Travelogue Day 4 - A Whale of a Time

There was no urgency to wake up at any particular time today. Our only agenda item was a "sunset" whale watching excursion back at the Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) where we had had our snorkeling outing yesterday.

After a breakfast of vegan cereal, fruit, and toast (and some fresh brewed kona coffee for me), Deborah and I walked the "beach walk" path in the opposite direction from that which we had walked yesterday. This southerly course was much less rewarding, as the view of the sea was obscured by large hotel buildings. But it was still exercise and ended up being about 1.75 miles in total.

We farted around most of the morning, incorporating some more beach lounging and vitamin D production (via tropical Hawaiian sun exposure). Getting a bit stir crazy around lunchtime, I suggested that we depart for the PWF about an hour earlier than planned and posited that we could get beverages at the Starbucks close to the PWF (that we had observed yesterday) if we got there early. It turned out to be fortuitous that we departed early, because there was a considerable traffic jam on the main highway from our resort to the PWF. This delayed us a bit, but we still had time to hit the Starbucks before checking in at the PWF for our whale watching tour.

The weather had begun to deteriorate and the sky was gray and overcast, so I already knew there was unlikely to be any observable sunset on the "sunset" whale watching cruise. The boat was a stylish catamaran and I always enjoy a good boat ride, regardless. After exiting the harbor under fossil fuel power, the boat's crew put up the catamaran's sails (mainsail and jib) and cut power to the engines, allowing the boat to proceed more quietly and fuel efficiently through the sea, tacking occasionally in search of the best whale observing vicinities.

We saw a few whales at a distance, though nothing super close to the boat or especially exciting. Still...whales are cool and I am perfectly fine with not needing to ogle them; just letting them go about their business of baleening krill and small fish and blowholing all over the place.

It started to rain. We were fairly well prepared for this wearing layered and somewhat water resistant clothing. It did not make for much quality photography though. This boat crew didn't devote nearly as much attention to offering vegan fare as did the crew on the snorkeling expedition yesterday, but we had planned to get pizza for dinner after the cruise at the Point Break pizza joint next to the PWF anyway, so not a big deal. I had a couple of complimentary Hawaiian branded cans of IPA beer, early in the cruise. By the end of the cruise, I was ready for it to be over. There were a number of annoying passengers on the boat, most of them white and privileged. In retrospect, the handful of minority passengers on the sloop catamaran were much more pleasant and modest, the way all humans ought to be in my opinion.

After leaving the boat, we did in fact enjoy a pizza dinner at the Point Break pizza joint. Then we endured a stressful drive back to the resort in low visibility dark and rainy conditions. I was not in a great mood when we got back to our bungalow, but I intentionally practiced mindfulness to restore my inner Zen and we watched a bit of TV on Deborah's tablet before retiring.

Tomorrow was slated to be a day free from obligations, and I was looking forward to chilling out and disconnecting, ideally with some sunshine. However, according to the Weather Bug weather app on my phone, the remainder of our tropical Hawaiian vacation is slated to be full of more rain and considerable wind (Sunday and Monday). That being said, our one remaining planned tropical excursion is a tour of a Hawaiian chocolate farm/factory two days hence, and weather is not a significant concern for this outing, in my mind. I am hopeful and confident that the chocolate farmers agree and welcome us to their world on Sunday (today is Friday).

I would much rather be experiencing Hawaiian "bad weather" than Wisconsonian "bad weather," as they are two very different animals, with the latter being far more miserable, generally. In the grander big picture scheme of things, I have determined that an intentional life goal and aspiration is to live somewhere more tropical that does not experience sub-freezing temperatures nor snow. Ideally, this place would be Melbourne Australia, where I was born. However, I may need to temper that "ideal" somewhat to accommodate Deborah's needs and life ambitions. She has said she is open to "snow birding" once we retire from the workforce in a few years, as her mom currently does - enjoying the mild and pleasant summers of Wisconsin and the mild and pleasant winters of Florida. I hope she is sincere in that regard. I am not a huge fan of Florida, but living half of the year there to avoid Wisconsin winters does fall within the acceptable parameters of the aforementioned life goal and aspiration. I shall begin the process of restructuring the Cosmos to that end forthwith!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's travelogue!

Travelogue Day 3 - Snorkeling Misadventure

Getting up at the butt crack of dawn was not as hard as I had expected, and I attribute this to the time zone difference between Hawaii and Wisconsin. Hawaii is four hours earlier than Wisconsin, and so 4:30 AM in Maui (when I got up) equated to 8:30 AM in Madison WI (later than I would typically get up). My jet lag was slowly recalibrating to the new time zone, but had not yet fully stabilized, which worked in my favor for getting up a bit earlier than Deborah to prep a quick bungalow breakfast before we headed out at 5:30 AM toward the Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) enterprise that would facilitate a couple rounds of snorkeling on Hawaiian "reefs" today.

I would recount the excursion in more detail, if it had exceeded expectations. But it did not, despite me setting those expectations very low. I would give the total endeavor about a C or C+ (with the plus being for the fact that they attempted to accommodate our vegan diet). We signed in at the PWF establishment and then boarded a small ferry that would transit us to the snorkeling sites. The first "reef" site had a plethora of colorful fish, but the waters there were choppy and rough, and there were too many people in the water - notwithstanding the "small group" snorkeling activity that it was marketed to be - making it cumbersome to get about. There had been some promises made by the PWF and boat crew of potential green turtle sightings at the second snorkel site, which we proceeded to in short order, but these promises were shattered when the turtles decided not to show up. The waters were calmer at the second snorkel site, but there was very little to see, even fewer colorful fish.

Back at the PWF establishment, after exiting the boat, we bought a few overpriced souvenirs at their gift shoppe, in lieu of tipping the staff (since tip worthy services had not been rendered to our expectations, in my view, and staff had over sold it). When we left the parking area of the PWF, we discovered a parking ticket on the windshield, indicating that we had parked illegally without paying some sort of parking fee. I was infuriated by this, because there had been no observable signage about this in the lot (I determined later that there was signage, but it was not "observable" at the dark, pre-dawn time of our arrival). But we paid the $21 fine regardless, because refusing to do so would purportedly, according to the fine print of the ticket, bring down a world of pain on us if we ever parked in that lot ever again EVER (which we were slated to do tomorrow, for a whale watching excursion led by the PWF).

The snorkeling had ended around noon, and we had driven back to the resort, where we spent the afternoon once again lounging by the beach and going on a short two mile walk along down the same beach path I had explored yesterday.

I made us a dinner of salad (again) and a leftover arepas bowl before we watched some entertaining shows on Deborah's tablet and then retired.

Tomorrow would theoretically comprise a morning and early afternoon of idle tropical lounging before returning to the PWF for said whale watching tour. I set my expectations lower still for the whale watching, if it were to be anything like the snorkeling, and hoped for the best.

Stay tuned!