I woke us up at the crack of dawn today for our whale watching tour. Sound familiar? That’s because we did the same thing yesterday morning. This attempt, though, we arrived at the right time, the right place and the right day.

Captain Dan is a fairly well known whale researcher and does a couple of tours a day during the “whale season” during the winter in Hawaii.

Unfortunately the whales weren’t cooperating so we spent a few pleasant hours on the Lady Ann touring the Kohala coast. We saw a single blow spout far off in the distance but were never lucky enough to spot the big humpback that had come to the surface.

At last, on the way back into the Honokohau Harbor, we spotted a pod of spinner dolphins. Emma raced to the deck to watch. The short few minutes the dolphins were swimming next to the boat made up for the previous few hours of boredom as far as she was concerned.

We packed up and headed back home, all of us ready for naps. The kids managed to stay awake long enough for a lunch out at the Nasturtium Cafe – featured on the Food Network, they liked to proclaim.

After nap time we made a horrible discovery. Trusty Molly, who had accompanied Emma across the ocean and all around the Island was lost!

We had no idea where we might have left her and ended the day resigned to never seeing her again. Just as Emma drifted to sleep, though, she mumbled that she’d left her in the gas station near the Harbor…