Day 7 and 8 - July 3rd and 4th

These last two days were pretty relaxing here in Hawaii. They were the first two days that I didn't get into the ocean and actually on Monday I didn't even get wet! (kinda made me sad, but not too much). On Monday, I went with intern Heather down to the Sheraton for the intro to SCUBA lessons. Like the last time I had gone we had one group right when we got there then nothing the rest of the morning. (We do the lessons from about 10am- 2pm) So I got a good chance to read the Enriched Air Nitrox book for my certification.

That certification will involve two dives on enriched air and will enable me to rent and use enriched air whenever I want to from then on. Its pretty cool because it can extend your dive time allowing you more enjoyment under the water, without worrying about decompression illness because you are taking in less nitrogen. Of course if you don't follow the rules it can lead to oxygen toxicity from too much oxygen which is probably worse that DCI (Decompression Illness) cause you can easily drown from it. (don't worry Jim is a good instructor and I will be very careful!)

That night I went back to the Sheraton for the Manta talk. This is the other part of the night dive at that site, we give a talk about the Manta Rays to the people who are gathering on the viewing deck to see them. Its pretty cool and I'm quickly learning a TON about the Mantas.

On Tuesday I went back to the Sheraton with Ryan (Intern Coordinator of sorts - she was intern two years ago, now works with Martina and Jim). We had a much busier day, and a sad event for Martina (Germany lost to Italy - Martina is German).

That evening, being the 4th and all, all the interns had off (or as Nicole, the newest intern - from Switzerland - said, it was the American's night off). So we all headed down to Huggo's On the Rocks for dinner, drinks and fireworks.

At Huggo's there was also live entertainment, so we had some enjoyable Hawaiian music with Hula dancers at sunset before the fireworks.

It was a fun night, and the fireworks were awesome: Picture this, you are sitting at a table, 10 feet from the ocean, enjoying a Mai Tai, and there is a large barge about 200 yards away from you on the ocean and that is where the fireworks went off from. It was a great show with a huge finale. (That and I had marvelously delicious MahiMahi Tacos for dinner) yum.



(From left to right: Heather, Richard, Jake (who doesn't like taking pictures), Me, Ryan)