Dumpster Diving in the Ocean!!!

Up early to the clanging of the scuba diving tanks from the Dive Shop behind us (this is almost an every day occurrence at 4:00 am) ... we ate quickly and headed out to the beach.  I'm having withdrawal from not diving or snorkeling, so I drug Patty out the door to get my fix.  Here she is in her beautiful NEW bathing suit!!!  She was a great snorkeler, in spite of the "rental" fins!!

We didn't see much at first ... the water is again cloudy from the wave action.  After about 30 minutes, we headed out to deeper water ... looking for large sandy areas where the rays glide by looking for food.  Three kinds here ... Manta Ray, Spotted Eagle Ray and Sting Ray. I finally looked up and almost ran square into a big black sting ray running close to the surface.  I think he was as scared as me, because he headed off with a flash before I could even get my camera pulled up.  Thank goodness I wasn't THAT close to him ... thoughts of Steve Irwin rushed through my head!!!!  Still swimming around the deeper water, 50 feet or so, we spied a large turtle swimming fast.  I took after him, but couldn't keep up.  Another 30 minutes and I located him again.  He became my swimming partner for several seconds, but with one large swipe of his fins, he was off to parts unknown.  They are amazingly fast when they want to be!!

We took our time coming back in and checked out the local coral and sea urchins.  Lots of little fish were swimming around in the shallows, but it's too cloudy to get good images.  Corals range from white to green to purple!!

Back at the condo again, we discuss our options.  Since seeing all the sea glass at the Flea Market, I went online to find out where we might locate some. Lahaina seemed to be the spot, so we packed up lots of water and headed to the Old Whaling Town.  First order of business was to have a burger at Cheeseburger in Paradise in honor of Dan since he's home, hard at work, ripping out the old deck!!

They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner ... all servers wear grass skirts, even the guys!!!  Prices range from $9-15 ... and as you can see, it's open air.  We chose the Hawaiian Burger ... how can you go wrong with pineapple and teriyaki???

Now stuffed, we waddled out to the beach where we promptly got soaking wet, trying to retrieve pieces of glass in the surf line.   Called sea glass, it is glass bottles that have been broken and washed in the surf and sand for who knows how long, resulting in smooth rounded edges and a frosted appearance.  We spent probably 3 hours bent over!!!

I stepped on a big thorn and we decided shorts really weren't proper attire.  Next time water shoes and bathing suits.  We entertained the tourists for quite some time at this site, getting thoroughly soaked by the incoming waves.  BUT WE FOUND TREASURES!!!  Well at least a couple of them were necklace-worthy ....

Back at the house, Patty decided to give Jamba Juice a run for their money.  She has been gathering lots of fruits for a new smoothie called Stinky Fruit Slush.  I didn't take a picture because it looked pretty disgusting ... but I have to say it SMELLED pretty yummy by the time she was done!!  Passion fruit (with seeds), papaya, pineapple, guava soda, Naked guava drink and something she picked up on the street!!  She stated emphatically that it was delicious ... but I declined her lovely offer of a glass all my own.   More snorkeling tomorrow .... going south towards the Fish Bowl.  Hope to get some fish images!!