Turtle Bay Biking and Monk Seal and Pup

Here we are with 2 other bike riding missionary couples; the Edgars
and the Dees. 

We were lucky to come upon this mother monk seal and pup.
She gave birth in this same pool where she was born years ago. These monk
seals are only found in the Hawaiian Islands and are endangered.
There are only 52 left and so they are tagged and closely monitored
personally by volunteers from 7am-7pm. They try to keep
people away from them as they are very protective of their young. Think
of them as a 600 pound mama grizzly that can swim over 20 mile per hour.
A few weeks ago a new mom body slammed a swimmer in the water against
the coral bottom. Their whiskers can sense movement yards away.
That's how they catch their prey; octopus, squids, etc.

Our group minus Sister Dee in front of our
favorite banyan tree.

This is Elder and Sister Waterfall, avid bikers who have biked
through Europe. We took them on the same ride the next week
and the mom and pup had moved down the beach aways. You
can see them on the right. The mother seal stays by here pup
for 6 weeks and nurses him without eating herself and can lose
a lot of her body weight, before she teaches her pup how to
forage for food. 

Our same favorite banyan tree. You can see how tall it is
by looking at this young climber.

Nancy and Scott were up for continuing down the North Shore
and a stop at Ted's Bakery.

The Hukilau Marketplace in front of the PCC had the bird guy come.
He brought lots of parrots and this is Sister Meuller with one of
his Macaws.