Good Afternoon all!! I am in great spirits today, it is sooo good to be home. For the last 11 days Jeffrey and I were fortunate enough to spend almost two weeks in paradise. His parents took us on a dream vacation to Maui!!! I experienced things I may never get to do again and I had the time of my life. I swam in the open ocean with a wild sea turtle and her pod, I just happen to be in the right place at the right time. It was my very first time snorkeling, it was so I could practice and get used to breathing without panicking before our big snorkeling excursion tour we pre paid for, a five hour trip. We decided to practice in the ocean on the beach in front of the hotel we were staying at for our first few days. I was so scared, but once I got in and got the hang of it Jeffrey couldn't get me out of the water for anything. About an hour in to it Jeffrey signaled me to look to my left while we were passing over a coral reef. To my surprise the biggest sea turtle I've ever seen was swimming right towards me! I decided to tag along and see where she was headed. I was swimming so close to her I actually skimmed her flipper a few times!! As we came around a slight curve ahead in the reef we came up on a giant pod of sea turtles eating lunch!!! It was the coolest thing I had ever seen up until the next day when we went on our snorkeling tour!! On the tour we were taken by sail boat to the island of Molakini which is a bird and fish preserve. The boat ties up to a floating anchor in the middle of the ocean a good swim away from the island. As I was about to jump off the boat in to the open ocean two of the biggest most colorful fish I'd ever seen swam right underneath me :shock: It took all my courage to jump in and go for it. It took us almost 35min to swim to the reef, the current was so strong. As we were swimming to the reef we saw so many amazing species of marine life. Things I've only seen on National Geographic programs, I even encountered a 4-5ft reef shark :shock: For whatever reason I didn't freak out over it, I was just so fascinated by it's beauty. Then we finally made it to the reef, OMG is the best way I can describe my reaction. I saw eels, sea urchin, an octopus, beautifully colored fish of all shapes and sizes. We saw this weird looking fish that seem to have an electric charge..it was weird and wild looking :lol: I have always been afraid of the ocean, but after this trip all I want to do is go back in and play all day!! I am soooo incredibly sun tanned and burned, it looks funny. The sun is so powerful there, even reapplying sun tan lotion alll day long won't save you from being destroyed by the sun. Oh we kept finding all sorts of awesome wild lizards too. Lizards and geckos I've never seen before, we had the best 11 days ever!!!
Even with all the fun and activities to keep busy by day 5 I was so homesick and missing my scaley children. Thankfully Michelle, aka Dooter, from this forum was amazing enough to baby sit all of our babies. They all love Auntie Michelle, especially PeeWee. He gets sooo excited when she comes to visit. Michelle's daughter drew a picture of PeeWee after holding him and falling in love with him, so we hung it on the front of his enclosure!!
Well I have soooo much more to write about and describe I will be back later with pictures and stories!!
-Kaleen
