my fake 30th birthday

we decided that friday would be my celebratory birthday, and even though i really prefer to sleep in on my birthday, i agreed to wake up early, walk out to the eastern point of the island, and watch the sun rise. how many times in my life will i get to see the sun rise over the pacific ocean? or be one of the first people on the planet to greet the new day?

what light from yonder ocean breaks?

needless to say, it was beautiful, and an incredible experience. we continued our walk around the perimeter of the island before signing up for the 11am snorkel and heading to breakfast. after breakfast, we headed back to our room to take a quick nap before snorkel time. morning snorkel was fantastic! the best by far! we saw a lot of fish, including an anenome fish, and a blow fish. and... we saw two turtles! one of them was very close to us, and we swam behind it for a while. it started to swim faster, and, even though the snorkel guides warned us not to "ride turtles or chase sharks," sarah-mae took off after the turtle and tried to chase it back towards my direction - she prefered to focus on the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of it. but the turtle was left unharmed, and it swam back toward me for a while, so everyone was happy. (especially me!) we definitely did not want to get out of the water when it was time to head back!

after a fantastic morning snorkel, we decided to spend the rest of the day on the beach, and maybe snorkel off the beach in the afternoon - we definitely weren't going to top our morning snorkel! so, we grabbed our stuff and hit the beach. it wasn't as hot as the day before, so at least it was pleasant to relax on the beach and read. every once in a while i waded out into the water and joined sarah-mae, but mostly i layed on the beach and read. that is a dream birthday to me!

eventually, we headed to the gantry (the original boat dock on the island, where now only the old wooden gantry sits) to snorkel a bit. we didn't head far off shore, but the tide was coming in, so we were still able to see a lot of fish. we even saw another turtle! it was fantastic!

after our self-snorkeling, we headed back to get ready for sunset happy hour and dinner. we had another beautiful sunset, and, as we walked down the path, sarah-mae noticed some turtles in the water, just a few feet from the walled edge! in fact, there were about half a dozen turtles swimming around, playing, and burrowing in the sand.

dinner on my birthday wasn't great - the vegetarian options left something to be desired. so instead, i'll focus on the redeeming factor: dessert. sarah-mae and i both had a delicious chocolate and strawberry torte - it was incredibly delicious, and the waiter even put a candle in mine! it was a great way to celebrate my birthday, and a great finish to our unbelievably fantastic day!