Ulua Beach.

P is not a grand gesture type of guy, but every now and then he does something seemingly small, that is rather thoughtful and very much appreciated. I had read about child friendly beaches in order to assure SS a great first experience in her Pacific Ocean debut. My first choice was Baby Beach but P nixed my idea. He insisted that SS's first Maui beach be Ulua Beach, where I learned to dive 8 years ago. P was SCUBA certified in freaking Northern California. He was stuck at a pool at Humboldt State University, then did his dives in Mendocino County. It was dark and cold. Dude recalls not being able to see his hands a lot of the time.

P wanted me to become certified but I am not a very strong swimmer and the heck if I was going to dive in Mendocino and become a frozen mess. P and Grandpa set out to make my diving experience special and it was. We used Maui Dreams and Tom was everything I could have wished for as an instructor. It was just Tom and I and he actually skipped my initial water safety exercises because he would not let go of me while he anchored the dive flag. My above water performance was so atrocious that Tom would not let go of me. Then once we were underwater a completely different side of me emerged. I no longer worried about drowning, I was in awe of my surroundings. Tom later got such a kick out of me yelling "Fishies" through my breathing apparatus. P snorkeled above us and just watched me do something completely out of character. It was really an awesome, almost magical experience.

Now here we are 8 years later and I get to share something so special with my daughter, and also with my son next week. A lot of people save their money for fancy dinners and fruity drinks. We bought Mahi Mahi, which P expertly grilled, and made our own fruity drinks. We are saving our money to make sure JJ and SS have the best possible time here. P is thinking about getting JJ to do an introductory dive and see how he likes it. That and we need to get him a snorkel set. P said it best, he does not care for his kids' mouths being in rented equipment where other mouths have been. Boy, that statement while true, is also all kinds of wrong. SS has her own mask and snorkel but her face is so tiny that it might not work well.

I have some video to upload but it is taking forever, will post later. In the meantime, we will make people nauseous with more pictures of our daughter than necessary.

Brenda, we are house sitting for Grandpa for a few days. He is on a cruise and arrives Saturday morning. He will probably not recognize his home since SS has done an outstanding job of colonizing this place. From leaving her belongings all over the place, to sleeping in Grandpa's bed, to terrorizing poor Fergie, Grandpa's 14-year old cat. The Chinese knew darn well what they were doing when they matched us with SS, and also managed to unload such an amazing weapon of mass destruction.