We got up and had breakfast, then Jess had to join a call for work. That done, we packed the car and headed up to Kaanapali beach. After parking at Whalers Village, we made our way down to end of the wide stretch of golden sand, near Black Rock. Once we were all settled in on the sand, Jer, Jess and Will outfitted themselves in snorkel gear and headed down to the water. They went straight in and, once acclimated to the (relatively warm) water, joined the other snorkelers along the rock walls. There were tons of fish (pastel unicornfish, angelfish, parrotfish, serjeant-majors, saddle wrasse, black triggerfish, long-nosed butterflyfish, needlefish, green trumpetfish, a moray eel and — best of all — a Hawaiian green sea turtle! (Jess named the turtle No Ka Oi or "simply the best".) It was so graceful, and everyone was very excited (except the kids who were jumping off Black Rock despite the "no trespassing" signs and were annoyed to be impeded by the masses of snorkelers). We came back to shore for a brief rest, then headed back out into the waters to see the fish again. Meanwhile, Pam read her book in the shade and Suzanne walked along the beach until she was mauled by a wave and had to sit in her beach chair to recover.
Once the snorkelers were well and truly tired, we headed back to Whalers Village to change into regular clothes and find some lunch. We considered eating at Hula Grill again, but instead decided on Cane & Taro, a nominally Pan-Asian restaurant. Jer and Will had the Kaanapali breakfast (eggs, Portuguese sausage, rice or potatoes and toast), Jess and Pam had fish and chips (with tasty seasoned batter), and Suzanne had the sashimi chop chop salad (a chopped salad with raw salmon and ahi). Everything was good, and it hit the spot.
Jer and Will wanted to surf, so we went down to check out the two beginner beaches south of Lahaina. While the furtherest one, Lauinipoko, looked quite good, there was no surfboard rental there, so the guys ended up back at the Lahaina breakwall by 505 beach, where they had their Goofy Foot lesson earlier in the week. The surfing wasn't ideal, as there were too many people and the waves were a bit strong and variable, but they did get a couple of good runs it. Jess got a couple decent pictures of Jer, but neither she nor Pam managed to catch a shot of Will.
The surfers were exhausted after their adventures, so they were glad that Pam had driven down to get them. Back at our condo, we all got showered and dressed for dinner. We headed to Lahaina Grill, catching a fabulous sunset over Lanai from Front Street along the way. Dinner at Lahaina Grill was magnificent (and expensive, though we had OpenTable gift certificates to defray much of the cost). Suzanne had the best rack of lamb ever (in a Kona coffee sauce), Pam had great scallops, Will had a tender filet mignon, Jess had the cake walk (a trio of fishcakes — a rock shrimp cake, an ahi cake, and a crab & lobster cake) and a bowl of roasted Kula corn soup, and Jer had a delicious ahi poke and some of the best beef ravioli ever. For dessert, Pam and Will shared an award-winning triple berry pie, Jess and Jer shared the Road to Hana (chocolate mousse on a chocolate and mac nut cake base with sour cherry sauce) and Suzanne got mango sorbet in a pastry shell. Everything was top-notch.
Friday night is art night in Lahaina, so the galleries stay open until 10pm with live music and snacks. We stopped into a few and saw some beautiful pieces — everything from Picasso, Chagall, Erte and Peter Lik to local artists working in paint, sculpture and even brushed aluminum using auto-body techniques! It was a fun, festive atmosphere, with some lovely pieces and others that really weren't our thing. Eventually, our stamina wore out and we headed back to our condo to crawl into our beds.