I grew up only ½ mile from the Pacific Ocean as a teenager. Many days instead of doing homework in the nice warm living room, I’d bicycle to an area south of the Huntington Beach (California) pier, climb a lifeguard tower, and read my books there. I loved being in that tower--a fine vantage point to seeing the wave sets, surfers, beachcombers, and shorebirds. Believe it or not, I got my homework done better there than at home, too.

Our high school offered snorkeling as a physical education class in summer school. I joined the Skin and Scuba Club back then. To this day, one of my favorite hobbies—which I hope to do more in the future—is snorkeling.

ADULT MEMORIES…………

The past few years, I’ve been blessed to enjoy snorkeling in some amazing places, like the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, and Hawaii.  I attended the Maui Writer’s retreat and convention last year. Each morning before attending writing classes, I snorkeled in the most amazing coral reef. You can read more about my adventure in Maui here: http://susanfriesen.blogspot.com/

Last Fall, I snorkeled in “Stingray City,” Grand Cayman. I pet and fed giant stingrays that weighed more than 200 lbs and watched a scuba diver feed a moray eel and a shark. I took my first photos using an underwater throwaway camera.

People tell me that if I like snorkeling, I’ll fall in love with scuba diving. Someday, I’d love to do that. My dream is to scuba in Belize, the Great Barrier Reef off Australia; and, locally in the ocean off Monterey and Big Sur, California. The older I get, though, the more I appreciate a warm, tropical sea, like in Hawaii. We were blessed to see many Hawaiian islands these past few years. In Kona, on the big island of Hawaii, I loved swimming so close to the endangered hawksbill turtle, I watched it eating moss off rocks. In Hanauma Bay, south of Honolulu, my husband needed to ask another swimmer to get me, as I was so engrossed in the snorkeling experience I lost track of time. I’d swum way out to sea. We could have missed our flight back to California. But, oh well? Marooned in balmy Hawaiian seas…a nice dream….  Aloha!  Susan

God article on snorkeling http://www.tomzap.com/snorkel.html