A Two Hour Tour

This is my husband.


Cute, isn't he? He's in the Navy. When I tell people that my cute husband is in the Navy, I get knowing looks and often the question, "Is he gone from home a lot?" And when I tell them that no, my husband isn't that kind of sailor, you know, the ones that actually go out on ships or boats, they look at me funny as if they've never imagined that someone in the Air Force could not be a pilot (which most are not, the Navy actually has more pilots) and that someone in the Navy could be a land-loving linguist who sits behind a desk and does not, in fact, live on a ship/boat for 6 months out of the year.

And really, it's so much better that way. Because after two hours on a whale watching tour around Honolulu harbor, my adorable little husband was quite seasick. And you know what else? He's not a very good swimmer either. Makes you wonder why he picked the Navy, doesn't it? It's a family thing really.

But this is all beside the point of this post. The point of this post is to inundate you with photographs from the aforementioned [aforementioned is such a wonderful word, isn't it? I try to use it as often as possible] two hour tour.

Oh here we are. Proof that, indeed, we were on a boat. This is about halfway through the tour, right about when David started to really wish for land again.


Here's the top deck of the boat, Starlet. It wasn't the most fabulous ride ever, nor did it have the best amenities, but it was the cheapest whale watching tour and the earliest (8:30 a.m. departure time) which meant that there were fewer boats in the harbor disturbing the whales and other sea creatures. They did, however, provide ginger pills to help calm motion sickness which, I think, helped a little. At least no one threw up.

Here's us getting ready to leave the dock and head out for Honolulu. The buildings in the background are of Honolulu and that thing jutting out on the right side is Diamond Head, the extinct volcano that forms part of the southeastern tip of Oahu.

We set out for our great adventure, hoping to see whales in all their glory. At least, we hoped to see a tail or something flipping out of the water.

As it was, this was about all we saw of a whale. We encountered the lone whale almost immediately after leaving the dock and followed it for a little while along the coast.


He came up for air a few times but did not engage in any breathtaking theatrics to excite the audience on the boat.


And then this little boat came chugging through the waters and impeded our view of the whale.

So we continued on on our tour, with the hopes that we'd encounter other whales near Diamond Head. Apparently, each boat/ship [I wish I knew all the different types of sailing vessels and what to call them but alas, anything that floats is a ship to me. Except a submarine. That I know is a boat...] can only stay attached to a whale for a given amount of time before they must leave the whale alone. Good policy, in my opinion.

So we continued out into the harbor and down toward Diamond Head. I liked seeing Honolulu from this view. Also, I'm really into this tilt-y thing with my camera. I can't help myself. I think it makes for cool shots. But I'm starting to think I'm over-using it a tad.

So here's a normal shot of Diamond Head. There are a couple of good hikes on and near the volcano that are pretty cool. David and I have done two of them. We should do them again. When we reached Diamond Head about an hour into our tour, we turned around.

And passed this catamaran with pink sails. It was pink! I had to take a picture. If I ever have a sailboat [which I never will after discovering my husband's non-sea friendly stomach], it would have pink sails. Just sayin'.

As we were making our way back to the dock, we saw dolphins jumping and twirling and diving in the distance. Dolphins are much more theatrical animals. And very friendly. Actually, they kinda like to show-off.


They were jumping and diving. And a few of them, mostly the smaller teenage dolphins, were doing twists and turns in the air. So playful.


Our boat pulled up closer to the dolphins so that we could get a better look and enjoy the dolphin show they were putting on for us.


A big group of dolphins came up right underneath the bow of the boat and swam along with us for quite awhile.


It was really quite a neat experience to watch the dolphins. It made David really want to swim with the dolphins. I didn't mention the fact that he can't swim all that well.

So, the dolphins eventually left us and went to play elsewhere as we pulled back into the dock. We never saw any other whales but the dolphins definitely made the trip worth it. There are several other activities that David and I would like to do before we leave Hawaii, including visiting the other islands, and whale watching was definitely one of those on my list.

David goes back to his regular work schedule and starts school next week, so life will be much more boring starting then. Hopefully I'll still find something worth writing about.