My first trip to Hawaii was with my travel partner, Amy, in January of 2016. We had been to Germany, Italy, Austria, Costa Rica, and Sedona, Arizona together on prior occasions. She was going to Oahu for a work event and she asked if I wanted to tag along. I jumped at the chance, of course! While she was busy, I booked a couple of scuba dives and a shark cage snorkel. The diving was utterly amazing. The size of the tropical fish was bigger than I had seen on other dives – Angelfish the size of serving platters! The best underwater sight though was a Leatherback Turtle cleaning station. I floated a safe distance away so as not to disturb the turtles. Leatherbacks can get up to 6 feet and these guys were BIG! They lined up underwater like cars going through a car wash. Each would take a turn swimming up to the station while little fish picked the parasites and debris off their shells. It was evident that the turtles truly enjoyed this. They would roll on their sides so the cleaners could get to all the hard-to-reach places. The Biology nerd in me was in Heaven.
And then, the shark cage…holy cow. We boarded a boat and went out in search of Galapagos sharks. Our boat captain told us that the sharks had been conditioned to come toward the sound of boat motors because in that area, fisherman would often clean their fish and throw away the scraps, providing an easy feast for the sharks. We tied up to a permanent buoy placed in a prime location for viewing and climbed into the cage 4 at a time. The cage was open at the surface so we were able to snorkel rather than scuba dive. The cage looked like the cage in the movie, Jaws, and was built with only bars and not plexiglass. The size was around 8 ft by 8 ft. We were told to keep our hands and feet within the cage for obvious reasons. Man, did they put on a show! We saw several sharks between 7 and 10 feet in length. They would swim directly toward us and then veer off at the last second before they reached the cage. It was thrilling!
When Amy was available, we took our rental convertible Volkswagen Bug all over the island. We watched surfers in Waimea Bay, hiked to Manoa Falls and swam below it, snorkeled in Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, saw Pearl Harbor, and visited Leahi, Oahu’s dormant volcano. Amy and I are known for packing as much as possible in a short amount of time.
My next opportunity was with my cousins, Peggy and Sally. Peggy’s niece and Sally’s daughter, CJ, lives on Maui with her now-husband. Peggy and Sally were planning on going on March 13-19 of 2020 for a visit and invited me to tag along. As March approached, we began to hear more about the novel coronavirus but had no idea the lasting impact it would have on our lives over the next few years. We boarded the plane on March 13 maskless with Cincinnati fully open for business.
We were delighted to be in Maui during Humpback whale calving season. We saw too many mothers and calves to count – cuteness overload! Whales are easily seen from shore, but we did take a guided tour to get an up-close look. Our boat captain was excellent and knowledgeable. CJ and I also did a 2-tank dive trip and again, Hawaii did not disappoint. We saw a multitude of turtles, tropical fish, and a few sharks. We hiked through Iao Valley State Park and felt the energy of the trees. We drove the road to Hana. It was a unique experience to be with CJ. As a local, she gave us an insider’s tour of the island and we visited local beaches and sought out local food. Traveling with a local is always such an intimate way to feel the energy of a place and I treasured my time experiencing this with her.
