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Day 7 - Whaaaaales! And luau goodness~
We ran pretty late because gran takes a while to get ready, but we made the boat. Right out of the harbor we saw a mother and baby whale (she quickly herded him away from our obviously shifty looking boat), and then caught on to another pod where a challenger was trying to get in on the action, but was scared off. The cool thing about this was that a research boat that had the formost mother and baby whale photographers onboard (they said pretty much all of the pictures you see of mothers and babies were taken by these photographers/researchers), so they were able to tell us what was happening under the surface. They had a guy down in snorkel gear (scuba gear gives off bubbles, which is a sign of aggression to whales) swimming with the whales and taking pictures. When the whales come out of the water head-first it's called breaching, and when a baby does it it's called a son of a breach. Ah, whale humor.
The Luau was gorgeous, right on the beach with the sunset in the background. We got to see them dig up the (deeeelicious) steamed pig and had some of the best raw tuna and salmon I've tasted, after which we got a show that depicted the history of how the first hawaiians came from Tahiti (though they left out the part about how they conquered the original settlers from the Marquesas) thru today. There were some truely yummy male dancers. I have pictures with one of them. :D
Day 8 - Snorkle, Snuba, Whalesong, Dinner and a Show
We headed out early on the Pride Of Maui for our snorkel experience, had a really good continental breakfast of cakes, croissants, fruit and punch while we made our way to the first snorkel spot. We actually got better, closer shots of the whales on this trip than the whale watching trip. We got eyeballed by a mother and baby (their heads come out of the water right next to each other). I paid an extra $50 to snuba, which is basically scuba but you're attached to a long line that goes to your tank (who a scuba specialist checks for you) that's on a little boat that you drag around with you. I got within 5 feet of a local turtal, who kept pace with me for a minute or two afterwords. I got to swim next to another one as well, which we have on video.
At the next stop I just snorkeled, which was really really neat. It wasn't quite as good as the snorkeling in Thailand because they didn't feed the fish to get them to come right up to us, but the coral was a lot more expansive. Near the end of this I started to hear something, that I first thought was coming from the boat. I swam deeper (it was hard, I had to do a lot of balancing with my feet in the air to hold my head down) and realized that it was the whales singing. They'd told us we might hear them (whale song travels up to 20 miles, and there are over a thousand whales in the waters around Maui right now as it's the top of whale season), but to actually be able to hear it in person was really an experience. Dad was really impressed by the whole experience, which made me happy. Sadly, mom has a head-cold which made snorkeling a no go for her. :/
Dinner was delicious (Ruth's Chris Steakhouse), delicious steak, cooked to perfection. I've never had a steak that tender.
Ulalena (might have to fix the spelling later) was another history of Hawaii, but done in the style of Cirque du Soliel (written by french Canadians, even!) so it was really impressive. It got really good after the volcano goddess erupted a fountain of cloth that they pulled up and over the crowd (we all put our hands up and touched it) and when they had people under another cloth acting like ocean waves while the moon danced in her rings above. Neato! We also got to see a special 'how we do it' presentation afterwords. I got my picture with the actor who played Poi (to further perpetuate the belief that I had a different hot boyfriend every day I was here in Hawaii).
Today - The aquarium!
We ran pretty late because gran takes a while to get ready, but we made the boat. Right out of the harbor we saw a mother and baby whale (she quickly herded him away from our obviously shifty looking boat), and then caught on to another pod where a challenger was trying to get in on the action, but was scared off. The cool thing about this was that a research boat that had the formost mother and baby whale photographers onboard (they said pretty much all of the pictures you see of mothers and babies were taken by these photographers/researchers), so they were able to tell us what was happening under the surface. They had a guy down in snorkel gear (scuba gear gives off bubbles, which is a sign of aggression to whales) swimming with the whales and taking pictures. When the whales come out of the water head-first it's called breaching, and when a baby does it it's called a son of a breach. Ah, whale humor.
The Luau was gorgeous, right on the beach with the sunset in the background. We got to see them dig up the (deeeelicious) steamed pig and had some of the best raw tuna and salmon I've tasted, after which we got a show that depicted the history of how the first hawaiians came from Tahiti (though they left out the part about how they conquered the original settlers from the Marquesas) thru today. There were some truely yummy male dancers. I have pictures with one of them. :D
Day 8 - Snorkle, Snuba, Whalesong, Dinner and a Show
We headed out early on the Pride Of Maui for our snorkel experience, had a really good continental breakfast of cakes, croissants, fruit and punch while we made our way to the first snorkel spot. We actually got better, closer shots of the whales on this trip than the whale watching trip. We got eyeballed by a mother and baby (their heads come out of the water right next to each other). I paid an extra $50 to snuba, which is basically scuba but you're attached to a long line that goes to your tank (who a scuba specialist checks for you) that's on a little boat that you drag around with you. I got within 5 feet of a local turtal, who kept pace with me for a minute or two afterwords. I got to swim next to another one as well, which we have on video.
At the next stop I just snorkeled, which was really really neat. It wasn't quite as good as the snorkeling in Thailand because they didn't feed the fish to get them to come right up to us, but the coral was a lot more expansive. Near the end of this I started to hear something, that I first thought was coming from the boat. I swam deeper (it was hard, I had to do a lot of balancing with my feet in the air to hold my head down) and realized that it was the whales singing. They'd told us we might hear them (whale song travels up to 20 miles, and there are over a thousand whales in the waters around Maui right now as it's the top of whale season), but to actually be able to hear it in person was really an experience. Dad was really impressed by the whole experience, which made me happy. Sadly, mom has a head-cold which made snorkeling a no go for her. :/
Dinner was delicious (Ruth's Chris Steakhouse), delicious steak, cooked to perfection. I've never had a steak that tender.
Ulalena (might have to fix the spelling later) was another history of Hawaii, but done in the style of Cirque du Soliel (written by french Canadians, even!) so it was really impressive. It got really good after the volcano goddess erupted a fountain of cloth that they pulled up and over the crowd (we all put our hands up and touched it) and when they had people under another cloth acting like ocean waves while the moon danced in her rings above. Neato! We also got to see a special 'how we do it' presentation afterwords. I got my picture with the actor who played Poi (to further perpetuate the belief that I had a different hot boyfriend every day I was here in Hawaii).
Today - The aquarium!