Hi dolphins!

There's a statute of limitations when putting your significant other on blast:  it's one year.  You have to wait at least a year before telling an embarrassing story or one where they made you mad, or one where they tried to kill you.  Unless of course, it's really bad.  Then you have to take it to your grave.  But, this one isn't that bad.  Drew just tried to kill me, that's all.


If you remember, and I don't blame you if you don't, I alluded to it in the very last line of this post and the first part of this one.  And if you don't feel like reading those, and I don't blame you, I wrote about how we went snorkeling on our babymoon in Key West.  What I didn't talk about is when we went fishing.


Drew loves to fish and booked a fishing trip for us one morning.  I was about five months pregnant and very apprehensive about being on a boat in the first place, so when we went out to the dock and I saw that boat was about as big as my pinky finger, I got RILL nervous.  It was us, another guy and the captain.  I was NOT PLEASED.  But Drew loves to fish and I wanted to be a good sport.


However, when one is on a boat the size of one's pinky finger, every wave feels like a tsunami.  With every wave I was certain I was going to get thrown overboard - of course only me, because the one who dies is always the one who didn't want to get on the boat in the first place.


Drew and I were on a dinky bench with a dinky seatbelt and no mother-effin place to hang the F on.  And it took us FOREVER to get out to the fishing spot.  For Drew to catch TWO mother-effin fish.  I never got up from my seat and after we'd been out there for a couple of hours, we headed back and the waves were WORSE.


I was bouncing all around and I cried and cried, certain that the adrenaline coursing through my veins and the blood pumping through my system at a million miles an hour was akin to giving my poor daughter a shot of crack and I felt like the worst mother ever, like I wasn't protecting her and doing what I should to keep her from a stressful environment.  That was a terrible day and I was too upset to even be angry at Drew.  I was literally shaking from fear and adrenaline and I couldn't even speak to Drew for hours afterward.  Over two damn fish.  


He felt so bad that he arranged for a pedicure and massage for me within the hour.  


Of course, I forgave him and we moved on.  For dinner that night, the hotel cooked the fish he caught.  I was like, "How does your $400 fish taste?"

The fish that nearly cost me my life.

We hadn't been on a boat since and we don't speak of that day.


Well, that was over a year ago and we got a boat trip do-over in Hawaii!  I got tons pictures this time, because the last time I was too afraid to let go of my dinky seatbelt to snap photos.


THIS time, my baby was safely outside my body so I was all for it.  What made me nervous *this* time was getting a baby-sitter for my precious.  The Marriott had a company they worked with and I grilled the lady on the phone about the person they would be sending.  How long had she worked with them, was she infant CPR certified, who were her people.  And I told them I didn't want them sending anyone under the age of 30.  Maybe when Sofia is older, I'll let a teenager watch her, but not this day.


A kind-faced older lady showed up at six that morning, and I sat her down in our living room (!) and broke it down for her.


Please keep the sliding doors closed and locked at all times.
If you go swimming, stay in the baby pool only and please keep your hands on her at all times.
These are the foods she eats, I don't give her juice and her snacks are here.
This is the outfit you can put on her if she gets the one she's wearing dirty.


And lots and lots and LOTS of other instructions.


In the cab ride over, I was totally grilling Drew and praying to Jesus to watch over my baby  who was with a strange woman on a strange island as we go on a boat for an entire day and what the hell was I thinking?! Turn the car around, I'm a terrible mother!!


Drew talked me off the ledge, reminding me that we need time as husband and wife just as much as we do as a family.  He was right and as we pulled up to the marina, I said another prayer and made up my mind to have a good time.


This boat trip was on a nice big catamaran with lots of other people so I was instantly more at ease.

Here goes nothin'.

Getting ready to leave

We went on Captain Andy's Southern Star Na Pali Snorkel BBQ Sail and it was awesome!  We spent the whole day on the boat, they had breakfast rolls and coffee, tea and juice and his crew made us amazing juicy burgers for lunch.  The Na Pali coast is only accessible by boat or air and it was completely worth the trip!  It was a nice big boat so while we felt the waves, it was nowhere near intolerable.

But enough words, let's see some pictures!!

My hair was a hot mess and blowing in the wind but I went with it.

I told Drew, "Babe!  Take a picture of me being wild and free!"

He shook his head but he took it!  You'd think he'd be used to my dorkiness by now.

Trying to contain my hair so Drew didn't get a mouthful on the boat

This one cracks me up because I may be wild and free, but I will still hold on

with both hands.

Not a shark this time, but a bottle-nose dolphin!

I was ridiculously excited to see dolphins, and I am fully aware that I'm a giant dork.

We also saw their smaller cousins, Hawaiian spinner dolphins.

coming up for air

Then we arrived at the Na Pali coast.  Again, my dinky ass camera does nothing for how majestic, how breathtaking and how HUGE the coastline was.  The only thing I could do was feast my eyes on the beauty of it all and hug my husband and thank him for doing this for us.  

The only editing I did to these photos is use the 'I'm feeling lucky' tool in Picasa,

which took away a haze on the image.

Otherwise, the water is that blue, the algae or moss or grass or whatever it was

really is that green.  It was incredible.

an old waterfall

So beautiful, it didn't look real

To give an idea of scale, Drew said that boat was 20 feet long.

crazy-blue water

If you are strong enough to kayak up here, you can hang out on your

very own private beach.  Of course, it would take hours and hours to get up here.

Beautiful, powerful Mother Nature

Being wild and free, with my Longboard Hawaiian beer.

The captain stopped on the way back and let us jump off the boat into the ocean

a few times and since the dolphins were in the same area,

I'm saying I swam with dolphins.

Because I'm wild and free!

And I finally got Drew to be wild and free with me!

It was SUCH a good day and I'm so happy we did it!  We spent the entire day together, just us, hanging out in the ocean, snorkeling and having a wonderful time.  I'm so glad we got to have this do-over and it totally wipes away the Key West incident.

That's the other part of the statute of limitations:  If you get to have a do-over, the original incident is wiped from the record and is forever null and void, herewith, henceforth, heretofore and all the other legal terms I can't think of right now.

We made it back to the marina in one piece and the icing on the cake was coming home to my baby, who had a great day of her own.  She completely charmed the baby-sitter, who had fallen in love with her and wanted to take her home. (Easy chick.  The child is MINE.)

It was a once in a lifetime experience and I'm so blessed to have been able to do it.  And to think, our vacation was just starting!

No more cliffhangers, but lots more great pictures.  Come on back!  Please?