Wilde Ones: Hawaii part 3 (whale watching)

One of the best (and most nerve-wrecking) parts of this trip to Hawaii was our whale watching adventure. (All right fam - throw in the whale jokes here...you done? Moving on then.)

I was pretty excited to go. At first it was going to just be me going with my sisters and my brother and his family. Me... kid-free - can you imagine? Well, it almost happened, but the original day we were going to go got postponed because of high winds; You don't want to go out on the water in high winds. So our reservation got moved to the next day and upgraded to include breakfast. The only reason Matt and the kids weren't coming with me was because of the cost. But we found out that it wouldn't really cost that much more for us all to go b/c Luke and Seth were young enough that they were free. So yay! my fam got to come, but that's why the trip was a little nerve-wrecking. I had an ironclad grip on Seth the entire time and Matt was responsible to hold onto Luke. The overprotective worrywart mom in me didn't want any children overboard.

Because of the Tsunami a few days before the meeting point for the boat was a little drive up to another bay (a long hawaiian word that I'm not even going to attempt to spell out). Because I was calling on the way to make reservations for Matt and the kids, we found out that the meeting point had been changed back to the usual place right near our hotel. The Bay had been cleaned up and opened again. It's a good thing I had to make that call, otherwise we would've been in the wrong place and missed the boat.

Our Catamaran

It was an absolutely gorgeous day for this trip. Luckily no wind which made the trip a lot smoother and easier on those in the family who get sea sick (ah hem...Matt...). As soon as we got out of the bay and on our way to find some whales, some spinner dolphins decided to join us.
Those who know me well know that dolphins are my favorite animal.

There's a dolphin in the water (in the pic under my armpit...see it?)

The crew was really awesome. They were so good with the kids and lots of fun to talk to and learn facts from while we waited for dolphins. One of the guys got Luke (and the rest of us) settled on the nets right up front while we were sailing out so we could see everything.

My sisters, Rach and Kendra

It took a little while before we found some whales. When one was spotted you were seriously supposed to shout "There she blows!" Ha! While waiting to see them we learned lots of cool facts about the whales (humpback) that come to that area each winter. While waiting in the hot sun and floating in the waves, Matt started to not feel so hot. I felt bad for him, but honestly, for me personally, I was in heaven. I LOVE the water and the views and the nice hot sun. They put a microphone in the water and we could hear lots of whales singing down there. It wasn't long after that we found a pod (mother, calf, and male escort/bodyguard).

By the end of our trip, there were pods on all sides of our boat. At one point, the big guy of a whale came swimming and dove right under. It's pretty crazy seeing one of those come right at you. He would've had no problem knocking our boat around.

For the ride back to the bay, the crew put on some Bob Marley and we took it easy enjoying the ride. The picture at the top of this post sums up my favorite view. Is it any wonder that my absolute favorite color is blue?

Seth konked out shortly on our way back. Made for a much more relaxing ride for me. Before I forget: Imagine the sound a whale makes when they surface and clean out the blow hole. Seth recognized it pretty quick and starting making that sound with his lips to point out the whales to me. It was pretty cute (and I thought it was pretty clever).

The crew brought out a conch and let everyone (who wanted to) have a try blowing the conch. (A conch will forever make me think of Lord of the Flies)