Swimming with the fishies

I just got back from Hawaii, and I'm exhausted. I managed to write a few tidbits down while I was there, and I just finished scanning a few pictures into my computer. Keep posted for more stories about the trip.

This Hawaiian vacation has been spectacular. I only have a couple days left, and I have managed to keep from burning myself too badly.

Yesterday, my mom and I went snorkeling. Ray wasn't really interested in getting in the water, so we left him lying in the hammock outside our vacation rental, happily reading a book.

I really wanted to try to see the turtles at Turtle Beach (apparently it's a favorite place for turtles to hang out), but there is never a guarantee that you'll actually see one. Apparently, the place attracts a lot of tourists, and a lot of the locals are upset that the tourists are endangering the turtles' livelihoods, so there are all these signs up all over the beach that say "don't crowd the turtles," and other such warnings.

When we got there, the beach was pretty crowded, and my mom was pretty pessimistic that there would be any turtles at all, due to the large volume of tourists. I guess the turtles might also have "don't crowd the tourists" signs posted around the beach, too.

Anyway, my mom wanted to leave before we even got to the beach, but I saw what looked like a rock in the water start to move, so I kept on going. Now, I haven't gone snorkeling for some time, and I'm not the world's best swimmer, especially when it comes to underwater stuff, so I figured I'd wade in and just stick my face in the water and remind myself how to snorkel for a while, just up near the beach part, before I go looking for turtles.

So I put my mask on, put the snorkel in my mouth, and stuck my face in the water, getting used to breathing through the snorkel, and lifted my feet off the sand, and started to float. I turned my head to the left and saw my mom's legs, and I turned to my right and saw a GIANT SEA TURTLE as big as me, not three feet next to me, looking at me as if to say, "Hey."

"Holy shit!" I screamed through my snorkel. I backed away and stood up, my heart pounding. I had had an underwater camera in my hand, and instead of taking a picture or just taking in the beautiful of such a marvelous creature, I had freaked out and probably freaked out the poor turtle, who was gone by the time I got the nerve to go back underwater.

I'm probably the only person on the beach that morning who had seen a turtle, and what did I do? I freaked out. I'm so MAD at myself!

After my brief encounter with the sea turtle, my mom took me to another little snorkeling cove away from the tourists, and I managed to actually keep calm and take some good pictures. You'll see more as soon as I'm more awake to put them on the site.










(a humuhumunukunukuapua'a, the state fish)