The weekend of the February 6 we went Whale Watching!! Finally! We have been here 6/7 months and we hadn’t gone to see whales yet. We finally got around to it. And let me tell you, it was definitely worth the wait.

We got tickets through the Pacific Whale Foundation. They were about $30/person, not too bad. That’s the Ka’amaina price (the price we pay for being “locals”). So, another plus for living here. We choose to do the 8 a.m. boat tour. We have to be up by like 7 to go to work everyday, so we were kind of use to it. This time, we had to get up at like 6:15, to be there by 7:30. For those that know me, I am a big breakfast person. So when we got there, we had breakfast at this little café that was open. Surprisingly, they had GREAT breakfast and good coffee!

Come eight on the dot, it’s time to get on the boat!! YAY!! We get a seat at the top of the boat, and that by far was the best seat! Ten minutes into being on the water, we saw a pod (that’s what you call a group of whales). Since then, we only saw them breaching out of the water. To see them this close, was amazing. You could really see how big they were. For those who don’t know, they are the size of a bus. Yea, that’s kind of huge!! Another amazing thing we saw, was a mom and a baby whale being escorted (by a male whale). The male would always stay behind them “escorting them.” Just really cool to see them in their environment. We continued to see a lot more pods; saw a fight going on between several male whales; and saw a lot of whales breaching out of the water.

Seeing them in their environment, can’t really be explained and put into words. It has to be experienced and seen in person. That’s an invitation, for those who haven’t come to visit!! It is just something that was amazing to see in person, and I can’t wait for us to go back and see them again. We took a lot of pictures: Chris took the good shots and I took some really good video. He has already uploaded his, I have to upload mine, so be on the lookout!

You might ask what we did with the rest of our day. It was still only 10 a.m. and we had the rest of the day in front of us. We have really got into hiking here. What’s not to like: it’s free, good exercise, beautiful and there are SO many places to go! We ended up driving into town to Wailuku to go to the “Swinging Bridges Trail.” It was great! It was about 1 ½ hour each way, but it was worth it. A lot of things that you would see and do if you weren’t here: flowers, views of waterfalls, boulder hopping, hiking amazing trails and of course the swinging bridges that have been there forever! It was great exercise, amazing experience and so worth the trip! Definitely a recommended site WHEN you come, if you’re up to it!

To wind up our day we drove back to the Kihei area, where we live, went to Kamo’ale Beach to relax and watch the sunset. It was just a great way to end our day. There are so many things to do and see here, that I feel like we need to do everything in one weekend, LOL! But luckily enough, we live here and we do take advantage of it.

I definitely miss my family and friends a lot. But I am super lucky to have them so supportive and get to talk to them everyday.
I thank God everyday for the opportunity that Chris and I are experiencing right now. Like always, I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next.