A Whole Lot of Whales

Wednesday was our last day on Maui.  The skies seemed to clear up just for us. 

I was surprised and pleased to see that the Maui Coast Hotel had a book of Buddhist teachings and the Bible in the nightstand.

What I liked best about this hotel was the refrigerator,  coffee maker and sink.  We were able to grab a quick breakfast without going out.

We decided on the Pacific Whale Foundation ocean tour.  They are a nonprofit organization to educate the public about whales.

The skies were still bright and sunny before we boarded The Liberty behind us.
 

They  guaranteed that we'd see a Humpback whale and kept that promise.  We saw a lot of females with their "escort" and often with a calf.

 They dropped a hydrophone into the ocean and we could hear the whales talking to each other.

The oceanographers told us that the whales' tails were like their fingerprints.  Our whale tour was 2 1/2 hours long but the time flew by quickly.

Our next stop was Sam Sato's in Wailuku for saimin noodles.  They only open until 2:00 and we managed to just squeak in.

Sam Sato's is known for having the regular wet saimin noodles...

 and the dry type which is just noodles with the broth served separately.

The next stop was the Iao Needle.  I got this from Wikipedia:

"The Hawaiian god Kāne is considered to be the procreator and the provider of life. He is associated with wai (fresh water) as well as clouds, rain, streams and springs. Kanaloa, the Hawaiian god of the underworld, is represented by the phallic stone of the ʻĪao Needle."

 This is when the rain started in earnest.

 These Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese gardens were in the same area but we didn't get to see them all because of the rain.

We had a couple of hours before our flight so we stopped by the Wailea resort area and did the beach walk.  It was a wonderful way to escape the rain.

This is another kind of Akulekule (ice plant).

We saw this Mejiro  (Japanese White-eye) sitting on a sprinkler.

It was a wonderful trip but we were all extremely tired.  Unfortunately, Sarah has caught a cold.  The funny thing is she began coughing on Thursday evening while we were watching Contagion together about a worldwide pandemic.  I'm hoping she's able to fight this cold before they have to leave for their journey to South America. 

I think we all need to just get to bed early and rest!

Please forgive me for not being able to visit for a few more days.

Tomorrow's post will be about the Honolulu Hapalua Half Marathon yesterday.  So much for rest.