We got up this morning and sat through a sales presentation. A necessary evil in order to sleep on these wonderful beds.

We got out to the beach (Ka'anapali) by 11 or so. Looked for a few shells but didn't find much. Keri snorked while I caught up on my journaling, and then we whale-watched while she drip-dried. Found a playful whale over by Lanai that looked to be breeching. Later, off the southern tip of the island, we saw what looked like breeching. With the binoculars I could see it was one whale continually slapping the water with its tail. Smack! Smack! Smack! I counted 39 slaps, and am pretty sure I missed a few. Somebody got up on the wrong side of the water this morning, eh? A mama and baby swam by in the channel, keeping their distance. Wonder what that one was so agitated by. A territorial male? A female warning off a suitor? Once that show was over, we left the beach and went into Lahaina for lunch and some last-minute shopping.

Had a nice lunch at the Cool Cat Cafe. It's true; they really are the best burgers in Lahaina. And you get a great view of Front Street and the banyan tree, with sparkling water in the distance. Not a thing to complain about.

From there, we went by Ann's house to return the Hana CD. She invited us in, of course, and we sat on the deck chasing the shade for awhile. Before we left, she invited us to come to the hula dancing at 6:30, a nightly thing at the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel. Their friends, Rudy Aquino and his wife, Heidi, were having their last shows before moving off-island, so this would be a send-off of sorts. We had already planned to go to the Sheraton around 5:00 to see the cliff dive (off "the baby-hucking rock") ("Black Rock" to the rest of us) and watch the sunset, so that fit in perfectly.

The sunset cliff dive is accompanied by a nice little story told over the Sheraton Maui loudspeakers, easily heard while you're standing on the beach. The diver comes out of the hotel at an easy jog, carrying a lit torch. He runs across the beach, then climbs the black rocks, lighting torches along the way. The dramatic dive is a little hard to see since so much of the sunlight is gone, and because other swimmers are still standing on the rock. But we got a couple of pictures and I at least know what they are...

We got to the Ka'anapali and found Ann, Bunt, and the others. They quickly made us feel welcome, pulling up chairs and getting us drinks. Rudy (Aquino) and his band were onstage -- Rudy on ukulele (say it with me: oo-koo-lay-lay), Ernie on electric guitar, and Smiley on bass. They sang some traditional Hawaiian songs, some contemporary songs about Maui (like "Hasegawa's General Store"), and some songs the mainlanders would know. At one point, someone called out a request for "the papaya song". Rudy grinned at the rest of us, "I bet you didn't know Neil Diamond wrote The Papaya Song, did you? Well he did. And I bet you know it."

Sweet Caroline... PA-PAI-YAH...
Good times never seemed so good...

LOL! If only Keri's mom had been there! The biggest Neil Diamond fan ever, whose name happens to be Carol... Perfect. :-)

Rudy also let the kids (and I say "let" because it was clearly the kids' idea) do The Twelve Days of Christmas. Let's see if I can remember...

"Numbah Twelve day of Christmas,

my tutu give to me...
Twelve television
Eleven missionary (ahhh-men!)
Ten can of beer
Nine pound of poi
Eight ukulele
Seven shrimp a-swimmin'
Seex hula lesson
Five beeg fat peegs
Foah flowah lei
Tree dry squid
Two coconut
An' a mynah bird in one papaya tree!"

Then Heidi, Malihini Keahe, and an amazingly graceful male dancer whose name I don't remember (forgive me!) danced as the musicians played traditional songs. Really lovely.

Rudy also had his son, Jay, come up and sing a few songs. The first one was "Fly Me to the Moon", and I must tell you Keri and I must've looked like we were having a contest as to whose jaw could hit the ground hardest. This guy was really good! A very smooth, Sinatra-Bublé voice. Wow. If he decides to put out a CD once he retires from the Army, I'll be the first in line.

It was a great night of unexpected fun. But then, unexpected fun's the best kind!