Yes, it's only Tuesday!

Yes, I know, thank you, that it's not the weekend.  So it's unusual for me to post. But we will be having a visit with family for the next few days, so I wanted to have my #1 camera be totally empty and ready for cool photos. So here are some of the flowers, clouds and palm trees for ya...I should call it "For Perry and Barbara" since they like the scenic shots best. Here you go:

This is the massive tree at the entry to our place. I think they are pretty amazing, because of the complex trunk system.

The pretty pink flowers near our house. You'd think that I would have looked them up by now. But no, I have no flower i.d. books..yup, I'm a slacker!

 Clouds. With just a hint of pink.

 And two surprise flowers on my walk. Who besides God would design something like that?!

More clouds. 

 Is it just me that thinks they are so pretty?

Enjoy your day. Smooch your family!

OK, now for the underwater adventures!

We start right off with a juvenile Rock Mover Wrasse.  To some, it might be an Eagle Eye Challenge.  Love these little fish!

And I should have placed this seal shot first, but oh well....it was snoozing quite far up on the beach, so it almost looks like it was planning to hop into the boat tied up nearby. (I did hear of a seal that hopped aboard a boat, but it was running from a shark. Certainly can't blame it for that!)

This is a Turban shell I collected years ago. This is the shell that creates the operculum that I collect.  I think the shells are very pretty and I usually do not collect them because I can't be sure they are not in use...there's the little area on the other end from the hole in which the animal or a crab could hide. I'm not killing animals just to collect. 

This lizard ran from us as we went out today. And then perched on the railing to see what our next move would be...what a long tail.

 I was gonna call this one Palm Trees, but I'll call it clouds.

THIS one I'll call Palm Trees.  ha

Snowflake moray eel.  I usually can't catch a shot of the whole animal, but this one was very obliging. Not that it knew it was helping me.

There's a tiny fish in the hole in the top of this coral head. Please click on the photo.  It will also help you see the coral and its tiny "flowers." I try to check this Coral head often, as an octopus once lived in there...but now I think it's mostly a big crab that inhabits it.

The Brighteye Damsel fish just outside the hole with the octopus. (Which you can see if you try: inside the hole and below the fish..)

This was the only octopus I saw today. Not complaining! Any day with an octopus is a good day. (Close your eyes and ears, Barbara and Perry!)

 The octo-eye in the photo below is just above that gray rock.

 Trunk or Box fish butt.  Always with the running away...

Smallish Urchin. I love that they collect stuff for protection or camouflage. It does work: sometimes they have so much around them, I can't tell there's an Urchin there. (I do believe it's called a Collector Urchin.)

 For some reason, these yellow rocks fascinate me. I've got a whole collection of pix.

Eagle Eye Challenge. There's a Juvenile Rock Mover wrasse in this photo. No, not kidding.

And the bigger version:

A REALLY skinny cornet fish. Smaller in diameter than a pencil.

A series of Picasso Trigger (Humu) fish. This one was about 2 inches long. Gotta love that! But still very feisty. This one tried to dart into a hole. Not sure if the hole was too small, but it backed right back out.

Love the colors and patterns.

 And more colors: Christmas Wrasse:

Another Cornet Fish:

Lots of pretty today and a fair and a corn dog. What more could a girl want?

No wonder he wanted to sit down!

So today, in addition to wonderful snorkeling, I was able to attend the Kauai Fair with my sweetheart and good friend. Turns out there were also animals, including a big cow...who looked somewhat tired, but was probably just enervated from the heat:

He was so big, I couldn't even crop the photo! (Maybe it's a she...now that I think about it.) Anyway, there were all the normal fair animals:

Bunny. 

Little lamb who made thee? I tell you, if this animal looked at me like that, I could never use it for dinner...

I'm thinking it's a goat. But remember, not a farm girl!

 Piggie. Snoozing. Looks kinda like it's in jail.

I gotta say, I wasn't raised on a farm, and it would be REALLY hard to eat any of these animals, had I been living with them. Yeah, I'm a softie. There was a petting area too, but they charged you 2 extra dollars! So we just looked. And as I'm typing that, I'm thinking: If I'm allergic to dogs and cats, wonder how I'd do in a petting zoo??!!

 I had to crop out the little girl's face, but I felt kinda sorry for the duck! She was grabbing it kinda hard, but it wasn't squawking, so I guess it was all good. Little girl looked like she really wanted to take it home...

There wasn't a wagging pig tail in the whole place, but this little snoozer was sure cute. I wonder if it is an Old Spot?

Many folks are not familiar with the Rabids cartoon, but here is the stuffed animal.  If you haven't seen the cartoon, go on youtube and look it up. I think it's French, but there's no dialog, so that won't matter.  It's so odd that it's funny...

The Ferris Wheel on which we didn't go...long story.

