Our last full day, sigh.

The day started out so windy I did part of my run on the treadmill inside the resort's oceanside exercise room. You can open the sliding glass doors in the room to let the natural sea air in. After running a little over five miles there while watching whales leap and splash, i headed out for another lap around Waikoloa.

Next, a much-deserved breakfast at the Ocean Club and some relaxation for a bit. After checking the Maui Revealed book, we decided to head north for the first time in the vacation and try out the beach at the Mauna Kea Beach Resort for snorkeling. It was beautiful. You have to enter through the gated hotel entrance, but beach parking is available at the end of the parking lot.

The beach is made of fine, crystalline sand and had shady trees, which Paul was happy about, since he turns red pretty easily. I snorkeled on the left (south) side of the beach, which was very gentle and the water was crystal clear. I saw a lot of fish that were new to me. One thing that cracked me up was a tan-colored triggerfish that seemed to have lost his own school of fish and decided to join a school of black triggerfish instead. I also saw...

• a big blue/green blue parrotfish
• lots of wrasse
• a huge black and tan striped butterflyfish
• a prehistoric-looking fish with dayglo blue dots
• blue coral
• coral that looked like mushrooms

Afterward, Paul and I walked south along a rocky trail and looked at some big tidepools that had fish, urchins and black crabs.

When we went back to the condo, we had leftover pizza and salad (yum) and headed out to the pool to relax. Then back to the Mauna Kea for drinks at sunset at their beach bar. As it got dark, we walked to their manta ray viewing area, which is lit bya big spotlight shining onto the ocean. The light attracts plankton, which then draw manta rays. These things are huge, not to mention gorgeous and peaceful. They drift and float in arcs under the surface of the water, scooping plankton into their mouths. Awesome.