Sea Turtles

My wife and I love sea turtles; we're completely infatuated with them. We're not crazy-dopey over them, though, because we don't have posters around the house, stuffed animals in every corner, and statues littering our bathrooms, but we really think they're neat. We enjoy watching them in all forms of media (the sea turtles in Finding Nemo, for example, absolutely crack us up). Ten years ago when I went to Hawaii I had the good luck to see a sea turtle in Hanauma Bay while I was snorkeling. I got a decent picture, and it was great to be so close to one in the wild. My wife was jealous.

So it was that when we went to Hawaii last month, we were really hoping to see some sea turtles. We weren't disappointed. Even though we didn't see any when we went snorkeling, we did go to a place locally called "Turtle Beach" on the north shore of Oahu. We didn't think we'd see any turtles at all, as none were around on the shore, but upon walking down the beach we saw people gawking at the waves off shore. Upon closer inspection, the turtles were actually out there among the shallow rocks, just frolicking in the waves.

We watched them closely and saw them pop their heads up out of the water intermittently. We think we saw two sea turtles. They were out among the rocks off shore and as the waves rose and fell, we'd see the rocks rise above the water. Because of that, it was difficult sometimes to tell if the dark things we were seeing were the turtles or the rocks. After teasing us for a long time, one of them actually came close to shore. My wife ran over and started snapping pictures like the paparazzi.

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Before too long, she walked out to the water, stood in the surf, and recorded the following video.


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She was only a few feet away from the sea turtle, and was giddy over the whole thing. She had never been that close to a sea turtle before, certainly not one that lives in the wild, so it was quite the experience. I really enjoyed just watching her and her childlike awe, let alone the turtle. My wife is an amazing woman, who truly appreciates and wonders at God's creations. For that, I am grateful.