West Maui - Christmas Eve through New Year's Eve

After our adventures in Central and East Maui, we finished up the trip at The Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort where we had a one bedroom villa with full kitchen and a view of the pool, ocean and Molokai island from the balcony.

On Christmas Eve, we had Captain Steve's Deluxe Dolphin Lanai Snorkel scheduled from 7am - 2 pm.  We left from Mala Boat Ramp on our way to snorkel off the island of Lanai.  It's very common for spinner dolphins to swim between West Maui and Lanai, but we only saw one small pod swimming off the side of our boat.    We did see many whales - also common in the area between Maui, Lanai and Molokai.   The big excitement was seeing a group of whales all pursuing a female.  I can't remember what our guide called this show off battle, but there was a lot of splashing happening.   Once we got to the coast of Lanai, we anchored in two different areas for some calm snorkeling.   I was reminded that I like deep water snorkeling (like this), since I don't have to worry about my body getting too close to coral or the sea urchins attached to it.  I was also thrilled with William's growth since our last Hawaii snorkel three years ago.   Being a stronger and more confident swimmer made it a lot easier on mom!  And it was a treat to have a snorkel buddy.  John isn't a snorkel buddy....he just swims off and ditches the group.   William and I had the same speed and risk level!   

On the way back to the resort we saw this amazing horizontal rainbow!  It was the brightest, biggest rainbow I've ever seen.  I took a lot of pictures of it out the window as we were driving.  I believe this is a golf course fairway.

Of course we had to wear our matching pajamas for Christmas!  We had Disney pajama pants like always, but I ordered pineapple Christmas tree shirts from Etsy.   We started Christmas Day with pancakes made by William and a POG mimosa for me!   Our Christmas evening meal was pre-ordered for pickup from a local restaurant (prime rib, garlic truffle mashed potatoes, creamed corn, Hawaiian rolls and red velvet cupcakes).   Before dinner we had cocktails - Williams' POG Powerade and the adults' Old Fashioneds.  We were pleased to find a tasty pre-mixed cocktail at Safeway.

Starting the days after Christmas, it was a mix of work projects and beach/pool time.  On the 28th, I knew I'd be busy the entire day with work, so John and William booked a fishing trip.   I treated myself to a Starbucks when I dropped them off at the boat launch.   And I moved my home office from the kitchen table to the balcony!   When I picked the guys up they let me know I needed to drive straight home!  There was fresh fish in the backpack that needed to get on ice while we planned out dinner.  I forgot to take any photos of the fish the night we made/ate it, so the below is the leftovers.  We had about twice that much before!  I'm not a big fish fan, but this was quite good.   Mild like swordfish.     

One day, William and I spent the morning together with brunch and mini golf at the hotel.  We mostly ate meals in our villa, but did enjoy several poolside burgers and fries and one afternoon walked to the resort next door to get our only shaved ice of the trip.  We lamented how it was a huge missed business opportunity for there not to be poolside shaved ice at our hotel's pool!

We did a few more beach adventures from the hotel - renting snorkels for the week and stand up paddleboards for a day.    Due to winter weather, the surf was pretty rough and made both the snorkeling and the SUP challenging.  But both were on our wish list, and we are glad to have done it.  No pictures since I don't have a water resistant camera or one of those cases for my iphone.   We flew home early on New Year's Eve morning and got home early on New Year's Day.    It was about 20 degrees when we got home, and the snow started later that day.