Mike Finds a New Hobby

Even though it was a Holiday weekend, Mike still had to work all weekend long...on mid-shift (11pm-7am). But he really wanted to get out and go swimming with our fish of a baby. So, on Saturday he sucked it up and instead of sleeping, he joined us for a day at the beach. He paid for it on Sunday, because he was very tired, but he said he had so much fun and it was worth it. We went with Gabe and his family. They took us to Maeda Flats, a secluded beach area that usually doesn't have a lot of people around, except surfers and divers. When we got there it was low tide. But that was nice because it gave us a little swimming hole without waves. And we got to see all the neat ocean life.
Take a look at what the surroundings look like:


I love this, you can see all the coral at the bottom...we had to wear our water shoes:


Here, I am around the back of those big coral reefs, looking up at the beach where we were set up:


Looking out:

This one is nice too:

Beach area, tide started coming in:

So, you might be wondering what Mike's new hobby is? Snorkeling! We took turns using our friend's snorkel gear. They took us out into the caves and showed us life under water. See the middle coral structure in the above picture? That is one of the caves we went through. Mike loved it! He said it was the most fun he has had here yet, and can't wait to buy his own gear, flippers and all. I was a little nervous at first. It took me a while to get used to breathing through my mouth and not being able to touch. Well, OK, I freaked out once, and had to grab a hold of the cave walls. But in the end, once I relaxed, I ended up enjoying myself. We don't have an underwater camera (yet), but since the tide was low and the water was so clear, I was able to take pictures outside the water of some of the stuff we saw. Take a look...

Do you see them? Pretty blue fish!

Ok, I don't know who this boy is, but he is holding Sea Cucumbers. Ewwww:

Up close and personal with Sea Cucumbers. When you get too close or upset them they will spit out white stuff. They are like giant slugs of the ocean. We had to promise Mike that they were not snakes:

Up close and personal with a Sea Urchin. Don't touch!

Cool Coral:

Here are the blue fish again. And there are some other fish too. Do you see the one thing trying to blend in with the rock?

Cool fish hanging out:

A really big sea urchin, living under a really big piece of coral:

Sea urchin with the tide out:

Blue starfish!

I was excited to see him. Gabe's sister found him. Don't worry, we put him back in the water so he wouldn't dry out:

And finally, here are some pictures of us having a great time.

Mommy and Olivia swimming with Gabe and his Mommy:


Olivia and Daddy - She loves her little float!

Nothing better than Cheerios at the beach:

"What did you say?" Look at her curls! They really came out with the beach weather:

"This is the life..."