Snorkeling

Verdict: Snorkeling is actually pretty cool.

We went to Hawaii a few years ago, and the snorkeling pretty much scared me to death. We were swimming above a reef that was like 4 feet underwater. When I stopped to breathe and dump water out of my mask, Kevin got after me for standing on the coral. But hello, it was impossible to NOT stand on it!

It was completely dark underneath the stupid coral, except that every once in a while, something would dart in or out of the holes. Well, I'm no dummy; I've seen those nature shows. That's where sharks, killer eels, and all sorts of stinging, poky, horrible fish live-- you know, the kind that looks like just a couple of bumps on the sand but turns out to be this huge thing lurking there under the sea floor.

After hyperventilating through that tiny tube for several minutes, I booked it back to shore, swimming as fast as I could. I stopped to look up, only to realize I'd been swimming along the shoreline instead of towards it.

And after that, I decided snorkeling was not really my thing.

But it turns out that snorkeling is Kevin's favorite thing to do in Hawaii. In fact, it's the only thing he really cares to do. And it's no fun going alone.

I'm such a good wife.

I psyched myself up this time. Fish aren't scary! The ocean is full of unknowns, but most of them are further out to sea. And I would probably see a shark in time to swim away. Hey, they're lies, but they made me feel better.

We did go snorkeling. The first time, I sat on the beach with Penny while Kevin went by himself.

But the next time, I actually did go. A-Ma stayed with the baby, and Kevin and his dad and I went out snorkeling. This time, instead of being over a reef, we snorkeled beside a big rocky outcropping. I made sure there was always someone (or several someones) between myself and the sharks, and I pretended not to hyperventilate. After these precautions, it was actually pretty fun! The sunlight was really beautiful on the yellow corals, and when they were not right in my face, the fish were pretty fun to watch! Some just lay on the ground, and some yellow stripy ones would swim up pretty close to me. I saw a couple large blowfish-- or I saw one large blowfish a couple times. We saw a shiny silvery eel. And there were a bunch of humuhumunukunukuapua'as . I'm glad I went.