Snorkeling 101- July 23

Well, give or take a couple, I’m not exactly sure how many times I’ve gone snorkeling, but it’s got to be around that number :o) So yeah, today we headed down to the bottom of Kihei to hit up some good dive spots (as Dad calls them, everyone else realizes there’s a difference between snorkeling and diving). But before I get into the snorkeling, let me share just how terrible my night was. We’re staying in a one bedroom condo right? Right. It’s a pretty nice place, but with only one bedroom, it means that I sleep out on the pull out couch. Not that terrible. I never had a terrific bed growing up, never had to have the fancy pillow top cover, whatever, so I can sleep on pretty much anything and be okay with it. Well… I found my match. I could not sleep on that criz-appy bed last night. The mattress is history, I was sleeping straight up on the springs. Plus, it was freezing, but I didn’t know how to control the air conditioner. Plus, we’re right on the road so I could hear cars going by. Plus, there was this weird light shining through the window (which is weird considering that the road doesn’t really have street lamps. So I was in and out of sleep all night. But to top it off, there was a SUPER annoying bird going off like an alarm clock this morning. By 6am I had had it. I mean, it helped that Dad had already come into the living room twice already, so I thought it was much later, but no, it was 6am. Gracious.

Snorkeling was amazing though, made up for the fact that I didn’t sleep well. Well…. It didn’t start out amazingly, let me tell you that story. When we all got our snorkeling gear (and I mean for the very first time), I was what, 10 or so? And so I got the kiddie mask. I was able to use that one for a long while because I have a pretty small head (and I would just deal with serious mask face after snorkeling). So I never got my own real snorkeling mask. No big, I’m all about saving money (hence the reason I wore the small one for as long as I could). So when I needed to pack a mask and snorkel for this trip, I decided not to pack the little one, but to take the one that Joy used to use. I put it up to my face and sucked in to see if it fit. (It’s a legit test, I’m not making that up.) At home it fit okay so I packed it. Oh nay-nay. Today when I took it out in the water, it leaked. Water wasn’t rushing in or anything, but it got pretty annoying pretty quickly. Good old Mom was there to trade me masks temporarily, but Dad decided that when we went back into town, we’d get me a new mask. The first place we went to wasn’t all that great. When I got in the water I thought- okay, it’s cool and all, but really? I’ve seen coral and I’ve seen all these fish before. Pretty much the only cool part about it was that I saw a sea turtle, and he was huge! Now, I’ve seen sea turtles before, but it’s ALWAYS so cool to see them in the water (and out). But there really wasn’t much there, so pretty soon after we got in, Dad told us we were moving on.

The next place we went to was much better. I decided that the first place sucked not only because it honestly wasn’t that fantastic, but because my mask was leaking and my feet were killing me (I also don’t fit into the booties I did when I was 10- actually we probably got those when I was 12 but still). So for the second place, I had Mom’s mask and I took the booties off. So much better!!! Although I have seen coral before, I was able to slow down and realize how cool snorkeling is, it’s nature watching under water- so peaceful and just enough of a change from normal life. I also thought about how weird it is people swim with masks on just to stare at fish. I don’t know, it’s weird, I can’t really explain why without feeling like an idiot and failing to really explain, so I’m just not going to try. Anyway, at that place there were three extra cool things that happened. One, Dad spotted two turtles and the first one that he spotted honestly swam away and hid. Most turtles ignore people and go off to a rock and eat. Not this one. This one fled, found a rock, and lay low. It wasn’t eating; it was just pressed up against the rock hoping we wouldn’t spy it. Silly turtle :o) The second cool thing was that I saw an eel. Dad sees them every now and again when we go, and he always tells me about them, but by time I make it to them, they’re always gone. This time, I saw one!!! It was a cool stripped one and it was big too. It was wrapped up all around some coral, winding in and out of it, but by time Dad came, he had gone all the way through the coral and into a hole. But I saw it, go me. Third cool thing: I saw a flat fish that hides in the sand. (Mom and Dad called it a flounder, but when I hear “Flounder,” I think of a big fat yellow and blue fish that talks to Ariel, not a flat fish that hides in the sand.) I saw it out of the corner of my eye and got excited that it was a sting ray but then I looked at it for real and saw that it was one of those cool flat fish. That was the only time I’ve seen one of those so of course I was super excited. I watched it and it slowly moved closer and closer to the bottom of the ocean and then settled in the sand. I put my head out of the water and called Mom and Dad over. Mom was the only one to hear me at first and she asked what I found. I told her and then dove down to point him out. That dang fish is good. He didn’t budge. Well, his eyes did. Dad finally came over and I had to point the fish out again. It staid still when I pointed and when Dad went down and tried to move him. We gave up on watching him because Dad had found another turtle, but then we hear Mom screaming that the fish was swimming again. So we all got to see the thing swim, and spot how dang good he was at hiding.

