We're a couple of misfits

This weekend, our friends generously offered to keep Isabella for the afternoon so that Tyler and I could enjoy a little time to ourselves before he leaves, for another week. We decided to branch out from our usual dinner/movie and instead, tossed a few towels and some snorkel gear in a bag and headed out on a beautiful and scenic drive to the famous North Shore of Oahu. We stopped along the way for shave ices in the historic downtown Helieva (pronounced: holly-va) We waited in line for at least 20 minutes at one of the more popular shave ice stands, it was well worth it! Tyler got the "surf special" flavor and I got a mixture of cherry, pineapple and blue Hawaii. Yummers! We left very happy and with very blue tongues. After our shave ices we ended up at one of the 6 most popular snorkel attractions in the world, Sharks Cove. (don't worry, there were no sharks, I balked too when I heard the name)

I'm not a very graceful person...I do not swim very well...and I'm freaked out of large fish, especially eels. However...my dear husband is in love with anything to do with water, so for him, and only him, I donned the hideous and unflattering snorkel mask, and I tried. I tried REALLY hard. I'm not going to lie, getting me out into the middle of the ocean, surrounded by nothing but lava rocks and local professional snorkelers, took a considerable amount of tugging, yelling, tossing of snorkel gear, one very volatile argument, and finally, a disgusted husband stomping through the water to go back to the car, meanwhile leaving me standing knee deep on a rock, in the middle of everybody, looking a little sheepish and clutching my gear for dear life. I was terrified to move one inch because there were sharp sea urchins EVERYWHERE and if you step on one...well you're going to the hospital. I'm trying really hard to forget that embarrassing moment...but I think I kept yelling "TYLER! there's SEA URCHINS!" ... or something to that effect. A young Hawaiian boy finally took pity on me, he told me how you can hold one in your hand and they won't hurt you, it's when you apply pressure to their spines...well, you get the picture. Anyways...after the show was over and people figured they could finally go back to their snorkeling, I decided I would give it a whirl...anything to get off that stupid rock.

Tyler later told me that when he was on his way back from the car all he could see were two very long, bony white legs flailing wildly in the air with arms flapping desperately to boot. He knew it was his wife. People kept their distance from us that day. I did see lots of beautiful fish though, and we ended up having a very enjoyable date after all...but I ruined my manicure and next time, we're going to a movie.