Scuba Diving!!

Chris and I recently got scuba certified... meaning that we can rent gear and scuba dive on our own anywhere in the world. I'll be honest... I hated the training. The scuba diving is fine in itself, but they made you practice all these "skills"... I was okay in the pool, but when we moved to the bottom of the ocean to do them, some of them freaked me out! Anyways, I made it (alive!) and here's a pic of me and Chris with our 500lb. gear on (it seriously feels like it weighs that much... I have to carry mine like a hunch-back...)

Our neighbors here are HUGE scuba divers, so we decided to go out with them last Saturday morning... they took us to one of their favorite spots here - Toilet Bowl. We saw lots of cool stuff, starting with the blowfish that Chris found... when you grab its tail, it puffs up!

We also saw lots of beautiful fish ...

Unfortunately, the underwater camera isn't ours... but our neighbors took some really cool pics for us... Then all the excitement began! Our neighbor Scott, found an octopus and pulled it out of its cave... it started inking everywhere to try to get away. We took our gloves off to feel it... its skin is super velvety...

Here's a short video of us holding it...

Chris and I could only do the first dive with our neighbors... Chris's squadron has a rule about there being 24 hours between scuba diving and flying (because of the differences in pressure)... But, on their second dive, Scott found another octopus, but this one was much bigger. He actually got into a "fight" with it, and it tried to pull off his regulator and mask, so he had to let go! Watch how it changes colors! (And dont' worry mom... I will never try to do this!!)