She Swims with Sea Turtles

     Today was an amazing day!  We started with a snorkel just off our condo's beach.  The older boys and Mike checked it out earlier in the week and insisted we all go.  I'm so glad we did!  We swam with dozens of sea turtles and lots of other cool fish.  The turtles love the coral reef area near our condo.  They sink to the bottom of the reef, find a place to hunker down and chill, and then they float up to the surface of the water for a couple of gulps of air.  Spotting them in the reef can be tough at times, but when one heads to the surface, it's amazing.  I tried to get a couple of pictures, but my camera is tricky to work underwater, so I found myself just trying to enjoy the scene and not worry about documenting it.  We did see a rather large fella swim up by the shore later in the day, so I got a picture of him.

     After snorkeling, we took a bit of time to celebrate Livy.  She got to turn 14 in Hawaiian paradise!  She woke up to a decorated condo, opened presents, swam with sea turtles, and ate a huge Hawaiian shaved ice.  Up later tonight is a surf and turf dinner with the entire Deppe family at sunset.  Not to shabby for a birthday if I do say so myself.
     We spent the afternoon at Napili Bay.  The boys snorkeled just a bit more around the rocks of the bay spotting more turtles and a lot of cool fish.  We all floated in the easy waves and played around at this sweet little beach.  I made sure to get some sand there too because it was the lightest color we've seen so far.  

     Oh...I forgot to tell about our dinner last night.  We ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise, but not the Jimmy Buffet chain restaurant.  It was right on the water, had cool live music, and pretty great drinks and food.  After dinner, we walked along Front Street and stopped in a couple of shops and local art galleries.  We ended at the docks which are also home to one of the oldest banyan tree in the US.  It was an awesome sight!

    










      Now, I need to get ready for dinner.  We're grilling steak and shrimp and taking a Deppe family photo in shirts I designed for this 50th anniversary trip.  Stay tuned for pictures of that fun later!