Hawaii - Day Two

Brace yourself. Lots of photos in this post. Possibly too many...

Cruise day!! One of our splurges:
Whale-watching cruise aboard the Atlantis Navetek
The winter months mark the start of the whale watch season in Hawaii, when 3,000-5,000 majestic North Pacific humpback whales leave their summer home in icy Alaskan waters and migrate 3,000 miles to warm Hawaiian waters.

Our cruise included a nice lunch buffet: chicken, fish filets, steamed rice, garlic mashed potatoes, veggies, salad and bread…and dessert that I wouldn’t eat (something covered in coconut). It was a tasty little lunch…interrupted…

Guide: “There’s a blow!!”

That’s how you spot a whale. They come up for air and ‘blow’. It was quite a windy day; you could miss a blow because the wind would break it up.
The boat crew urged us all to not run to one side of the boat…you can imagine what would happen if a couple hundred people suddenly end up on one side of the boat. I had no desire to go for a swim – evidently everyone else felt the same , so we were patient for them to turn the boat toward each blow.



We had a pod of whales on each side of the boat…maybe 5 whales total. They came up at different times and there was sometimes 10 – 15 minutes between their surfacing.

What you see is a blow, a dive (their back) and the fluke (their tail). With nearly every blow, you could see a dive and fluke follow. It was really neat to be on the look-out…especially for something you’ve never looked out for before.

When is it not amazing to witness one of God’s giant creatures in action??

<----- View of Diamond Head from our cruise! After the cruise, we headed out on our second scenic drive…looking for a place called Hanauma Bay. We’re nearly positive we had the right place…and it was breathtaking!! I will leave it to the pictures. Simply amazing…