Ending 2016 with a snorkel

It was appropriate that I end the year with a swim! But before I wax on about that, my brother, sis-in-law and nephew took a stroll by Kauai Marriott.  And because of my vast abilities with geography, of course, we got a bit lost.  But it all turned out well enough. LOL.

And as you might guess from the photo near the golf course, it did dump rain on us during the walk.  But we were prepared with umbrellas and a foul weather raincoat.  Which was waaay too big, since it belongs to my husband, who is about 6 inches taller than I.  Works for me.

If you look really hard, you can see the lighthouse on the left.  Quite nice scenery, with the rain out at sea.  And the light. Ah.

And the Marriott does a great job with their landscaping (even though signage is a bit lacking...but I blame only myself, really, for getting misplaced.)

And since my family is in better shape than I am, they became the adventurous trio who actually went down the muddy, slippery slope to get closer to the ocean. The good news is that allowed me to take their picture from above..

Upon returning home, they noted that it's cold there...haha. I invited them to live in Hawaii.  It does get cold here too, but cold here means you have to put on a sweater and swim with a wetsuit instead of just a dive skin.  Ah, the trials of paradise!








I'm calling this The Thinker:

So, on to the swim:

This was a male Trunk Fish.  Blue coloration. Showing off for the female, I guess.












I was surprised by a Scorpion Fish, fully out!  Normally, they try to hide a bit more:

Nice specimen, looking upside down here....probably about 6 inches long, all told.  But who can tell underwater measurements?  And you sure wouldn't find me with a ruler and getting close to this one. NAH!

I do admire them for being smart enough to hide: those shells would surely get picked.  Very shiny and pretty.

The Cowry family of shells can get quite large.  The one near my Keurig at home is larger than my closed fist. Quite impressive and the shell is thick and strong.







I spotted two young rock mover wrasse.  Not easy to get them in the same shot.

They were flipping and flying just to the left and below center of the photo. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

It intrigues me that they lose those two "antlers" when they get older.

And here's the brown version:

Maybe it's a male/female thing.  I shall have to look it up.  But who has the time?  This work is really cutting into my snorkel/reading/photographing time.  HA.

I think they're called Basket shells, but not sure.  OK, I'll admit, I'm here for the photography, not the info on the animals.  But I will work to find out for certain what this shell is.  After all, quite pretty.

And speaking of pretty, five Moorish Idols in one photo.  Yeah, God is good!
Not a bad end of 2016...but you may have noted the lack of octopus.  I was skunked!  But thankful for the beauty and safety anyway.  Perhaps the octopuses knew there were fireworks coming and they wanted no part of that.  If only they would talk with me! (And if you want to read a good book, Mark Batterson IF is a great choice.)
Have a wonderful safe healthy happy 2017! And thanks for reading.