Our day started even earlier today than yesterday. We were up at 5:00 a.m. and out of the door by 5:45 a.m. It took about an hour to drive to the Waianae Boat Harbor on the west shore. We met our tour guide, Conner, from Wild Side Specialty Tours, who took us to the boat. We met the other two crew members named Matt and Caden. We also met the other three passengers from Maryland. There were a total of nine of us. We followed the coastline for about an hour, and we were approaching the northwest corner of the island when we spotted humpback whales surfacing. We followed alongside them for quite a while. Our guides determined that they were a male, female, and newborn. We had a great view of them, and we could hear their blowhole each time they surfaced. We turned around to head back when we came across a large group of Melon Head Whales. They are similar to dolphins but slightly larger. We were able to put on snorkel gear and get in the water to watch them. I tried counting them, but I stopped when I reached forty. One pod came very close by us, and we could see the details of their faces and bodies. What a great experience. The water was pretty calm and the weather was perfect. I loved seeing the sunshine reflect off of the whales and disappear into the deep. The guides told us that the water depth where we were swimming was 2,300 feet deep. They also told us that seeing Melon Head Whales was very rare. We returned to the marina about 11:00 a.m. We drove back to the condo and we all fell asleep for a couple of hours. It may have been a side effect of the Dramamine we all took this morning, but we crashed. At 5:00 p.m. we took a short drive to the Punchbowl to visit the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. My granduncle and grandaunt are buried there. It took a little searching, but we did find their grave marker. We also enjoyed the view of Waikiki from the observation area. We spent the rest of the evening at the condo.
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