We always get good tips from hospital staff and patients. John really loves talking with patients; he's very good at making them feel comfortable. Over the years he has been asked to shake the hand of someone, then was told he had just "shaken the hand of someone who had shaken the hand of Abraham Lincoln." (Is it possible? Is it true? Oh, why not just believe it!) John has been told about good restaurants, good shops, good places to have fun, places only locals know about... And so that was our starting place in Kauai.
John was told that the best place in Kauai for a first swim in the ocean is Lydgate Park. It is in the ocean, but it is totally surrounded by giant boulders that act as breakwater and a barrier from scary sea creatures like shark and octopus and manta rays. (By the time we left, Kauai, however, we went LOOKING for octopus!) I figured we were anonymous people on the island, so it wouldn't hurt to get our old, wrinkley, fat, white bodies into swimsuits and jump in. (Maybe they would mistake us for a couple of lost Beluga whale.) I also know that I said earlier, "I don't fly and I don't float." Well, apparently that's not entirely true. I found out that fat floats, and so I do, too!
I had never used a snorkel before, and I know John hadn't used one at least in the last 25 years, so we were probably pretty stupid looking - anonymously. You have to get the goggles on just right, without a single strand of hair between the goggles and your face or water will leak in. The snorkel has to be attached to the goggle strap or it will lay down in the water, and you'll be breathing salt water instead of air. Did we get the anti-fog stuff squirted into the goggles? or should we just spit into them like the guy on "Sea Hunt" used to do? All of this as the ocean waves sling us around like Weebles. (Remember the old "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" slogan. That may be true, but we could certainly drown before getting the goggles and snorkel situated!)
Lydgate is a sandy-bottom enclosure. If it had been coral or rocky we would have had to have aqua shoes. I never encountered a hard surface anywhere on the island that wouldn't slice you open in a heart-beat - and be full of infection-causing bacteria to boot. The sand was different on every beach: some was as fine as baby powder, some was as coarse as gravel, some was almost white and some was black. We discovered that sand is the result of fish eating the coral or lava rock and pooping it out as, well, sand. We even got video of that (ick!) Finally able to put our faces in the water without drowning, we made a lap around the edge of the barrier rocks. Wowser! All kinds of small fish and crabs and schools of fish. Later we would learn the names of all of them, but for now it was just worth it seeing them.
Suddenly John is grabbing at me and pointing at the bottom. I see nothing. Oooo. The sandy bottom is waving one direction and the waves are waving me in another direction and John is tugging me in a third direction... This is not good. This is what is known as motion sickness deluxe. Just before I puke, though, something moves on the bottom. Did I actually see that? or was it an illusion? Nope, there it goes again. It's a fish about the size of a dessert plate laying flat on the bottom. It's EXACTLY the colors of the sand.
It taught me the lesson of going slow and looking at the bottom as well as all around us. It, however, wasn't very successful at stopping the motion sickness. I HAD to get out of the water! Lydgate was the only place I ever felt that way, and I'm certain it had to do with the sandy bottom. Surprisingly, we had been in the water about an hour - and it only felt like ten minutes.
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