It's been awhile...

So a lot has happened these past few weeks. I have officially survived the field season which ended April 15th, so yea. That means it's now post-season which consists of 9-5 days entering data on a computer, so boo. But i also get weekends off, so now i almost have something resembling a normal life. So i'll try and recap the neat things i've done, but will limit pictures because i took way too many of them.
Ok, most recently, on wednesday, the Dalai Lama was on maui, and i got to go hear him speak. sorry, no photos, the security was the equivalent of seeing a president or other head of state. But, it was an absolutely incredible and uplifting experience. In a world, especially, a country with very few inspiring leaders and fighters for peace, it was awesome to just be in his presence. I say this as a completely non-religious individual. But there is just something about him that gives you some hope for mankind and made me realize i was in the presence of a great man, which seem to be fairly scarce as of late. Anyway, if you don't know much about him, go learn more. Basically he discussed what he calls secular ethics and a human approach for world peace, how all people want a happy life and how to find happiness, about altruism, and also about some Buddhist beliefs and the importance of both faith/spirituality and science.
Last week my parents came to Maui for their 35th anniversary. They came here on their honeymoon and this is their first trip back since then. I think they had a good time.


Our first adventure was to Molokini a crater a few miles offshore of Maui. We sailed out there on a really nice catamaran with a cool crew and then went snorkeling in the crater. There's a beautiful reef along the craters edge, tons of fish. After much debate my mom agreed to just come on the trip and once she was there we couldn't keep her out of the water. I took a ton of underwater photos, but i havent gotten a chance to go through them all or ID the fish so i'll just post a couple more. When i get back i can bore you all with hours of underwater photos.

Some orangespine unicornfish and a yellowtail coris feeding on the reef

Mom and Dad in the water

Me on the Paragon catamaran (tilt your head)

The next day we went on a whale watch, which was bit of a bummer since the weather was lousy (lots of wind) and we didn't really see much, most of the whales have already left for alaska. After an enormous plate lunch we had the chance to snorkel off a beach near their hotel. There's a huge reef there, again lots of fish, and you could hear the whales singing which i was really excited for mom and dad to hear. Mom got cold so she got out. About 5 minutes later i spotted a beautiful large female green turtle that me and my dad were able to watch for a while as she feed along the reef. The best part was on the video i took underwater with her, you can hear the whales faintly singing in the background.






So day 3 was a trip up the over 10,000 foot volcanic mountain, Haleakala to the crater to watch the sunset. The whole drive up is beautiful, steep and windy, but with incredible views of Maui and across the crater . And then you get over the cloud line and it's absolutely breathtaking. After the sunset we made the long trip back down and another day was done.

My shadow enjoys the view

Mom and Dad soar above the clouds

Look for the rainbow in the clouds

The Silversword plant is found only on Haleakala

The crater, lava spewed from those "little" dome-like hills

It was a tough climb, but we made it

A Coast guard helicopter flew by







On our last day together, we went to the Maui Ocean Center, a gorgeous aquarium, with some enormous tanks including a large glass tunnel you can walk through underwater. The tank was filled with some enormous rays and a few species of sharks.


Black-tip and white-tip reef sharks

Ummm....
Hammerhead, nice

Moon jelly tank

Mom gets a closeup of a nice big stingray

A hammerhead shark gives me a scare

After that Mom and Dad had a couple more beach days but then had to say goodbye to Maui.


But my adventures were not over yet. Last weekend i achieved a life-time goal. I went snorkeling off Mala, where there's a collapsed pier with a reef growing on it. At first i was not impressed, but it was cool to see the coral growing on the rubble.

A spiny lobster
Some coral grows on a piece of rebar with a Hawaiian Domino Damselfish

Thats when my friend spotted it. A 4ft white-tip reef sharks resting on the seafloor. It was about 20ft down, just chilling. White-tips are nocturnal, fish and crustacean eaters, so not a major threat like a tiger shark, but still not an animal you want to mess with. I was able to dive down for a closer look, and it was amazing. I'm still excited about it. Then some very sloppy divers came and got too close and it killed them. But i did get some nice pictures of bubbles.




The next day we went on a really cool hike, but that will wait until another blog, maybe later today i'll post it, but a man needs to eat dinner.