Mahalo...

Denise Mastenbrook

11 Mar 2026 • 4 min read

About a dozen. That's the number of photos I took this trip. Right about a dozen. Because we've gone a few times, because we stay at the same resort, because we go at the same time of year, most of the pictures I take every year are remarkably similar. Like if you aren't a marine biologist with a specialization in humpback whales, you aren't really going to tell the difference. So I made the choice to not take a lot. To really make sure I was viewing the trip through my eyes and not my camera.

I still took a few. I mean, I am me. But I tried to only take ones that would be different than the others. Even if they are the same. Like I tend to try to remember to take a picture of Brent and I at the start of an event. Just a reminder of things that we did. So those are all the same. But different. Different years, different haircuts, different hats. But the same.

I just went back and counted. Fifteen photos and one short video. Not terrible. So now you know what's coming. Vacation Slide Show! You can bail out now, it's cool. It's going to end up being a really basic blog with the photos and captions. Tomorrow I'll write more specifically, but this way you get the visuals.

Sunset out the plane window. It was sunset, just like this, for a few hours.

View from the room. We had never stayed in this part of the resort, or on the ground floor before

I didn't take any other food shots, even though we ate wonderful fish all week. But no trip is official until we get Mai Tais from Monkeypod.

On our way to snorkel at Lanai. Hat management is a trick. Made us both laugh.

Do you see the white in the water? That is a humpback whale. It's right next to the boat. They call it a mugging.

This is a spinner dolphin. We cruised with a few pods on the way to Lanai and on the way back. Even got to see baby dolphins jumping and spinning. Oh my goodness....

Next day on the whale watch cruise. Yes, we saw whales already, but always go for more whales. New hat management try.

Luau evening. I should have gotten the professional shot done, we looked really cute. Also, hat management is much easier standing since I'm a little bit shorter than he is. Little bit.

Toes in the sand one last time before we leave.

Fire and police and hotel security all googling images to figure it out. (It was a flare)

Little dude hanging out at Mama's Fish House. The nose knows...

Back on the plane for the ride home. Always the saddest flight.

Tomorrow I'll actually talk about the trip, but this way you get to see all of the scads of photos I took... Or just remember all of the scads of photos you've seen me post over the years on Insta and Facebook. I would have posted the little video but apparently my Ghost plan isn't the right one for videos over about 2 seconds long so you'll just have to trust me that it was a video of dolphins jumping in the wake of the boat.

Mahalo...