Humpbacks and dolphins and parrotfish, oh my!

Sunday morning we went to church in Lahaina.  You know it's a small world when you run into someone from our last congregation there.  It quickly became apparent during church that the sabbath would have to be a literal day of rest for the family.  The girls were beyond tired and irritable.  I guess it figures - getting to bed late, no naps, no sleeping in - it was crazy of me to have hoped for different behavior. So we headed home and spent half the afternoon sleeping, or trying to get the girls to go to sleep (because suddenly they're not tired when they're told it's okay, nay, mandatory, to take a nap).

After naps we took a short trip up the coast of West Maui.  It was truly beautiful.  Unfortunately the sun went down, forcing an early end to our excursion.

We tried in vain to get to bed early Sunday night because we had to leave by 6:30 Monday morning for our Lana'i Wild Dolphin Snorkel Tour. Surprisingly, we managed to get up and move everyone out the door in time with a minimal amount of drama.  We were a little concerned about having committed to 5 hours on a boat when 4 out of the 6 of us are prone to motion sickness.  However, with Dramamine and mercifully calm waters we fared pretty well.

The boat took us to two snorkel sites.  The first one was rather choppy and the only ones (from my family) who got off the boat were P and my dad.  We tried to get M out there but she was sucking down too much water and P didn't feel it was safe for her, so to her GREAT dismay she had to climb back into the boat.  We had some tantrums and then she eventually settled down.  The second site was much calmer and they were able to get M out with them.  I made it into the water, but when it actually came right down to C getting in with me she had a change of heart so I had to stay on the boat with her.  I sent P and dad out with a disposable waterproof camera, so hopefully we'll have some photos to see what we missed.  They did see a lot of fish though.

You'll notice that our tour mentioned something about dolphins.  Well, we didn't see any.  However we were fortunate that our timing coincided with the time of year that humpback whales come to warmer waters to have babies because we saw a lot of flukes (tails) and even a breach (2/3 of the whale's body comes above the water's surface). It was pretty darn cool.  Sadly, none of our photos captured nary a fluke, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  I would highly recommend the Pacific Whale Foundation for their eco tours if any of you are in the islands and looking for an excursion.

We came home and swam in the pool for a few hours, and then headed over to Black Rock to view the sunset.  The beach was beautiful and the colors of the sunset were stunning (although not adequately captured by our cameras).  We strolled down the boardwalk thru Whalers Village and then headed for home.  It was a sweet end to our little vacation.

We toyed with the idea of doing more sightseeing before we had to catch our plane on Tuesday, but in the end we decided to let my mom rest, and not coop up the girls in the car for a few hours before they were then cooped up again on the plane.  

When we arrived at the airport we were in for a fun little surprise.  On the flight to Maui M had been waving, smiling and making faces at a kind young woman a few rows back.  If I had to guess, I'd say she was about 21 and she was super nice.  She teased and played right back with M.  It turned out that she was also on our flight back home.  So on the trip home the girls took turns going back and sitting with Makenzie.  It made for such a nice diversion for them, and Makenzie and her family seemed to be loving it as much as the girls, so the ride home turned out far more pleasant than our earlier flight.

So that concludes the trip commentary.  Tomorrow I'll try to post some of the photos.