On Not Finding Nemo

Everyone has their quirks, right? One of mine, unreasonable though it may be, is an inability to apply sunscreen by hand. (I hate the way it feels!) So, my mom and I left bright and early this morning for the drugstore in order to obtain some beautiful, beautiful continuous spray sunscreen. I discovered two things during this morning jaunt:

First, that there apparently exists a belief system by the name of anthroposophy.

Anthroposophy, according to Wikipedia, "postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual  world accessible to direct experience through inner development—more specifically through cultivating conscientiously a form of thinking independent of sensory experience." So basically they're all on drugs.

And second, that the mass transit here is actually officially named The Bus. Doug tells us that it was in fact one called De Bus, because that's how the majority of the population pronounces it. I've not yet searched for evidence supporting or debunking this claim, although I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it were true.

The taxis are also all called "The Cab." No, seriously.

Our trip of the day was to Hanauma Bay, which is by far the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life. It's home to a sprawling coral reef teeming with pretty underwater life, some of which I had the chance to meet during my first ever foray into snorkeling! It wasn't that bad after I figured out how to stop inhaling seawater with every breath, and I made a friend -- his name is Ted, and he is a gray fish with dark gray stripes. No matter where I swam, I also seemed to keep running into him ... although this may be because I was swimming in circles. Who knows.

Even my crappy photography skills cannot mask the utterly breathtaking beauty of this bay.

So much blue!

My mom also insisted on taking photos of me, despite my protests. I'm sharing one that conveniently does not show my face, just to emphasize how ridiculously pale I am -- even after a day in the sun.

How to tell she's not a Hawaiian native ...

 And here is one of my beautiful mother!

Only my mom can make mismatching look so damn good.

Afterward, we drove to Waikiki in a failed attempt to find the entrance to some state park or another. We ended up on the Madison Avenue of Oahu, and it was only after being flooded by a sea of tourists that I realized how few white people there are in Hawaii. Where I'm living, they've all got dark hair, warm skin tones, and squinty eyes. I feel so welcome!

Tomorrow is another beach day, and we get to go to a luau! I'm pretty sure it's sponsored by the military and my mom told the guy that we had a brother-in-law in the Marine Corps in order to get us in ... I wish I were kidding. But either way, I'm excited. A real luau yay!