Cathy - Official Dive Student

Sunday afternoon Harry and I took Cathy out for her first two open water dives. In spite of some waves and current, Cathy was confident underwater, and seemed to enjoy her two dives quite a bit. I enjoyed them, too. But then I always enjoy diving with turtles and friends. : ) The above picture is Harry working with Cathy on some dive skills.
And here's Cathy off on her first turtle swim!
The turtle decided to surface, but I still thought this was a good photo.
Cathy, official underwater mermaid.
Cathy and Harry after two successful OW skills dives.
Who is this mystery man? And just in time for Chinese New Year.

New Camera

I thought I'd post a few photos I took last weekend, with my new camera. I'm definitely liking the new camera, but I have to learn a bit about using this one. It has a slower response time, so I missed the octupus. But I did ok with the turtles.
Isn't this a cute turtle pose? Chris is enjoying the turtle show, too.
Harry was trying to follow an octupus and almost set his hand on this guy. I pushed his arm away from it.
And this cute little eel was just posing for us on the coral. Good dive day! And fun new camera day!

Life, Wedding and the Boy Cats

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of attending a wedding for fellow diver, Dave Johansen. This is Dave and his lovely bride with the minister on the beach at PIC. It was a lovely little ceremony. True to island form, the maid of honor showed up after the ceremony was done - ha. Island time.
This is the new Mrs. Johansen, in her very lovely Thai wedding gown. They had a very nice wedding reception at Charlie's in PIC.
I just realized right after I mentioned Charlie's in PIC, that this next photo is of our Charlie. Made me laugh. Nope, the reception wasn't at his place. He's not that social.
I posted the picture of Charlie for Sarah. I figured she might be missing the boy cats a little. But I'm posting this picture of Alex for Josh. I was talking to him, so he's working his claws all happy on his towel on the table. Yep, the good ole boy is looking a bit old. He still gets a lot of love and attention at home.
I may have mentioned this before, but we went to the Hyatt for Christmas brunch after our Christmas eagle ray dive. Edz and Angelo joined us. I thought I'd post this picture as a HI and we miss you - from Mom and Dad.
These next two photos are just for the sheer enjoyment of it. Both are Hyatt sunsets. It's hard to beat the great beauty of island sunsets.

Happy Winter

This is a picture of where we used to live. Literally, this is the road we used to live on in Michigan (picture from this week).
This is where we live now.

Random Holiday Photos

I got so many nice photos over the holidays that I decided to just pick a few random shots that made me smile. The one below was a red fish sitting inside the soft coral at the pipe. It was just so pretty. Yeah, I should have used my macro and flash, but I still like the picture.
These two headed straight for each other, bonked heads, then went on their separate ways.

This little starfish caught my eye. Cute blue tips, very pretty.
We saw a sea slug near the rope. It looks like someone left a message on him since he was all covered in sand. We were guessing - "wash me" or maybe "happy new year".
Lisa and Harry are finishing up some surface skills at the buoy.
And here's the happy OW Grad! Congrats Lisa! (above) In the photos below, are Josh, Regis, Sarah and Chris. I missed them all very much over the holidays. But they called and shared their adventures, and sent me some pictures. Thanks, Sarah. I love you guys and miss you so much.

Dive students and fun dives

Harry and I spent the weekend diving with one of Harry's students, Lisa, who is working on her Open Water certification, and her husband, Scott. At the beginning of the dives, Lisa and Harry would work on the OW skills, while Scott and I hovered nearby checking out the lion fish and other things we could find to take photos of. In the picture below, Harry is shaking Lisa's hand, congratulating her on completing the skill successfully. Lisa is checking out her compass for her surface navigation dive. Here's Scott, enjoying his underwater time. The underwater fun truly picks up when you get to share it with turtles. Such a pretty green turtle. And here I am, thankful for my new BDC and camera. The new camera definitely works better than my old one. Here's the group, exiting the dive site, and discussing the skills and whether or not to do another OW dive that day. It was such a beautiful day, and such calm waters, we all opted for two dives. Scott is a Navy pilot. He and Lisa are stationed in Japan. I think they've been enjoying their Saipan vacation so far.