How (not) to win friends and influence people

We had an interesting day today.

Nathan is taking some online classes, and one of his professors is vacationing in Hawaii this week. So today, we met up with him and his wife to spend a little time in the ocean. We wanted to entertain and impress them, so we took them up to the North Shore for a little diving.

The surf report said the waves were way down on the North Shore. Shark's Cove looked a little rough, so we decided to stop at Waimea Bay. One of my most favorite spots. I've talked about this beach before.

Unfortunately it was raining when we got out of the car. And the water was murky because of all the rain! we've had. (It is raining right now, by the way.)

Even though we had some rain, it wasn't too cold to have fun at the beach. But the water was junk! I couldn't see anything. Sometimes I couldn't even see the fins of my swim buddy.

We made our way across the bay and found some rocks with a bit of coral and fish. Whew, I was afraid we would only see leaves and sticks. We watched the fish for a good long while - humu-humu's, convict tang, parrot fish, a cornet fish, and more. Then we watched some crazy people jumping off the big rocks.

While floating on my back, I saw one young girl watching for the right moment to jump in. She let a few waves pass by, waving her arms around like she was going to go for it, but then chickening out at the last minute. She finally stepped off the rock as a wave passed. yikes. Watching the jumpers, made me feel a little sea sick.

After all our water fun, it really started raining. Along with some impressive thunder and lightening. I was wet and cold and ready to go. Unfortunately we made a sad (and embarrassing) discovery as we were rinsing off the equipment. We realized we had locked the keys in the car.

The cell phone was in the car, too.

I had to walk over to the life guard station and climb up the stairs, in the rain, and ask for help. Oh, the humiliation.... There were a lot of life guards.... Luckily I was able to phone a friend. The terrific Mrs. J went by our house, got our spare keys, and drove them out to us. Sorry Mrs. J! The life guards kindly pointed out that locking the keys in the car is better than losing them in the sand or the ocean.... maybe....

We stood in the rain a while longer as we waited to be rescued. (Hurray for Mrs. J) Then we went to lunch. But it was just a little too chilly to stop for shave ice. That was a shame. And though we were all a little wet, it was still a nice lunch. The conversation was fun, even if the diving was a little bit of a downer. (get it? diving....downer....I crack myself up!)

We returned the good prof and wife to their downtown Inn (by way of a muddy detour at the Birthing Stones, and a chance encounter with a smelly homeless man.) It was a really odd day.

I hope our little misadventure won't affect Nathan's grades!

ps - christmas decorations are still up...

pps - Happy New Year!

ppps - I hope it's not so rainy at Bellows this afternoon. And no jelly fish, either.

Turtles at Ali'i Beach

Last weekend (or was it the weekend before last?) Hannah and Nathan went scuba diving at The Trench.


They saw turtles.


Lots of turtles.


Here's Hannah with a turtle.


Hey, Hannah! Stop harassing that turtle - that's illegal!


The other kids and I snorkeled closer to the beach. We also saw several turtles. Two came up on the sand and sun-bathed with me.

Emily and Sydney were snorkeling together a ways out. It is really shallow for a long way, and the ocean was calm, so I let them get out a little farther than usual. They were having a good time together, until I heard screaming. And they both scrambled back to the shore, splashing and hollering all the way.

Sydney told me that they were snorkeling along, looking for fish, minding their own business, when all of the sudden a huge turtle came over to check them out. His head was right by theirs! Scary! After that they stayed closer to shore...

Yeah for turtles!

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P.S. I want to make sure it's clear that Nathan is home now. He had two weeks of leave and will head back to his regular Air Force job tomorrow (although I think he may take another 10 days off.) He's not going back to Iraq any time soon. I hope.

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