canoe and a team of paddlers instead of the mainland-customary baseball team. Why a canoe? Because it's part of their Hawaiian tradition, at least as it relates to their ancestors and the early Hawaiians way of life. This was a bit of an anachronistic thing. The ceremony was full of symbolism and tradition, of chants in Hawaiian and men dressed in traditional fashion, and they were blessing a top of the line outrigger canoe that looked very much like the 21st century version of its earlier incarnation. Turns out the outrigger itself is full of meaning. The front represents the Kane, or male, which is the protector and the provider. The middle represents the body and how we must take care of it. The back is the Wahine, or female, wich is the most sacred and must be protected at all times. They talked about serving first the gods, then revering their ancestors, and then taking care of the ohana, or family. And it was beautiful. All of it. They finished by taking the outrigger out into the ocean and bringing it back after its inaugural sail.

Afterwards, we were treated to tea-type sandwiches, some traditional food that was shared during the ceremony by those involved in it, music and a hula dancer who was beautiful and so graceful. And then it started raining, although not too much. Just enough to give us double rainbows above the resort. Couldn't have been more perfect had they planned for it.

We went back to our room, where Gina had decided to play Iron Chef with me by giving me a whole bunch of bell peppers and seeing what I could turn them into with whatever was in my fridge. We had pasta with a roasted red bell pepper cream sauce, roasted yellow and orange bell peppers and chicken. I didn't have basil, but it was pretty good. Iron Chef Lara wins this round.