Snorkeling....

So on Sunday the family and i woke up at the crack of dawn to head down to the dock to go on a snorkeling trip out to Molokini crater, which is a sunken volcano crater thing. The crater has a coral reef with awesome tropical fish, so of course it is perfect for snorkeling. I was pretty excited to go snorkeling. I had never done it before, and heard that is was pretty amazing. I still will not forget the feeling of when you first get in the water and have to train yourself to breathe in through your mouth and not your nose. it is kind of this weird panicky, hyperventilating feeling that you get. its funny really. the snorkeling guide on our boat had to remind to chill out and breathe nice and slow. after that i totally got the hang of it. it was great floating along looking at all the different types of fish and coral. i wish i had bought a underwater camera, but i didn't. oh well, i guess that means i just have to come back :)

after the crater, the guides then took over to the "turtle cleaning station." this was an area of water where huge turtles would have their shells cleaned by two different types of fish. the turtles would hangout at the bottom of the ocean, and all these fish would swarm them and clean of their shells. then eventually they would come back up to the top of the water and hangout. at one point i looked down and this was this huge turtle swimming like 10 feet underneath me. i had to remind myself not to flip out. it was pretty crazy though. after most people had returned to the boat, my brother and i were hanging out and four turtles were right near us swimming to the surface. it was pretty crazy. i could have stayed in there forever, minus the fact that the water temperature was pretty cold. oh well. i might even make another trip out there before we leave, however that is a maybe.

so just a side story about my dad. for those of you who know my dad, know that he is an awesome man and i truly love him, although he does have his blonde moments at times. i have to share this one. so it is six in the morning and we are at the dive shop picking up our snorkeling gear. and the lady is having us try on the fins and masks. she instructs us to put the mask on and then take a deep breath in and let go of the mask (this is to make sure there are no leaks in our masks because that would mean water would then leak in.) anyways, all four us have tried on our masks and demonstrated to the lady that they fit (now this lady was not a very bright and cheery one, and probably could have worked on her customer service, but thats another story). so its my dads turn and he seems to be having trouble following directions. he breathes in, but then doesn't move his hands and then takes the mask off. pretty much the lady cannont tell if it fits right or not. she instructs him to do it again but to remove his hands. however, he does it the wrong way again. he does it this way one more time and at this point the lady is quite frustrated. it takes me demonstrating it to him for him to understand, and then of course it works. i realize this isnt as funny as it seems, i guess its one of those had to be there moments. i had to throw in a story about my dad for those alan fans out there.

now a brief story about my mother. my mom got seasick and left a part of herself in the ocean if you know what i mean. i think she might have overdone it with 6 gingerroot capsules, instead of the recommended 2 capsules. clearly a family a blondes.

I am pretty sure my sister and i are laughing at something funny my dad said.

just one of the many turtles hanging out. they were huge.