Scuba Diving Cozumel

Today was absolutely incredible. I started the morning by learning to scuba dive. The Villa Aldora and Aldora swim shop have a mini scuba diving course for people who aren't certified. They give you the opportunity to learn how to scuba dive as well as a chance to get out into the water and scuba dive to decide if you like it or not before paying all that money to get certified. Well... I am convinced that I am now going to get certified.

The class was awesome. It was just me and the dive instructor which made it incredibly awesome because I needed the one on one attention. When I lived in St. George I went spray tanning with Kjersten. When the mist starting coming out I was supposed to hold my breath. But the mist made me feel like I couldn't breath and that made me want to breath more. So I started feeling panicked and well... that was when I decided I don't like feeling suffocated so I am claustrophobic. I was worried about feeling claustrophobic under water and getting panicked and not feeling like I could breath. Ali (the dive instructor) was way awesome and let me take my time getting comfortable before moving on. We started the lesson by her teaching me the rules of scuba diving - breathing, staying safe, and what we would be practicing underwater.

We practiced in the Villa swim pool and then when I felt confident we moved to the ocean. While in the swimming pool I learned how to inflate and deflate my vest, empty my mask if water gets in it (while under water) and learn how to breathe and reattach the mouth piece if it were to get knocked out of my mouth.


Once we were in the ocean things went very smoothly. It was beautiful under the water. As soon as we got to the bottom of the ocean floor (we were 20 feet down) Ali started pointing at something. I couldn't see whatever it was she was pointing at so she moved her arm closer to where she was pointing and this flat fish that had the exact look of the ocean floor started swimming away. TOTALLY AWESOME. No picture of that fish though.


I kinda imagine scuba diving is what it feels like to be in space. Your body just kind of floats. I learned how to sink to the bottom and then to just swim above the bottom and how to do flips and roll over. We swam with countless schools of fish which was awesome. We swam along a reef, which was BEAUTIFUL. I just loved all the colors and all of the unique things I had never seen before. I completely stopped thinking about my limited air supply pretty early on and just started focusing on making sure I didn't kick or hurt the marine life. We saw tons of fish and it was hard to pick my favorite photos, but here are a few:










My Dive Instructor Ali:

We saw a couple of lobsters.

A Drum Fish (Ali says that divers come out on trips time after time trying to see the drum fish and never do.)
A Blow Fish

And a sting Ray





We saw a lot of really beautiful fish and coral and what I learned from this all is:

I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT TIME I SCUBA DIVE!!!!!!

Thanks to American Airlines

Because of your engine problems and flight delay I got to fly with Kjersten and Amanda to Mexico instead of meeting them there :)

Cozumel... Here we come!



I felt kind of bad. Kjersten and Amanda were supposed to fly from DC to Dallas to Cancun on American Airlines. I was flying from UT to Atlanta to Cancun and was going to meet them there. Well I had like a 5 hour layover in Atlanta and as I was waiting to board I sat in this little area with nobody around. All of the sudden someone came and sat down right next to me. I look over to give them the look of "Seriously? The whole place is empty and you sit here?" Well I look over and see all this curly red hair... it was Kjersten! I didn't know what to do so I just sat there stunned. (While Amanda recorded.) Turns out their flight from DC had engine problems and was going to be delayed like an hour which would cause them to miss their flight to Cancun. They had the option of switching to my flight and jumped on it. They didn't tell me and decided to surprise me. They were SO EXCITED to surprise me. And all I could do was sit there stunned. Not the reaction they were looking for. But inside, I was thrilled. The flight wasn't full so Kj got to come back and sit by me. It was so fabulous. A perfect start to our vacation (even if they got a crappy video of me being surprised... oops).

Last Day in Washington DC + the Pentagon

AIR FORCE MEMORIAL
The United States Air Force Memorial is envisioned as a national place of reverence, remembrance and celebration where the Air Force “family” and all Americans can pause to remember, honor and gather to celebrate the people and the achievements of America’s Airmen. It is located on an elevated promontory, adjacent to the southern boundary of Arlington National Cemetery, less than a ½ mile west of the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia.

TOURING THE PENTAGON and
THE PENTAGON MEMORIAL
The Pentagon Memorial was very awesome. We took a tour around the entire pentagon and then in the yard as well. Afterward we visited the actual memorial site which was inspirational. Artists are quit amazing. They put SO MUCH thought into the Memorials I am sure that we typically miss half of the meaning they include.

One fact is: Each person who died at the Pentagon on 9/11 has a bench at the memorial site. If they died in the sky (in the plane that was hijacked) their bench points towards the sky. If they died within the pentagon, their becnh points towards the Pentagon. It was really neat.












Notice how clean the DC Subways are compared to those in NY




Eating at one of my favorite restaurants on the east cost: Cosi's


I was teaching Kj how to Subway Surf :^)

Washington DC will always have a special place in my heart. It was so much fun to visit and as always, so hard when to leave.