February Celebrations

First reason to celebrate: Sam would like to inform you that Sea-Sea is doing well. She is no longer sick and is able to do her version of a canter/gallop for at least 30 feet at a time. In fact, Sea-Sea is more alert and active than she's been in a long time.

Second reason to celebrate: We were able to go to Maui last weekend and visit Lesley and Terry Thompson, along with their son, Matthew. Sam and Sea-Sea went to Whiskers Resort for the weekend where they were a hit. Sam definitely has the entire crew there wrapped around his paw.   We  heard once again about how he cared for Sea-Sea and played with even the wild dogs.

Getting back to Maui - Lesley, Terry, Steve, and I went to "A Night With the Experts" to hear from scientists about the latest humpback whale research. For those of you who taught The Voyage of the Mimi, one of the scientists was from Cape Cod and was the head research scientist on which the program was based. She said she still gets asked about Ben Affleck who was eight years old when the Mimi was filmed.  The next afternoon we headed out of Lahaina with the experts to watch whales. The whales were hard for Steve and Terry to photograph. Steve has a few shots that he felt good about. The one below is of a whale's pectoral fin right before it slaps it on the water (one of many whale behaviors). You can see its eye to the right of the fin. Whale watching on Maui was something we always wanted to do. We're so grateful to Lesley and Terry for arranging all of the whale activities.

Click to see larger.

While on Maui, Steve and I took stand-up paddle board lessons from a talented instructor named Keani. (We feel we know good teachers when we see them). It took us awhile, but with Keani's support and instruction, we were cruising Makena Beach/Turtle Town. We did especially well during our second try later in the day when the water was calmer. We're hooked, but it did take days for our quads to calm down. Our thighs were burning from keeping the boards stable while going over swells/waves.

I was also able to spend some time with Lesley snorkeling. We saw quite a few fish and hard coral species off Makena Beach. She is definitely the Maui expert and knows her Kihei/Wailea/Makena beaches. In fact, she informed us that a shark was spotted and the Makena beaches were closed right after we were snorkeling at Turtletown. (More about Turtle Town below). Glad we missed it!

Steve gets us on my I-Phone heading out to sea...

so,we ham it up for him!

Steve and I were able to take an early morning (6:30 a.m.) snorkel trip on our last day. We traveled out to Molokini, a partially sunken volcanic crater. Visibility was awesome! 100+ feet with turquoise water and tons of fish. On the downside, there were box jellyfish.  The fish were ripping them apart and having an obviously great breakfast. I did a lot of dodging since I have severe reactions to jellyfish stings. We did see an octopus and a stunning peacock grouper along with many butterfly fish, wrasse, snappers, Moorish Idols, and trigger fish. Add to the list whales that were surfacing and breaching around the crater. It was pretty exciting for an early morning snorkel.

Right before our boat got to Turtle Town, a baby humpback whale started a series of breaches. It was about the size of a dolphin, very young. A group of kayakers sat in awe as the baby played right in front of them.  They stopped as they should and the baby just kept heading their way. Everyone watched in amazement as this little whale torpedoed out of the water at least a dozen times. At Turtle Town, we did see green sea turtles when they swam out of their caves in the rocks. These green sea turtles were incredibly tolerant of snorkelers, many of whom were inexperienced and flailed around.

I think I mentioned before that Wednesdays are our painting lesson days. We found out that Fred, our art instructor, used to be a torch lighter and also blew the conch-shell at the old Coco-Palms Resort when he was young. That was the hotel that Elvis stayed at in the movie Blue Hawaii. The hotel was destroyed in 1992 by Hurricane Iniki. The remains and grounds are still visited by tourists.  So, enjoy Fred's demonstration of his conch shell talents.

Third reason to celebrate: Steve had a birthday last week. He's still in his 50's and proud of it. We went to Tahiti Nui to hear the band, Kanak Attack. The experience is somewhat similar to listening to a wedding band. They play old classics and get both the locals and tourists involved throughout the night. They're corny, yet entertaining.

You can watch Steve do his birthday hula in the video below. I guess I was special that night because I was informed that I sat on the stool where George Clooney sat during the filming of a segment of the movie, The Descendants, at Tahiti Nui.  Steve had Beau Bridges' stool, but gave it up to another person. Was I inspired by or in awe of the stool? Nope. But, there were sure a lot of people waiting for me to leave so they could sit on the stool. I have never understood that type of fascination with movie stars.