So it's been another week here on the island and I don't have a ton to report, but I thought I would share some pictures of my week. Thursday I went to paddling and we took the canoes out on the ocean! It was crazy! The paddling was fine but I found myself constantly tring to look back at the island or towards Ni'ihau and everytime I'd do that I'd end up spraing myself in the face with ocean water by my paddle. The real excitement came when we caught waves in our little boats and bringing them back in to land was difficult at best. My boat (which, might I add, was half full of beginners) headed back out to sea with the waves and the experienced paddlers got in the water and swam it up to the river mouth. A little embarassing. Still can't decide if I enjoy the sport yet or not; I think that races would be awesome but right now I'm just learning technique.

Saturday I woke up and headed to the beach to do a little snorkeling. I put on a picture of Po'ipu Beach Park, the center of tourism on the South Shore. It was about a 15 minute drive from my place. Snorkeling here wasn't bad--still no reefs though. Reefs are on the north shore. There are lava rock walls to explore here. I saw some different fish than I saw at Salt Pond but the real treat of the day was the Hawaiian Monk Seal that decided to take a nap on the shore. There are only 1400 of these seals left in the Hawaiian waters and this guy was just sunning himself, taking a nap. I sat and watched him a while as he rolled over and itched his face, oblivious to everyone snapping pictures of him.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty low key. Laundry, grocery shopping, reading, getting blinds put up in my apartment (yay!). The other photo is where the Waimea River meets the Pacific, also where I have paddling practice. Hope it's not too cold back on the mainland!