It’s what you would call a kid dropping his ice cream cone on the sidewalk- plain said. That’s what I’ve been feeling all day today…the day after returning from Hawaii. Jonathan and I had the best time we’ve ever had doing nothing. Because a whole lot of nothing adds up to one big something. It’s called relaxation. And we did it proud.
I say we did nothing, but what I mean is that we did nothing that we had to do; nothing that we needed to do; nothing that we didn’t want to do.
Instead of going through the rigmarole of describing how clear the water was, talking about how sweet the fruity air smelled, or how warm the sun felt on my skin, I’m just going to cut to one of my favorite parts.
Jonathan and I were on a scuba dive boat in the middle of the Pacific. With the dive team submerged, it meant it was time for me (the only non-diver) to de-fog my mask, adjust my non-maternity swimsuit around my largely pregnant body and fit my slightly burnt feet into long slippery fins. This was the spot they had been talking about all morning; the spot where the waves were calm and the algae was plenty. I adjusted the mask suctioned to my forehead, took one step off the edge of the boat and one splash into Turtle Valley.
With 120-foot visibility, I thought I could see for miles underwater. I hovered at the top of the group of divers, playing in their rising air bubbles and adjusted my eyes to what looked like large round picnic tables floating around the sea bed. Turtles! Jonathan turned over and waved up to me: his round-bellied, somewhat more buoyant wife floating on the surface. He swam under one of the turtles forcing him to swim upward. George (that’s what I named my turtle) rose quietly to the surface and hovered right next to me. My face stared at his face 4 feet away. Such gorgeous green and white marbled skin he had. Such large, black eyes! He stretched his long rubbery neck out of the water for some air, turned and looked right at me, sucked in his hind legs and turned his large shell for a slow dive back into the deep water. It makes me smile just thinking about our encounter. Me and George. George and me. I’ll never forget our brief love affair.
What a fabulous week we had! I can’t wait to go back again (with a baby) in May for Megan & Matt’s wedding. Well, that….and to see George again. Here are the pics!
