January 6, 2006

Up early and went for our buffet breakfast. Kathy ordered us our taxi and we hurried to eat. Carmine got to enjoy her breakfast and reading the paper while the rest of us chewed and swallowed fast. Fifteen minutes later we were in the taxi and on our way to the Whale Tour. We boarded the Lahaina Princess and moved a short distance from shore. Our captain and narrators looked for whale spouts and spotted one. These are the humpback whales that migrate south from the cold waters of Alaska to the warm waters of Hawaii where they have their young and raise them untill they are old enough to make the journey back to Alaska. We drove over to where we saw them and waited and waited and waited. We drove off then saw them blow and arch. We found another pod of three or four and watched them blow and arch. The best was hearing them blow and whistle. Sueann bought us each, including Carmine who stayed at the hotel, a whale tale charm necklace as a keepsake.

We walked and made our way up and around a few streets. There was a craft show outside under the banya trees, long roots flowing that sometimes connect making a whole new tree. Maria bought us each a special present. We made a call to Carmine and found the bus and trolley to get us back to the hotel. Along our travel we picked up lunch and enjoyed that on our own patio, lani. Maria gave us each an angel ornament made of macademea nuts. We sat sharing our whale experience with Carmine. Maria layed in the sun, while the rest of us enjoyed the view from the shade. Sueann went and soaked in some sun too! We transferred our luggage to one room that we checked out of at 2pm. Checking out we found out that we did not have coupons for the breakfasts we had and were therefore charged $36 each for two buffets. The Bell hops kept our luggage and we sat around the pool sipping wine coolers. We treated ourselves to icecream and shortly there after it was time to get our shuttle to the a!
ir port. Kathy had called for it early and requested pick up. She was informed that pick up was already shecduled for 5:10pm and that we could not get an earlier one because they were booked all day. We fiished our wine coolers by the beach while we waited for our driver.Our driver had to drive to two other places for pick-ups making us panic that we were going to be late for our flight. As it was we made it by 6:30; our flight leaves at 7:00. We checked our luggage and walked quickly to our gate. Security was intense. Maria and Kathy had a bottle of water with them and no liquids were permited. They tossed them. Maria had an orange and stopped to ask if it would be okay and the rest of us were told to move on to the next line area where we took off our shoes and put our belongings for carrying onto the plane into a bin. The security guard yelled at Kathy who was looking to make sure Maria was coming. The security guard told her to keep her eyes front and keep moving. We had to about run to the gate. Kathy carried her shoes rather than try to put them on! We got to the gate and Carmine lead us right into the middle of the line. We got onto the plane that was open seating and made our way to the back where we found seats together. We were on our way to Oahu, about a 30 minute flight. When we touched down, Kathy called Justin and we walked out of the plane into the terminal where we were greeted by the Apple Tour representative. She gave us each a lei and a hug. We picked up our luggage and got onto the shuttle that brought us to our hotel, Pacific Beach, in Waikiki. Justin met us in the lobby. Justin looked great, all smiles and happy. He gave his mom a big bear hug and a hug for each of his aunts too. Upstairs in the room we ordered pizza from Round Table, one of Justin's favorites. For two mediums, a salad and soda it was almost $100! We sat eating and laughing telling Justin about our flight and the jeep ride on Maui. About midnight Justin headed out; he had ridden his bike down. We unpacked and crawled into bed.