Sun, sand, and big ass surf!

Pre-tsunami sunset from our lanai.

Two days after I got back from my blizzard-battling trek to see Prince in New York, I booked a tropical vacation for us: Maui. We deserved it—a vacation perhaps free of Prince, but also free from tiring, yet stalwart attempts to see the Purple Yoda. Sun, sand, surf.

Add to that, (t)sunami. Yes, Mother Nature has again tried to flex her muscles and show us who’s the boss right in the middle of our damned vacation.

Watching Humpback whales at a lookout on the drive to Lahaina.

After a lovely, sunny day in Lahaina for lunch on Thursday, we were going to bed early to get some sleep before our 5:45am snorkeling departure on Friday. Before dozing off, the news came on and we heard about the quake in Japan and the tsunami watch in Hawai’i, which quickly turned to a tsunami warning. After an anxious couple of hours, we heard the reports from Wake and Midway Islands and decided that even though the condo is on the beach, it is at least 20 feet above sea level and that we’d likely be fine. We moved the rental car to higher ground and then came back to sleep in our bed (instead of in a car in a random parking lot). None of the surges came up to our condo, but Kihei Town, which is ¼ mile away got quite a bit of water.

Mother Nature not only hates me, but hates this poor blowfish, too.

Despite the warnings to stay off the beach this morning, we spent a couple of hours down there watching the ocean and breaching Humpback whales. We witnessed one surge—the ocean receded very quickly and dramatically (2 or 3 feet vertically) and then, about 20 minutes later, rose vertically and pushed forward horizontally (15+ feet) equally as fast. John “Tsunami Swimmer” Craft decided to go for a swim in the surge and had a good time; I stayed hunkered down under my beach towel and umbrella, already burned, despite the SPF 50. 

John swimming in a tsunami surge.

Snorkeling has been rescheduled for tomorrow, though who knows what the scouted sites will be like post-tsunami. We’re safe and sound, and even though it feels like the Pacific Rim is executing some sort of personal vendetta on me, acting as an agent of Mother Nature (who clearly has a problem with me taking a vacation), we’re here for a few more nights and will enjoy every minute (though I may take the opportunity to complain that my vacation has been “ruined” and that I surely deserve another one now).