Things started out slow. Didn't get in until Saturday night late due to storm related plane delays. Thankfully we missed most of the excitement.

Sunday morning we got up early to go on one of the Whale Tales whale watch trips with Jim Darling on Maui Adventure Cruises. It was a nice trip even though the whale were a little scarce and the water very rough. It was nice to talk with Jim about his whale song studies. I think the whales scooted out because of the storm. Each day they seem to be getting more numerous. After the whale watch we headed into the Whale Tales event and saw the behind the scenes presentation on the new Humpback 3D IMAX movie. Going to be looking for this. It looks amazing. After that it was off to Castaways to meet a friend for lunch. 4+ hours later we figured we better head out since the dinner crowd would starting soon. Good thing she has friends in high places. They would have kicked my backside out long before that. Good food and great company, it doesn't get better than that. Afterwards we headed up to Windmills beach to do a little beach combing. Had the whole beach to ourselves. It was nice because all the other beaches here so far have been standing room only just about.

Monday was another early morning. We headed to Lanai for a snorkel trip with Captain Steve's. Again rough though lighter than the day before and unfortunately the waters were still a little cloudy but still saw some cool fish. As well as some other things that were interesting as well as a little scary. After we got back and got cleaned up we met up with a small group of TripAdvisor friends. Over drinks and appetizers we had yet another great afternoon with good food and great company. Must be doing something right.

Today (Tuesday) yet another early morning and out with Ultimate whale watch out of Lahaina. Much smoother water and the whale number seemed to be climbing back up. Right out of the harbor a baby whale decided to put on a show for us. I don't think anyone even had their cameras ready. We weren't even out of the slow zone yet. We saw a bunch of cow/calf combos. It was great to see so many new Humpbacks. And the babies were feeling there oats today. Ran into a competition pod with 3 or 4 males going at it. Since whales aren't painted I'll just say a few layers of barnacles were lost while we were there. What us males have to do for a sexy lady. ;-) LOL After the watch it was snorkel time! Kahekili looked good on the webcam so off we went. EPIC FAIL! Out in 5 minutes. 50ft. out the visibility was maybe 15ft. Packed up and headed to Kapalua. Much better. Still a little cloudy but good enough. Think I can scratch a couple more species off my list.

Okay enough gibber jabber, on with some pictures.

Right out of the harbor, one happy new baby.

Another new guy trying out it's whale wings.

Saw quite few flukes today. 

Another breeching set. The second shot reminded me of Snoopy dancing.

A spyhop

A competition pod. This was no friendly play. Not a safe place to be even if you way 40 tons.

On to the snorkels pics. 

This first set is from Lanai. The first three are of what I am almost positive is a Box Jellyfish. And this guy hit my arm. The really strange part is is I didn't get stung. I thought a piece of fishing line wrapped around my arm. When I turned it was this guy. When I didn't get stung I figured it was something else and took more pics. The third shot was only from about 4 inches away. Kids, please don't do this at home. I was probably very lucky.

These next two shots you will need to click on and blow up. At first it looks like there is nothing in the shot. The camera could not focus on whatever this was. I have no idea what it was. Possibly in the plankton category. But it was about 5 inches long and inch wide with a bisection line in the middle. It danced in a ton of different shapes. Once it even looked like a whale tale. It reminded me of something out the movie The Abyss. If you look real close at the 1st shot the sections of this you can see through actually have a better focus of the background than the parts of the image the creature is not in. It's body acted as a lens. It was really amazing. I just with the camera could have caught it better. 

Some of the fishies we saw. A few new ones we got to check off our list.

Today's little friends at Kapalua.