My buddy the ray.
I love the Caribbean. If God was Bob Ross, and he was finishing his work of art that is the planet earth, I picture him saying. “I’m going to add one more thing. Down here in this area of water, I’ll put some happy little islands.” Yes, the Caribbean islands were God’s exclamation point at the end of creation week. On a personal note, If God looks like Bob Ross, I’m going to be slightly disappointed….. Which is how I know that God doesn’t look like Bob Ross. Deep. I know.
This year we traveled to St. John in the US Virgin Islands. There isn’t much to do on St. John except spend lots of time in the water and relax. More than half of the island is designated National Park land. To me, this is perfect. I could spend every day of my life in the water.
One of my goals on this trip was to take my kids swimming with sea turtles. I knew that there was a bay on the island that would be particularly good for spotting turtles, and, since it was shallow, good for the kids too. On the afternoon of our second day of vacation we made our way there. Everybody put on their snorkel gear and out into the bay we went. Within ten minutes of being in the water we found two green sea turtles swimming together. This was the first time my five year old had seen a sea turtle, unless you count the ones in Finding Nemo. He paddled after them for about fifteen seconds, then surfaced and did the best series of fist pumps I have ever seen. He then demanded that I take his life jacket off so he could dive. I got it all on film.
My buddy the turtle.
The biggest turtle we found also happened to be the most relaxed turtle in the world. Nothing bothered him. My kids repeatedly dove down to where he was eating on the bottom of the bay. They touched his shell and swam all around him. At one point my youngest looked like he was bongo drumming on the poor guy. He didn’t let any thing we did interrupt his meal. I totally understood this. If I was at Margarita’s Mexican Restaurant and people were walking all around me, staring, and patting me on the head, it wouldn’t phase me at all. I love Mexican food that much. I guess this turtle just loved sea grass that much.
We followed the turtle around for about an hour. It was almost dusk. My wife, for whom every week is Shark Week, spotted a turtle that had a chunk bitten out of the left side of his shell. In two seconds she did the mental calculations for the size of the predator that had taken a bite of the turtle, and promptly ordered everyone onto the beach.
I love the underwater world. I love that my youngest son is only five and has swum with turtles, stingrays, barracuda, and tons of other sea creatures. I love that I’ve gotten most of it on film. It’s magic.
LINKS
- Some guys in Poland claim to have found the legendary Nazi gold train.
- The football team at Arkansas Tech lined up on the field in their first game with only ten players on defense to honor a team member who had died. For all you people who don’t watch football, there are normally eleven players on the field. Anyway, the resulting play in the Arkansas Tech game is pretty cool.
- Here is an article explaining where some of the weirdest town names in America came from.
- So. Some girls in Louisiana pulled a fast food worker out of the drive thru window by HER HAIR.
Leave a Reply