great barrier reef

may 13, 2008
airlie cove resort
9:30 PM
almost as exciting as 63 days!

clad in my swimmers and jacket, i felt excited and ready for our day of snorkeling on the great barrier reef! one of my most highly anticipated days of the trip was finally here!!

our boat ride to the reef was longer than i was expecting, but i soon found myself learning to play texas hold-em from carl, along with tyler, amanda, sean and reneca. i helped tear one of the instructional papers (regarding snorkeling) into "money" for our game. lots of fun! we were served morning tea on the boat. carl, sean and i experienced the wind and the water of the ride by going up on deck and sticking our faces against the side of the boat even when the waves came. carl seemed so happy to be drenched; almost as happy as he was to play a balancing game on the rocking boat. but i think his favorite was setting the camera on the floor on the rocking boat, setting it on timer and having the three of us crouch on the ground to be in view. our first attempt was an excellent shot of the ground since the boat tipped, but the second he was quite satisfied with and proudly showed anyone who would look.

snorkeling was better than words. i loved my experience in hanauma bay, but this was awesome! carl and i went almost instantly after getting on the floating "reef world" and were soon joined by jon, who became my snorkeling buddy later in the day too. each time my face went under the water and i got to see the hidden marvels of God's creation in radiant colors, shapes and sizes, i was amazed. i think i felt a little like tyler-"i can die happy now."

i enjoyed the submarine ride with jim, but preferred my 2 and 1/2 hours in the water, able to fully experience the great barrier reef. aside from lunch, we also had afternoon tea on the ride hom. i had a nap which was probably needed after my long swim....or as a side effect from the motion sickness medication. unfortunately this event was captured by chris' camera, being added to the trip's sleeping pictures.

"thank you for choosing this vessel..."
"lunch will be served on this vessel..."
"toilets are available on this vessel..."

"we're not even friends." -carl's response to the photographer who asked if we were a couple as she snapped our photo-this was partly in response to my request to be his facebook friend. he's still thinking about if he wants to be friends with me. =)

night two of toasted sandwiches with amy was a welcome dinner. a trip to town for e-mail and ice cream turned out to be more challenging than the previous night, as joel + meagan looked at the wrong schedule to get to town and i looked at the wrong time to get back. lots of waiting-but at least on the return trip as we waited, we bumped into carl who had several cute kids in tow since he had just finished dinner with his friend + his family. he came and teased/talk with us while we waited...and then he was off to beaches for a drink (no driving for him tomorrow) while we were off to find our pillows and beds.

sailing and more snorkeling tomorrow!