Whales!

Winter is when the humongous Humpback whales swim down from Alaska to give birth in the warm tropical waters around the Hawaiian Islands.  I'm sure you all know that whales aren't fish; whales are mammals.  That means they give birth to live babies (called calves) that drink milk from their mothers (just like cows!)  They also mate again while in the tropics so that when they come down next year there will be babies to be born.  This makes for some male antics that we can watch from the shoreline.  When a whale breaches (jumps out of the water), it's because he's trying to impress his lady friend.

I go out and buy a couple of beach chairs, some binoculars, a tripod and a monopod.  We already have a video cam with really good zoom capability, John has his digital camera with 10x zoom, and I have my
vun-n-nderful underwater camera that fits in the pocket of my shorts.  We pop some water bottles in the freezer, and we'll be ready to go come Saturday.

One of our absolute most favorite places to go is a place called Shipwreck Cliffs.  We walk to the left when we get to the beach and begin a climb of only about thirty feet in height.  From there we can see for a long, long way.  The beach chairs have backpack straps so they transport easily.  We went to the Salvation Army thrift store and bought a (very) small backpack for the cameras, collapsible tripod, trail mix, water and first aid kit.  I use the monopod and golf umbrella like hiking sticks. 

We choose a place with windswept trees on either side to attempt some shade, set up the chairs and settle in for a whale of a time.  (Pun intended!)  It is no time at all before we see spouts, fins, and flukes.  It is SO amazing!  Catching them on video is hard - catching them with the goofy time-delay of a digital camera is next to impossible.  Someday I'm going to buy John a very expensive camera that doesn't have that delay...  But over the course of the whale season in the Hawaiian waters, John did manage to snap at least a representation of what we were seeing.

As I go through photos that we took, there are just so very many I want to share with the whole world.  John is a good photographer.  Decades ago, eons ago, he did professional photography (which may be one reason he's so good at getting images of the heart with ultrasound - he just has an innate understanding of how images are acquired.  He even has his own darkroom equipment - tho' with digital now, of course, it's a lost art...)  I am certain NO ONE wants to look at someone else's vacation pictures.  What I've tried to do is let photos enhance what my words are attempting to share with you.  The old addage, "A picture is worth a thousand words," is oh, so true.  With the right attitude, being a medical traveler could possibly be the very best job on earth!