Today was another awesome day in paradise. I got some really close up views of a ton of humpback whales but more on that in a minute. I started my day off at the weekly "swap meet" which in essence is a flea market, but it's a really good one. Not a bunch of junk but mostly local artisans selling their handcrafted wares. Some really cool stuff (even Steeler Nation was there with a coconut emblazoned with the Steelers logo!) and I got each one of you exactly what you wanted as a souvenir. One of those t-shirts that reads, "My _________ went to Hawaii and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!" LOL. While I was there, I was talking with one of the vendors and they said today was going to be my lucky day since the volcano did not have any clouds around it and that only happens once or twice a year. I figured, yeah right, just ancient Hawaiian legend. I then went over to Iao State Park and hiked a fairly easy trail around the Iao Needle which is a 300 foot natural rock formation (OK, I wouldn't tell the chamber of commerce this but it's really a big phallic symbol!) But the valley around there is a lush rain forest with really cool views into the valley below. I then went over to check out the surfer scene. A bunch of surfers that are staying at my hostel told me the best place to go and so I went over and watched them "hang 10". The waves were pretty decent and there were a ton of surfers out. Cool stuff. After a quick lunch I headed over to the highlight of my day and maybe even the trip so far. I went on a whale watching trip with the Pacific Whale Foundation. Lots of companies do whale watching tours but this is the only one with a naturalist and whale expert on board. They explained all the details about the humpback whales and their migration from Alaska where they feed and bulk up and here in Maui where they breed. Really knowledgeable and informative and they know where all the good whale spots are! They even put an under water microphone into the water so we could hear the whales "sing" and "talk". It was too cool! As we headed out of the harbor, we were passing whale after whale but they were on a mission to get to a whale pod where they knew there were going to be a bunch of whales all hanging out. When we got there, we slowed down and the "show" began. One after another these huge humpback whales would jump out of the water with their whole bodies and slam back down! We must have seen about 10 of them! The crew said they had never seen anything like that. They're lucky if they see one or two jumps. They said somebody must have brought some good luck on to the ship. Then I remembered... that vendor at the swap meet told me I'd have a lucky day, so there you go! (I actually would rather have hit the lottery with my luck but I got to see a bunch whales and I'm hanging in Maui, so life's good!) It was really hard to get a good picture of the jumps since you never knew when they were going to come up and if you weren't holding your camera right at it, you'd miss it. I got two pretty good pictures (which I attached) out of the 10 jumps but I also have lots of pictures of nothing but a big splash since I was too late to get the jump. I also saw a lot of fin slaps and tail flaps which were also cool. All in all, it was a great day. Hope you're having a great one as well. Jeff PS: Happy Super Bowl to all. Go Giants!
The Wandering Italian 