Day 3 Dolphin Excursion

This morning we woke up really early and left the house at 545am to drive up the west coast of Ohau to take a dolphin excursion. Lauren had told us about this. You go out on a boat with about 20 people and find spinner dolphins. Then you get in the water and snorkel with the dolphins. They swam all around and underneath us.

So cool! We then got back in the boat drove a bit got back in again with them.

The. We got back on the boat and ride to find Hawaian Green Sea Turtles. The same kind we saw on the beach yesterday. Ally was freezing cold but she got in the 3rd time and we saw a huge turtle floating underneath us. The water was about 50' deep and we could see all the way to the bottom. It was amazing.

The Hawaii coastline was breathtaking. 

Getting ready for the dolphin swim!

There they are! Spinner dolphins are smaller than bottlenosed dolphins only about 5-6' in length and 120-200 pounds.

We watched them from the boat for a bit and a few jumped up and spun around. (That is how they got the name Spinner Dolphins.)

Ally was such a trooper. After the first swim she was so cold shivering and teeth chattering. She asked if she had to go again I said I wanted her to. So she did it. She held tight to my hand the entire time and that is my arm around her above. 

We saw a mother and her baby dolphin.

Becky tried to get some underwater pictures. But it was hard. We bought the photo package and will have the professional pictures in about a week.

After the 3 swims we went to look for whales. Very quickly we spotted a mama and her calf and a 3rd humpback whale.

We headed back to the dock and saw 2 more adult whales.

We all agreed it was a really fun time!