Day 2 - Fishing!!

No vacation is complete in our family without some fishing!  Kevin booked a trip with Captain Don's sport fishing out of Nawiliwili Harbor.  We soon learned that fishing in Kauai is not ideal, at least not to anyone except Kevin.  The water was very rough, and half of our boat was sea sick most of the day .. me included.  However, we did have a successful trip, fishing wise, and all of the whales that we saw were the redeeming factor for me!

Sunrise

First Fish!

an 80 lb ahi! (yellowfin tuna)

My turn

Another ahi ... just 60lbs smaller

an even smaller tuna

Last fish! a Mahi Mahi

Kevin's Mahi Mahi ... they lose their beautiful color as soon as they are caught

We didn't get any pictures of the humpbacks, but I want to explain a little bit how incredible it is to experience the humpbacks in Hawaii.  The Pacific humpback whales (there are Atlantic ones too) swim from Alaska and Canada to the warmer waters of Hawaii in the winter, where they mate and give birth.  As an animal lover, I was very excited to get the chance to whale watch in Hawaii.  You don't have to do anything special to see the whales, they are everywhere!  We would watch them from the beach every evening (we brought binoculars), we got to see all types of behavior, but the breaching is my favorite.  It is so amazing how they can propel their entire body out of the water.  While on our fishing trip, I sat on top deck of the boat for the trip back in to harbor, and I saw several whales incredibly close, including a HUGE breach.  It was awesome, I'm just sad I didn't catch anything on camera!

Since we caught so many fish, we were able to take home (our condo had a full kitchen) enough ahi and mahi mahi for all of us to eat dinner (on two separate nights).  Here is Kevin cooking our ahi, it was delicious!