Once upon a time, it was Neil's birthday. Maggie wanted to do something truly memorable and special for her brother since he had traveled thousands of miles to spend his birthday in Hawaii. After weighing many options, Maggie decided to book a deep sea adventure for the two of them wherein they would purportedly be able to see whales and swim with dolphins and turtles. Great idea, right? Little did Neil know how memorable this trip would end up being....
The two excited siblings awoke before dawn and set out for Wainae, both feeling a bit under the weather but anticipating an adventurous day ahead. Maggie had been suffering from a number of ailments, including but not limited to a 2-week long respiratory infection and a bizarre photosensitivty reaction which rendered her swollen and looking like a post-op plastic surgery patient for 24 hours. Neil had caught a virus and was cradling tissues and Mucinex like precious babies. Regardless, they were pumped for the trip. Maggie was outfitted in a rashguard, hat, sunglasses, and pants to protect her from the sun in case of further bizarre medication side effects. Neil was wearing his new board shorts and equipped with an underwater camera.
The pair arrived at the dock exactly on time and boarded the small yacht run by "Wild Side Adventures". Maggie gleefully snapped pictures of Neil on the boat. Soon our fellow adventurers arrived and the 6 passengers, 1 marine biologist, and 2 company employees launched out into the Wainae waters. After only about 10 minutes, Maggie sighted the first whale. The sight was truly breathtaking, as the whale was only about 100 feet from the boat. Maybe less. Maggie is trying hard not to turn this into utter hyperbole. Anyhow, the whole boatload whipped out cameras and began snapping away while the two whales obediently displayed their magnificence, blowing water in the air and lifting their tails far above the surface before diving deep into the sparkling blue ocean. Neil and Maggie held onto one another's arms and yelped with delight, and Maggie was SO excited (of course) that she blocked several of Neil's attempts to photograph this nature-moment by jumping around and throwing her hands in the air. Neil, ever patient with Maggie's life-long hysterics forgave her immediately.
Several moments later we encountered another group of whales, except this time it was a mother, calf, and "aunty". Neil and Maggie scampered to the front of the boat to watch these three who were so close to the boat that the passengers feared we might actually run into them or obstruct their path. It is hard to describe how huge these whales are, but they were certainly larger than our boat and we imagined them coming up underneath us and lifting us in the air with no effort! The baby whale, despite being nothing but a blobby formation in the water was nonetheless perceived as "cute" by all and the group collectively "ooohed and ahhhhed" as it took 7 or 8 small dives in a row, displaying its tail and spouting water each time. This image became less and less cute to Maggie, as she was quite suddenly overcome with a feeling that her stomach was turning inside out. She identified the Hershberger motion-sickness at once, but attempted to remain with Neil at the bow for the next few minutes. Unfortunately, she could not withold the mighty waves of nausea that washed over her in whale-sized proportions. She moved to the back of the boat and began barfing up breakfast into the beautiful blue ocean. This did not scare away the whales, (perhaps her groans and disgusting puke noises sounded like whale calls?) though it did isolate her from the other passengers, who all looked on empathically though with distinct discomfort and vague disgust. Neil bravely stood by Maggie's side, offering his help, but knowing well that she was far, far gone now into motionsickness madness. The captain offered sea bands. Neil helped Maggie strap these on, but both recognized that these were a pithy attempt at controlling the insane barfing. Note here that all pictures stop. Poor Neil was too worried about Maggie to be concerned with photographing the 8 more whales that we encountered.
Once we completed the torturous (though truly amazing) whale watching period, we moved closer to shore into a cove to observe and swim with dolphins. Neil helped Maggie don her flippers and mask, and together they slid off the back of the boat into the water. Even through her sickness, Maggie's heart swelled as she saw Neil's face as he swam amongst the dolphins. Between frothy barfs all over the dolphins, Maggie watched as Neil was surrounded by spinner dolphins on all sides. He swam alongside them and frequently lifted his head and snorkel to laugh hysterically, screaming "Look at all of them! I am swimming with dolphins!" Maggie smiled weakly through her awkward blue plastic mask and felt content, despite her continued nausea. Maggie also swam with the dolphins, but was mostly anxious that all of her barf would scare them away. Or make them angry. She found it was surreal to swim, swallow sea water, throw up, and do so completely surrounded by wild dolphins. For some reason, she defaulted to repeating the Hail Mary in an effort to control her gagging. Maggie was distracted from her trance by Neil's voice, yelling that his flippers were stuck together. Only the dolphins know how in the world this could happen, but it did, and it was forcing him to tread water like a mermaid. Maggie summoned all of her strength to rip the fins apart, determined that he would not drown and would continue to bond with the dolphins. Maybe the holy mother heard her previous mantra, because his legs were soon freed and he frolicked away. (And yes, one can frolick in the water.)
To be continued.......
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