After that place we bought me a mask and snorkel. I wasn’t looking for the most expensive one, just one that fit my little face. It just so happen that the non-expensive one that fit my face was pink and white. Oh man, for one that screams girly, which I’m not really; and two, that totally doesn’t match my blue fins. Oh well, I greatly appreciate the new mask. It works so much better than the leaky yellow one (which still didn’t match my blue fins). The third place we hit up had nothing. There were some fish, but really, it was pathetic. And crowded. Too many tourists there. So instead of making it a good snorkeling spot, we turned it into a good beach spot. We played in the water a bit, walked along the shore for a bit, and then left because by then the sun was super intense and we couldn’t just sit out in it.

We had some fruit when we got home and then headed out to the shops at Wahealia obviously to do a little shopping. Well… I did a lot of looking, and Mom and Dad did a fair amount of shopping. I’m just too cheap and too broke for stores like Tiffany’s and Roxy and Quicksilver and all those stores there. After the fancy shops, it was time to do some shopping that was more my budget- the around town kind of stores- the ones where you can bargain. Ever since shopping last night, I made it my goal to find a really cute summer dress, so that’s what I was looking for all day. We went to one store today and I walked in and the guy asked what I was looking for. I told him I was looking for a cute summer dress that was a little more fancy (fancier than the tube top, made as a beach cover up thing he showed me) and he goes, “Yeah, just the hard part is…. (and then places his hands on his chest)” Holy cow. Why are Hawaiians so comfortable talking about my chest?!?! He calls over his sister-in-law to help size me. And then she goes on about how my body is a size small, but my chest is a size large, and how she only has a couple of dresses that might cover me well. She was nice, and again, she was pushy! She was handing me dresses left and right and I put them on. I liked a couple of them, but they weren’t anything that I loved (like two dresses I’d already found) and so again, she was not happy when I did not end up buying from her. But honestly, these people need to have some more decorum!

I didn’t find a dress that I liked in the stores around there so we headed back to the place we went last night. I walked in, found the dress I tried on. At first the lady didn’t recognize me, but then all of a sudden, she goes, “I saw you…” I told her “yeah, I came last night.” She thought she had me hooked and so she said, “Okay $40, okay?” I told her that I wanted to try it on one more time. Again, I walked out and she told me I didn’t need a bra. YEAH, I GOT THAT MUCH, THANKS!!! I asked her if she could go lower than $40 and she laughed and told me to go change. She asked how much I wanted to pay and I told her $35. She said she’d give it to me for $37. I told her that I really wanted that dress, but I’d found another one at Hilo Hattie’s for $32, so I didn’t really want to pay $37 for this one (that’s not a lie, that’s really true-there is another super cute dress at Hilo Hattie’s). She was not happy, but I got the dress for $35!!! As we walked away, she told my Mom that she should make sure to take me into any store where she wanted to get a good price (because I got a great deal out of her :o)

While shopping around in the last two places, I started to get a little weird- a little hyper maybe. My roommates know what I’m talking about, it’s that mood where I make them promise not to let me out in public because I’ll just end up embarrassing myself by doing something stupid. (Of course my roommates always make me go out when I’m in those moods, but those are other stories :o) So when we got home I changed and went for a run. Unfortunately the streets are not well lit, but it wasn’t scary or anything because there is so much car traffic that the streets turn out to be pretty well lit, and there were people walking everywhere. I was definitely not going to get nabbed on that run. And I especially wasn’t going to get nabbed because I was running at quite the quick pace. I was very pleased with myself when I got back.

Since my run, this is really all I’ve done. And it’s time to get off anyway because we’ve got a big day and an early morning tomorrow. Shoot. I wanted to write another post about “favorites” but that’s not going to work out so well tonight, because today was pretty eventful, so I’m pretty tuckered out, and like I said, we’re getting’ up early tomorrow (5:30am). So I’ll have to squeeze that other post in some other time.