The beauty of Maui continues in our photos...Sea turtles...

A stop along the highway for a breathtaking view.

As we explore in Maui, we continue to be in awe of its natural beauty and how local businesses and points of interest incorporate their love of Hawaii's natural elements to become a part of the message they convey in their offerings.

This quaint coconut shop is an example of the simple pleasures in the Hawaiian Islands and love for vegetation.

Whether its a farm stand, a restaurant, a golf course or a tourist attraction, the influence of the islands is grasped as a devotion to the way of life, the exquisite vegetation, the surrounding oceanic water and its treasures, its weather patterns, its volcanoes and its lava rock foundation.

Through the limited explorations we made driving throughout our area, we find ourselves drawn to these natural elements as opposed to the typical often crowded tourist attractions.

A worker at the coconut shop uses a machete type blade to open the coconut, selling them with a straw for drinking the milk and later enjoying the meat.

Our intent in Maui has been to relax from months of traveling while immersing ourselves in the local beauty surrounding us. Its been easy to do both.

Yesterday afternoon, we wandered along the shoreline in the afternoon to spot no less than a dozen sea turtles their flippers wildly flailing and noses popping above the water for a breath of air.

An old vehicle we spotted at the coconut stand along the highway after our visit to the plantation.

Here's a link to surprising sea turtle facts including that sea turtles were land animals millions of years ago and have since adapted to life in the sea. The shell is called a carapace and the underside of a sea turtle is called the plastron.

Sea turtles don't suffer ill effects when diving deep into the ocean and depending on their species can stay underwater from one to five hours without coming up for a breath of fresh air.

Yesterday's sea turtle sighting, barely rising enough above the surface for a decent photo. For a video and more sea turtles photos, please see our link from November 6th here.

It was only a few days ago that we wondered how marine life survives drinking salt water only to find the above link that explains that seas turtles have "salt glands" close to their eyes that filter out the salt from their bodies.

Each living plant and creature serves a purpose in our environment including every aspect of their structure. Its especially fascinating to live in an area in which we can observe these some of these aspects in the natural habitat of Hawaii.

We've seen these red berries on several trees to discover they are Foxtail Palm Trees.

In our future travels we'll visit many other islands as in our upcoming extended stays in both Fiji and Bali where we'll find the natural environment equally interesting and fulfilling as we've found in Hawaii.

As our time winds down in Maui, we anticipate the Big Island not only for the glorious time we'll surely spend with our family but also, in the opportunity to share our love of nature with those we love. We're all excited to see the lava flow...hopefully, not too close to where we'll be living.

This photo illustrates the Foxtail Palm Tree seeds when unripen green as shown on the left, later turning the ripe bright red.

We continue to share more of our new photos of Maui in our remaining time on this island.

Have a wonderful weekend!
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Photo from one year ago today, November 22, 2013:
As we prepared to leave Diani Beach, Kenya, one year ago, we didn't post any photos on this date. Please click here for the story.