Okay, the title of this post was a bit of a teaser since I can't actually show you photos of all the wonderful things we saw while diving, but trust me, they were wonderful. Thane and I had Sven as a guide all to ourselves, and he found myriad wonderful beasties of the sea for us to feast our eyes upon, all within 60 feet of water. We saw an octopus hiding under a rock and watching us with its big eyes, a white-mouthed moray eel that undulated for our viewing pleasure, crown of thorns sea stars which are green with poisonous black spines, a spiny sea cucumber, and uncountable numbers of fish, some of which I hadn't seen before. The highlight was peering into a cave where two white-tipped reef sharks were resting for the day.
While Thane and I poked around the coral reefs (wire coral was new to me, as well as a gold-colored one that reminded me of small cup fungus) and lava-tube arches with Sven, Rowan continued her dive certification course. She's doing great; her instructor, Erin, said she's quite ladylike under water. I suspect family dive vacations will be in our future. Maybe Seward next month....
Her classmates are Oceana and Sonne, ages 12 and 11, as well as an adult, Monica. Rowan's bonded with the other girls, both of whom are from Anchorage, believe it or not. Here they are eating lunch between the two dives. The second photo is Rowan getting ready for her first leap into the big, bad ocean.
I'm off to bed now. A day of diving is exhausting, and we have another one tomorrow. I know, poor us!
