Getting in the swim!

In honor of Tugster Will's Swim Day on the Net, I would like to share a few pictures from one of my favorite swimmin' holes in the whole wide world.

Ladies and gentlemen, Hanauma Bay:

Me, possibly even happier than I get in a kayak or a sailboat. I LOVE snorkeling, and TQ was the one who took my picture. What's better than snorkeling in Hanauma Bay? Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay with him. I honestly don't know if I ever would've taken up paddling if I'd ended up back in Hawaii - kayaking was a means to an end for me, and the end was just plain being on the water.

Uhu, or parrotfish. This one is having lunch. They're called parrotfish both because of their beautiful coloration and because their teeth are fused into a hard beak, with which they literally chew on coral. The coral polyps are digested; the ground-up coral goes through the fish and comes out as sand.

A fish of many names - people call it trevally, crevalle, but in Hawaii, it's the ulua.

A pair of Achilles' tang (orange spot by the tail), a couple of butterflyfish (ornate, I think) and I think that's a filefish that's alone & behind one of the tang.

I'd actually planned to share the story of how getting competitive with a squad of Marines at one of the on-base pool finally cured me of my attachment to my "bubble" swimming aid, way way back in "small-kid time", but it was yet another long long long day at work & I got home pooped & still needing to pack (heading off to see TQ for the holiday weekend). I hope this glimpse of one of my favorite places in the world to swim will suffice!