Friday, December 27th
If I were at home, the Christmas tree would be coming down today. But I'm not, so it won't. Because everyone has been going to bed quite early, most of us have also been waking up quite early. And when I say most of us, I mean everyone but Ethan. He is still baffled by our family and our inability to sleep in.
For the second morning in a row, Ashley accompanied Bill on his morning run. When they returned, Ashley vowed that this was the last run she would do with Dad. Seems Bill took her on a scenic route of Diamond Head which turned out farther than they both anticipated.
Today is snorkel/dive day. Ashley chose today's activity. The car from Waikiki Dive Company picked us up at our hotel lobby at 10:00 a.m. After climbing into our seats, my first thought was "I hope the boat is in much better condition than the van!" I was sitting behind the driver and I could see the road through cracks in the floorboard. We headed to the dive shop where everyone was fitted with their necessary gear. Ashley being the only certified diver, didn't' need much, as she brought most of her gear with her. Bill and I were only going to snorkel, so we had our gear as well. Patrick and Ethan needed to be fitted with everything and everything had to be "big"
There were a total of ten passengers assigned to our boat "The Scooby Five". We were left to ponder what happened to the previous four Scoobies." Four of the divers consisted of a mom and three older sons from Utah, and an older gentleman named Dave, from Arizona. Our crew consisted of Captain Nick, and diving instructors Marco and Gracie. You can probably guess from the pictures which is Marco and which is Gracie.
After all the divers were in the water, Bill jumped in for his snorkel. I stayed on the boat a little longer to get some pictures. By the time I was thinking of heading into the water, Bill was coming back out. Seems there wasn't a lot to see this far out, if you were just snorkeling; So I stayed dry and warm on the boat. Bill and Nick shared a toast with tequila (Bill and his stash) and I just enjoyed the view.
Time stand still when you are in paradise, but before we knew it the divers had returned from their second dive. Turtles, octopus, eels, sharks and a variety of fish had all been spotted, thus making it a successful dive for all.
As the divers shed their gear , Captain Nick approached me with a mission. "Should I choose to accept it, I would be rewarded with some t-shirts." I was given a sea urchin "body-shell" that Marco had found. Basically it is a thin shell looking thing, and it is very fragile. My task is to get this item back home in one piece, take a picture of it, put it on their Facebook page and Captain Nick will send us our reward. He said this mission has only been completed successfully twice before. I accepted the challenge.
We headed back to shore, unloaded the boat, and Gracie dropped us off at our hotel. We quickly cleaned up and headed out for dinner. Our destination tonight was Jimmy Buffetts. Our goal , to see if Patrick could get a margaritas without being asked for I.D. Joe, our waiter, never blinked an eye, hence the smile on Patrick's face. We were all petty hungry when we left for dinner, but the four of us ended up taking food home in doggy bags, as the portions were huge.
Our next stop was the International Marketplace. It had been brought tour attention earlier in the day, that the market is closing down as of January 1st. It is being replaced with new hotels. It's sad to see such an iconic part of Honolulu being destroyed. Hopefully we will get a little more time to go through it again before January 1st.
Thanks to our phone communication, we all found each other at the end of the shopping (the Market Place is big and very maze like) and headed back to our hotel for another early evening.
Ahhh, this is the life.
Stacey
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