Of Snorkeling, a High School Basketball Game and Seeing Old Friends

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

When visiting Maui, one simply MUST spend a day snorkeling it Hawaii's pristine waters.

Today was that day and we had a built-in advantage in making our choice of which boat to use on yet another BEAUTIFUL day in paradise.

 Our "Built-in Advantage"

was none other than

Debbie Merrill (nee Medley)!

We first met Debbie long ago when she was my Freshman Baseball Stat Girl back in 1972 at Thousand Oaks H.S.

Debbie would also be the first babysitter that we ever hired to take care of young son Andrew when Laurie and I opted for a date night.

One of the star players on that 1972 club was Verne Merrill who she married many years later. More about Verne later in this blogpost.

The Merrills semi-retired about three years ago and moved from their Newbury Park, California home to Maui.

I say semi-retired because they are both still quite busy in their new tropical digs.

Debbie works for the local chapter of the Pacific Whale Foundation who, among other things, offer whale watching, and snorkeling trips. Debbie was able to secure us six tickets at a greatly reduced cost on this morning's snorkeling boat that would make two one-hour snorkeling stops during our five hour adventure.

 At 8:00 a.m. our boat headed

out from Ma'alaea Harbor

 Our crew was ready for a

GREAT day at sea

Wait, what is that off the

port side of the boat?

 THAR SHE BLOWS!

It was two whales, a mother

and calf we were told

 There they are

 Humpbacked whales I would guess

And down they went

This sighting was an unexpected bonus on the way out to Molokini's snorkeling cove.

 It was a nine mile trip to Molokini

My new friend Mateus and my old

friend Mark enjoying the moment

 Molokini dead ahead

 Molokini close up

Because this uninhabited, crescent shaped, ancient crater rim is about the size of a WWII aircraft carrier, it was used for all sorts on aerial and naval bombardment target practices during the war years.

Today it is a haven for scuba and snorkeling enthusiasts . . .

 . . . like us

Mallory Johnson on the lower left 

The waters were clear but the

fish here were somewhat scarce

My guess is that so many boats and hundreds of snorkelers in the water scared the fish away.

The Johnson's on a raft

in the Pacific Ocean

Blue is a good color

 We were now on our way

to snorkeling spot #2 . . .

. . . Turtle Town

Due to only one other snorkeling boat being with us at this spot and thus a lot fewer people in the water, this was the much better of our two stops. There were lots of interesting fish and some amazingly colored ocean flora in Turtle Town.

Yes, there were even a couple of turtle sightings but neither Laurie nor I saw them.

I must say that the young crew aboard our boat was extremely professional and every single one of them was full of seemingly boundless, positive energy! They even convinced us that adopting a dolphin of the endangered false killer whale species was the proper way to finish our dat at sea.

Our newly adopted false killer whale is named Hoihoi.

All in all, we had a great snorkeling experience.

After returning to Ma'alaea Harbor, we proceeded to the quaint village of Lahaina.

 The view from Lahaina's

beachfront walkway

 Christmas in Lahaina

Another view from

Lahaina's walkway

 Sunset in Kihei could mean

but one thing . . .

. . . HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL!

It was opening night for the 2018-19 Boys Basketball Maui Interscholastic League and the Baldwin Bears (white uniforms) were hosting the Kamehameha Maui Warriors.

 While the pace was fast and furious,

the scoring in the first half was not

The scoring picked up markedly in the Second Half.

Why were we here you ask? Good question, here goes . . .

I earlier mentioned that Verne Merrill, Debbie's husband, was a star player on that 1972 Thousand Oaks H.S. Frosh baseball team.

As an adult, Verne continued his family's love affair with sports through both high school and youth athletics. I say family love affair because Verne and both his father Jay and son Cameron were coaches at Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park High Schools.

Is there another three generational coaching family in Ventura County high school athletic history? None comes to mind to me.

Kevin, Jacob and Mary . . . are you listening?

It was a barn-burner to the end

but Baldwin pulled it out over

Verne's Warriors tonight

With Verne after the game

Verne is allowing his beard to grow so that he can be Santa Claus at his golf course's Christmas Party.

You should note the bag of video equipment that Verne is holding. Besides being a JV football coach at Kamehameha H.S., Verne also shoots fantastic game videos for many of the high schools on Maui.

His dedication to the young athletes that he served in the Ventura County and northern Los Angeles County areas as well as his charges now in Maui make him a special person in my mind.

All in all, another great day shared with good friends.