Photo Album 2
Our Honeymoon
and holiday vacation in Hawaii | December 6 - 18Click on images for larger versions
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We got back from our Mauna Kea tour a bit after midnight. We were sooo tired. Robt set the alarm for 4:30am so we can get back to Kona for the Whale Watch with Capt. Dan McSweeney no later than 7:30am. The man I spoke with the day before last had said to give ourselves 2 hours to get up there. So, when I woke up for no reason at 5:09, I hollered for Robt to get "up! we're late!" and hurried to the bathroom to wash up. Robt, bleary eyed and still not quite awake, got up to follow me to the the bathroom and just looked at me, puzzled. "Why? What's going on?" "It's Monday." He frowned some more, as that didn't seem to answer why I was hurrying about. (He later told me that he was thinking I was trying to get us up for work or that since we were up real early the last couple of days, shouldn't we be resting?) "We're supposed to be in Ho...no...ko...ha..u at 7:15." It was hard to talk with a mouth full of toothpaste. Still that blank look. I spat into the sink to clearly say, "Whale watch." Dink! 15 minutes later, we were BOTH washed and running around like mad. Minding the clock the night before, I could have sworn it was only an hour and 45 minutes to get from the Harbor to the resort. I told Robt we could still make it. Remembering to get new film, two bottles of water (both still frozen), our hats and sunblock, we took off. But I left the camera bag with all the camera gear... on the bed! We quickly turned back, and I hopped out of the car while Robt went on to turn the car around. I had everything before he pulled up. Maaaaannnn! But Robt made time on the straightaways at the beginning part of the trip, overtook two slow vehicles and followed some native drivers around the super winding part of the road, and we got to the Harbor with 20 minutes to spare --just as Capt. McSweeney pulled up his landmark van with the 12ft. model of a humpback whale on top into the parking lot in front of the dock. Here's a picture of the boat we were in. And man oh man. We thought that the Dall's Porpoise Encounter up in the Sound was awesome... The encounters we had in the clear blue waters off the Kona coast just blew us away. I can't wait to go again -- we know we will someday! As it was, we were so tired after Mauna Kea and the big rush to get back to Kona for the whale watch, we decided to just take it easy the rest of the day. In other words... sleep!
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Whale Watch with Capt. Dan McSweeney
As the sun rose over Mauna Loa and Hualalai, we were heading out to deep waters, about 6,000ft deep actually. It was there we encountered a couple herds of sperm whales. They looked like submarines without the conning tower/periscope! As we went to shallower waters, we encountered a school of spotted dolphins. They just loved playing around the boat. The water and the lighting was excellent. I wish we didn't leave them behind to look for the humpback whales. Further still into shallow waters, the boat went over several schools of flying fish, sending dozens into the air. They were awfully *hard* to photograph but very cool to see. I didn't get any that I thought good enough to post. Then we spotted two humpback whales. They were skittish, alas, but we got to see them relatively close as they came up for air less than a hundred yards away. As we came back to harbor, there was also a school of a bottle-nosed dolphins cruising along in the opposite direction. Robt didn't get a good shot, unfortunately...
The last two shots are from Hwy. 11 past the southern tip of the island where the road curves back north to Pu'nalu'u...
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DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | back to main
Web Page Copyright © 2001 Lorraine R. McLees
Photography by Lorraine and Robert
Last updated 1.27.02.