Danny and the Whales

Danny and I spent three hours this morning kayaking with humpback whales (and all afternoon lying on the sofa recovering). He traveled thousands of miles for five days in Hawaii and I asked why he wasn't outdoors experiencing Maui. He said, "It's enough to know that it is warm outside."

Several times whales approached our kayaks to within yards, and even swam directly underneath at least once (murky water is why the photo is so indistinct). I still haven't figured out how to take good photos while bouncing around in a small kayak on rough ocean waters (at least that's my excuse for the lack of photos today).

I saw my first ever bottlenose dolphins today. I got into the water when they came by, but unlike spinner dolphins, they chose to ignore me. Spinner dolphins generally swim as a group, but these dolphins kept in pairs within the larger group. They led us to a group of whales and then kept swimming right up against them. Dolphins and whales, what a treat! This cartoon from today's "Maui Weekly" captures some of the feeling of the day.