Hawaii was wonderful. I think that's standard right? Hawaii is just wonderful. Even last year when it rained almost the whole time it was still wonderful. This year it was a little windy but it's still wonderful.
I didn't do my old normal pack it full vacation. We went for a little longer, we did a lot less, we just relaxed. We're trying to find the balance between just enough and too much. I think this time it was probably a little too little, but part of that was weather related. We discovered that we prefer the summer water for sure. Now to decide if we trade water warm and calm enough to snorkel off the beach whenever we want to for whales. No whales in the summer.
I love whales.
BUT...I also love being able to snorkel without a chill.
So we are balancing.
Speaking of balancing...
We tried Stand Up Paddleboarding this time. I changed it to Sit Down Paddleboarding after the third time I fell. I wish the guide had taken pictures of the falls, they had to have been spectacular to see considering how they felt. I'd go up...then BOOM right back down. Once I ended up sitting on the board, the other two times I hit the board then bounced into the water. I'm not graceful, but I really thought I might be able to do it. Nope. We will probably give it another try at some point. Even sitting on the board it was a nice way to spend the morning.
Our guide was a nice kid. Originally from California. Moved to Utah in middle school. Went from being one of only two blond kids in his school (his brother was the other one) to being one of a "everyone looks like me." Culture shock for him. He graduated high school early, then went to college for a couple of years and dropped out. It was a religious college in Utah...He decided he didn't want to be that religion, it wasn't a good fit for him. He stressed about telling his parents and then found out that they didn't hold the belief anymore either. They were just letting him come to his own decisions about it. Which I thought was remarkable. We talked about it a bit. I think he was amazed that we knew what the college was as soon as he started talking about it, and that we understood things like his family not being able to go in to the church to see a family wedding. There is a big family reunion this year with the other side of their family and it will be the first time they will be together with that group since his core left the church. He's a little nervous about it. I know more too. Like his trip through New Zealand and Tasmania and his roommates and what he is going to be doing for work this summer. People tell me things. I'm a pretty good listener.
People just want to be listened to. That's a good thing to remember in life. Nobody gets listened to enough. If you can make some space to listen to people you will learn all sorts of things and they will feel pretty good about their time with you. Be a good listener.
We went kayaking again. We were hoping to kayak with whales but there weren't any around when we set off. We waited for a little bit then went snorkeling instead. We really like snorkeling and snorkeling off the kayaks is great. You can get out to places that aren't super crowded. We were a little bummed to find out another group found some whales, but only a little considering how far out they kayaked to them and how far south they got blown coming back. The tour was supposed to be over around 10 and it was closer to 11 by the time they got back. Considering how gassed we were at 10, with a snorkel break from paddling, I cannot imagine how tough that would have been. But if we go back and try again we will go a little earlier in the season. The whales are coming in earlier and leaving earlier lately. Probably something to do with that non-existent climate change.
We did see whales on a whale watching tour. We saw competition groups. Which we had never seen before. Basically one female and a group of males showing off for her. Head lunges, tail slaps, breaching, jostling with each other in the water, it was pretty spectacular. Gorgeous sunny day as well. Which led to a pretty solid sunburn for both of us. I normally don't get sunburned because I wear sunscreen when I even think about a sunny day, but we used a different brand and it was not good. We are in the process of switching over to a zinc only sunscreen, reef safe, you see. And the hotel gave us a bottle of their zinc lotion. Since it was too big to take back we thought we would use it up there. I should have stuck with the the stuff I brought. Oh well, live and learn! Even with a little extra pink on my face and ears...well purple on the ears but because of that I bought a new hat, and it's a really cool hat so it all worked out okay.
We went on a snorkel tour to the northern beaches. But it was too windy to snorkel up north so we went down south, to a spot that ended up being too windy to snorkel in so we came back up mid-island to another spot. Snorkeled there for awhile. We actually snorkeled with sharks for the first time, well the first time we were aware of them anyway. Too bad we weren't made aware until after we were out of the water. The photographer got some great shots of them, but I wish they would have called us over to see them. I would have loved that. We were supposed to go to another location for more snorkeling but the wind was too much so we went sailing instead. All things being equal I would rather snorkel.
BUT good news on the boat front, no seasick issues. I took dramamine AND wore my sea bands, but I'm still counting it as a win. I seem to be okay on REALLY large ships and catamarans. I'm really relieved by this because taking a boat out to snorkel or to whale watch is my favorite part of these trips.
We went snorkeling off of a couple of beaches, it was a little cold and the surf was a little rough, but it was good snorkeling once we were out in the areas. Saw some new for us fish. That's always fun. No, I don't know what they were. The shiny ones, and the purple ones, and the one with that thing on his face...that's the way I describe them to Brent later. "Did you see that one that did that thing like this?" That's what he usually gets on the beach. We also saw a few turtles, or excuse me, honu again. We've seen enough of them now that we are kind of nonchalant about it. Which is amazing. Oh yeah, we snorkeled with turtles today, no big deal...
We ate well. Really well. Oof! We had some fun drinks. We got yelled at by a crazy man on the beach about stealing his cabana. Then we got apologized to by a contrite man who strongly resembled the crazy man when he realized his mistake. We spent a lot of time relaxing and reading by the beach or on our lanai or in the rocking chairs next to the lagoon.
And then it was over.
Super fast.
Even though we were there for a week it seemed like we had just arrived and it was time to go.
It was wonderful.
But Hawaii always is.
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