heaven, day 2

for our first full day on heron, we planned to sleep as late as possible, but still make breakfast before they closed (i.e., 9am). we enjoyed the breakfast buffet, and then headed over to the marine center to sign up for the 11am snorkel boat. we grabbed our gear and headed out to the dock. there was a full boat of divers, and an almost full boat of snorkelers, and both boats headed out to the edge of the reef off the north end of the island.

just before our first heron snorkel...

i was a little nervous to snorkel out to sea, but sarah-mae was a good snorkel buddy, and made sure i was safe and secure. we saw way more fish than we had seen at bali hai. we even saw a shark only a few minutes after being in the water! we took a ton of pictures with our underwater cameras (the film hasn't been developed yet, so you are out of luck for those pictures for now) - it was incredible to see an underwater world teeming with life!

eventually, our snorkeling hour was up, and we climbed back into the boat and headed back to the island. we made a quick stop by the marine center to sign up for the afternoon snorkel boat, and then headed to the beach. i knew that i wanted to spend at least an hour on the beach every day, so after a quick snack in our room (we had brought some supplies with us), we hit the beach. it was H-O-T, but beautiful and wonderful, and i loved every sun-baking minute of it. if i could, i would spend every day reading on such a gorgeous beach.

i'm pretty sure sarah-mae was ready to go long before i was, but eventually, we had to head in to make our afternoon snorkel boat. this time there were fewer people, so the divers and snorkelers shared one boat. we headed to a similar spot as the morning, and jumped out to join the fish. it's hard to believe, but we saw even more fish - and lots of different kinds! we even saw an octopus, which sarah-mae said snorkelers RARELY see, especially during the day! we also saw a giant clam and a sea star. it was another fantastic snorkel session!

we came back to land with a few more great stories, and after a quick shower, we headed to the bar (and patio) for our sunset happy hour. not surprisingly, it was again incredibly gorgeous and wonderful!

after our sunset, we headed to dinner, which again was not as tasty as it was fancy, although the waitress let me eat the kids meal (brocoli and pasta with red sauce) - which was wonderfully delicious! over dinner, we made our plans for the next day...