It's a Fluke!

Yes, one of my favorite lines from "The Princess Bride" is given by the pompous priest with the speech impediment performing the marriage, "Mawwage is what bwings us togetho today".

Maui is what brings us together today.

Mike and I have been in Maui for 24 hours.

On our first complete day here:

We rode a boat out to a crater where we got to scuba dive a couple of times.

We saw reef sharks, and morays, and had a "Finding Nemo" moment swimming around the reefs.

We went snorkeling from the shore through huge coral gardens.

We sat on the beach listening to the waves as dusk settled.


We cooked a wonderful fish dinner in the teeny kitchen.

And, best of all, the thing that if nothing else happened for the whole trip it would still be worth it, are you ready, here it is…

WE SAW MORE WHALES UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL THAN I THOUGHT POSSIBLE.

Anyone who has been to Maui in March knows that it is the height of whale migration around the island, and it is likely, at any given time to see whale spout, maybe glimpse a whale surfacing way off shore, and, if you are really lucky, a whale leaping out of the water, or breaching. This is what we were hoping and expecting to see.

It has been so much more than that.

There are whales everywhere - spouting, leaping, slapping their flukes 
and fins on the water repeatedly, whales swimming alone, with others, sometimes in large groups. We can hear whale song underwater when we are scuba diving.
 We can see all this from the shore.


And still, so much more.

When we were riding the boat to go scuba diving at the crater, we had to stop several times because whales surfaced in front of us, then swam to us and swam just under the surface around the boat. One time it was a small whale who seemed to be showing off or playing with us because he kept leaping out of the water and slapping his fins and flukes on it. Then, as he approached the boat and swam around it, I thought, "That just paid for the whole trip". 
The next time the boat had to stop, it was a mama and baby which had surfaced in front of us, then a large male showed up next to them, and they were gone. The third time, it was another baby, who also seemed to be playing with us. As it swam around the boat, the markings on its flukes seemed to glow. Yes, we got pictures, but kind of as an afterthought. We mostly just enjoyed being on the same planet with these huge creatures. After that, anything else that happens to us is a bonus. So much to be grateful for.

Now go and listen to a recording of Louis Armstrong singing "What a Wonderful World".

More tomorrow.