Sunday Funday! Kinda...

Today Tad and I went to Richardson State Park, which has the best snorkeling around Hilo. The water was really nice and warm and the coral was beautiful, although the water wasn’t super clear. It was sunny and hot and an all-around great day for being at the beach, and there were tons of fish swimming around.

I took my camera into the water to take some sweet coral shots… and the fun ended there. Apparently “waterproof” doesn’t mean that it is actually waterproof, since my camera fizzled and is now refusing to function. GARRRR!! For those of you mostly look at the photos in this blog, I hate to disappoint but there were be a significant decrease in (or complete lack of) photos posted! It’s really frustrating – I bought the camera because I knew that I’d be snorkeling, hiking in the rain, etc… and it’s supposed to be absolutely waterproof up to 10 feet and shockproof up to five. Given that I was floating right at the surface of the water, the camera should have been working just fine. *sigh* So now I have to deal with shipping it to CA to get it replaced, having it sent back, etc… and packages can take forever to get to and from Hawaii so we’ll see how this process goes. Major frustration! I took all the component pieces out of the camera and am letting it dry a bit more – maybe, just maybe, it will recover overnight! The odds are slim but I haven’t given up all hope just yet. Even though I realize that if it isn’t fixed by now, it probably won’t be by tomorrow. *sigh again*

I’ve also discovered that I tend to get water stuck in my ears, which is an odd sensation when it lasts for a long time. Using an alcohol astringent doesn’t seem to be working, so again I’m hoping that tomorrow morning I’ll wake up and magically regain hearing in both ears! Hey, it could happen. And hopefully it will because it’s starting to give me a headache!!

In other news, I saw a gecko chilling on my window screen! The light attracts lots of moths to my screen, and the gecko was walking around eating them. It was pretty awesome, and I tried to get a photo but – oh wait, that’s right, my camera isn’t working! So you’ll have to imagine it. It was SO COOL!!!

Tomorrow we’ll be shadowing another project that’s working on the invasive species Strawberry Guava. Should be exciting!