Today we got up early and headed to the marina for a fun-filled day at sea. Dan's birthday is this Saturday, the 16th, so I chartered a deep-sea fishing boat for his present from me. He has always wanted to go deep-sea fishing...and this was the perfect time to do it!
The company we booked with...
Our boat... very sea worthy...
Dan getting a lesson from "Fran" on how to reel one in...
This was one of several schools of Pilot Whales we saw...
This was a 5 hour excursion... about 2 hours into it, Dan caught a Striped Marlin... he was so excited! This type of fishing is so different from anything he has ever done before...
Here it is jumping out of the water... it wasn't too excited about being caught! He weighed 120 pounds!
A closer look...
My man with his prize...
And then he caught a Spear Fish... about 70 pounds.
He is a little harder to see...
On our way back to the marina, "Captain Bill" put up these flags. The dark blue signifies that we caught a Striped Marlin...the light blue is for the Spear Fish... the two red ones are because we let them go and didn't keep them. This is a way for the captain to "brag" and show off his success of the day...
This is a shot as we came back into the harbor...
One of the crazy lures that were used...
Another shot of the flags with the proud and mighty fisherman...
Later we came back, chilled by the pool and then headed out to scope out our beach for tomorrow. This sign was on a tree... Really? Someone must have taken a coconut to the noggin' for them to put up a sign...
This is the beach we will be playing on tomorrow...
This wild turkey was walking around in the parking lot. How random is that?!
The sunset tonight... what a great way to the end the day! Now back to our house to relax and watch a movie.
We love and miss our girls... it was so great to talk to you today. We can't wait to talk to you tomorrow. We love you!
We took a drive to a nearby town called Wameia and then headed back to our house to lounge by our pool and to have some lunch. A little later on we headed to a nearby white sand beach. I believe the name of it was Hapuna... Here I am hanging out under the umbrella while Dan tried to do some boogie-boarding... 
Dan trying the boogie-boarding thing... The waves weren't quite big enough...but he had fun any way! 
We came back and got showered and ready for a night out. We had booked a "dinner cruise" with "The Spirit of Kona"... Here is a shot Dan took while we were waiting to check in. 
A turtle that came swimming by the dock... 
A picture of our boat... 
I don't know if it was just us, but one of the most hilarious things about tonight was that our "hula dancer" was about 8 month pregnant. It seemed really wrong... 
After our pre-dinner show was over and we had grabbed our food, we were suddenly surrounded by a huge pod of dolphins. I wish we had gotten better pictures...it was amazing! They were everywhere...and were jumping and putting on quite a show! 
Another beautiful sunset in Hawaii... 
The MOST amazing event was having a mommy humpback whale and her calf put on a show for us. The crew of our ship was amazed because "whale season" should be over. They told us that most likely this baby just wasn't ready to leave yet and it's momma was waiting aroud a bit longer. It was really cool. This isn't the best picture ever... but you can see her... 
On our way back into the dock they made us and one other couple dance to celebrate our Anniversary. It was kind of rocky and so Dan held on to this pole... this is the closest we will ever get to pole dancing!!! 
The evening ended with me laughing so hard I missed some really great shots! Dan had to dance with the pregnant hula dancer. He ended with some moon-walking. Need I say more?! 
It was a really fun day... we both got a little too much sun today...but we are having so much fun together. We are so glad that our girls are having so much fun together and with Grandma and Grandpa. It really puts our minds at ease! I loved Courtney's comment to me on the phone today... "Mom, Kenna and I decided that we both think it was a really great thing for you and Dad to go on this trip by yourselves. We would LOVE to be in Hawaii, BUT... we have had so much fun together, and spent so much time together, that we are closer now than ever before." We love you girls so much! Have a wonderful day! 