 This one I call Cilantro and Corn Dog.....we HAD to have a corn dog. After all, it was a fair.  And my sweetheart was not only wearing his ZOMBIES LOVE BRAINS...EVEN SMALL ONES LIKE YOURS (ha) t-shirt, but he was helping hold my new Cilantro plants. Only 50 cents each. What a deal! Corn Dogs were good too.  Good thing we don't go to fairs very often. And good thing he was wearing his HERE I AM purple shirt. He wears it so I can find him in a crowd. Thanks, Alex!

 Lovely orchids.  Very tempting (and pretty expensive.)

An orchid face...

We had fun.  Perhaps I'll do another post with the watery adventures.  So I'll finish with one from my friend's yard:

Gosh, is that too pretty or what? Click on the photo: it has really amazing structures and colors....Can you imagine trying to create all this diversity? I mean, just all the different flowers blows my mind!

A new puffer, the bat ray was back and 3 octopuses!!!

You couldn't know this, but today I'm writing while listening to Gregory Isaacs! Night Nurse. HA. "Tell her it's a case of emergency..." :) Gotta love it.
So today there were 3 octopuses. And a bat ray. And a flounder. Plenty of juvenile and therefore small fishes.  And a new puffer: the Guineafowl puffer!

These fish get pretty big...no toby size for them. They also have a mean set of teeth (or in this case, I think, big plates of teeth) so they can put some serious hurt on ya. 

 This is the juvenile of the Yellow Tail Coris.  I don't usually catch them from above, so I'm including the photo, so you can see their cool white dots.

 Octopus #1.  The other two weren't as able to be photographed...if you have trouble seeing it, look down and to the left of the two white rocks. My pals Perry and Barbara claim that they don't think octopuses are pretty.....I in a way have to agree, but no other "fish" in the sea is as interesting.  Just sayin'!

Red Pencils.  These are the ones that are mashed between two coral/rocky bits.

 Juvenile Rock Mover. There's another one in a minute...of a different color.

More pencils

 This is the amazing double yoked egg fish. Nah.  I bought a dozen Jumbo eggs and apparently they are more likely to have double yolks.  Two so far..

Tree at our apartment complex, with pretty sky.

 I call it Lava Clouds. This morning on our walk, we had a fab sky..

 And fab flowers too!

The happening thing in plants: the Breadfruit! I love many things about these plants, but mostly, they are being sent all over the world to help stave off hunger. (If you want to know more, look at ntbg.org)

 Box fish.  So cute.

Too bad the bat ray was so far away.  I don't know much about these animals, so I don't swim close. They are pretty impressive with those big wings.

 Box fish...they are all over! and they always flee. 

Leaf Fish #1.  I like the patterns on their tails.  And keep watching..there's another one later.  They put their fins on the surrounding rocks to stay in place.

 See the Flounder? Camouflage almost as good as the octopuses...

 Flounder eyes:

 Speaking of eyes, the Brighteye Chromis.  LOVE these fish. So quick and also pretty.

 I didn't realize this shell was even there until I got the pix home.  This one is partially open.  I do not know how they get their food....

Christmas Wrasse. By the way, only 4 months until Christmas. Sorry! Some folks resist thinking about it this early...

Poor Snowflake Moray was trying to get away from the Saddle Wrasse. Not sure why the wrasse was so interested.  Perhaps hoping for some portion of any food it found. 

This is the king of shells to me, because it is the shell which produces the operculum. I have been thinking that when I find an operculum, it means the shell has been eaten.  But today it occurred to me to wonder if the operculum can grow while still in the shell.  Or maybe the shell grows a new bigger opercul um when the shell itself grows?  I'm being hopeful here.  I hate to think each operculum means a shell was sacrificed.

 Picasso trigger.  MAYBE 2 inches long, tip to tail. So adorable.

Here's Leaf Fish #2.  Click on the photo to see the textures and also the eyes. Pretty cool: very Scorpion Fish-like...same family.

 You can see the legs that it uses to rest on the surrounding rocks.

 Here's the other Juvenile Rock Mover Wrasse.  Different color! I'm not at all sure why one would be a different color.  Maybe it can change depending on its surrounding seaweed?

This small Bluefin Trevally was following too close to the goat fish.  Again, I think hoping for some of its food, should any escape the goat fish jaws.

 Surprise of the day: A red tailed Tropic Bird!!! Woohoo!

 And at the other end of the speed scale, the sleeping Monk Seal. The most they do is scratch and wiggle up the beach. Or talk to a pal, of which there were none today.

Sorry Perry and Barbara, but there were more octopus! :)

The Saddle Wrasse was interested again. Really no clue why in this case. Probably, like me, it saw movement and came over...

A very enjoyable swim. After a week of fruitful week.  I'm thankful!