Hawaiian Monk Seals and DOLPHINS!!!

The Saturday after George and Denise headed home we decided to take a little drive up the coast and check on the baby Hawaiian Monk Seal.  We caught them napping again, as per usual. It was amazing how much the baby had grown and also how much the mother had shrunk. The baby gains 5 lbs per day and the mother does not eat at all during the 5-6 weeks that she is nursing. When the young seal is weaned they weigh about 200 lbs.....great weight loss program for the mother!!!

There are less than a thousand Monk Seals on all the Hawaiian Islands
combined and only 6-10 that the Big Island claims as their own.

Sweet, chubby baby.

They sure blend in with the rocks.

 See how close to the same size they are getting!

On the way home we stopped at Lapakahi State Historical Park...the Kohala coastline is rugged but beautiful.

Self portraits are the only way to get us both in the picture!!

An example of a historical Hawaiian home

Sunset at Hapuna Beach.

Sunday afternoon we had the experience of a lifetime...we decided to go t0 "Two Step" to snorkel in the afternoon. We were going to relax for awhile before we got into the water, but changed our minds when we realized that there were dolphins in the bay!!  They were quite a ways out and we figured that by the time we got out to them, they would probably be gone....but it was worth a try...and we were going to snorkel anyways.  JACKPOT....they stayed around the whole time we were there.  We swam with them for over an hour and finally came in when we were getting cold.  SO much fun and GREAT pictures... I really hope this happens again some time.

They swim in large circles way down deep and then surface about every 7-10 minutes.

This is what they looked like when they were down deep.

This was someone else who was out there at the same time as we were.

A lot of Cub's pictures were up close and personal....sometimes just a nose or a belly!

There were these two dolphins that were always swimming side by side and not really with the rest of the group.

Cub was busy looking down at dolphins underneath him and didn't even see the ones come up in front of him.

Moms with babies.

That's me in the middle of the excitement.

This was SO incredible...just posting the pictures makes me want to be there again!!