Palau

Kristine and I had the most amazing trip to Palau for nearly two weeks in November.  It's hard for me to choose from the hundreds of photos I took. We went on two to three dives a day.  Although, now I'm spoiled with scuba and can NOT imagine shlepping my gear out to La Jolla cove ever again.  On Thanksgiving after an amazing day of diving in the rain the sky's cleared and we had a traditional turkey dinner on one of the little islands where Survivor Palau was filmed.  The diving was truly epic it surprises me how calm I felt diving with tons of sharks.  The reef looked like busy cities full of life and color and movement.  I really wanted to see Manta Rays and had missed them one day when Kristine and decided to go back to the resort for a couples message in the forest, which was awesome.  But the very last dive of the last day I finally got my wish.  It was an unsettling feeling in the middle of the deep with blue in every direction but then out of no where what looked like a giant, beautiful bird flapping it wings came gliding toward us.  A family of three swam, ate, and played around us for some time.  It was a highlight of the trip for me.  Another highlight was a delicious dinner we enjoyed at the home of the people who own the dive company who took us out.. the name is escaping me at the moment.  What I did not enjoy was the 24 hours of flights to get to our destination.  But it was well worth it.  Kristine and I were able to relax, laugh and reconnect which I see now is extremely important when you have young children.  And it was all possible because of the wonderful, capable, loving people we were able to leave our children with.  A HUGE thank you to Aunty Ken, Aunt Janet, Belly and my dad!!