Mia Surfing

Hello Everybody,

We went snorkeling near Great Bird Island. There were some really cool coral and sea anemones. I like snorkeling a lot because of all the pretty (and ugly) sea life. We moved to Barbuda. The guide book says it has a wonderful "pink" beach, but no matter how much you squint it just isn't pink. Any beach is a good one though and this one is super awesome! There are big waves that Remi and I 'Mia surf' on. Mia surfing is when I body surf with my head underwater and Remi sits on my back and enjoys the ride. We also like to sit in the breaking zone or where the waves break and let the waves tumble us around. In Barbuda we learned how NOT to beach a dingy. We accidentally almost capsized the dingy. Dad fell out and everything flew everywhere. It wasn't what you would call a successfully dingy landing. Anyway, nobody was hurt and we all had a fun time on the beach. Now we are back in Antigua and yesterday was Hero's Day here, which is just like our Veteran's Day. All the local kids got the day off and a bunch of them hung out on a beach, that we were anchored near. We spent the afternoon playing in the sand and swimming with them. It felt good to have 'kid time' again because the last time we spoke with kids was almost a month ago. It was a fun way to see how locals spend a day at the beach. They caught a bunch of fish including a stingray when they were spearfishing! They grilled and had fun in the water. We made sand balls together, which the local kids called snowballs. When we asked if they had ever made actual snowballs out of snow, they said that they have never even seen snow! Well, for all those people held in suspense from my story here is the second chapter.

Passed Out

I woke up to the sound of muffled cries that I couldn't make out. As I tried to hear what they were saying, I realized that I was still underwater. Thousands of questions buzzed in my head. How did I get underwater? Why was I underwater? How long was I underwater? Unfortunately I didn't know the answers to any of my questions. I kicked hard until my head popped out. I heard that the the muffled cries were talking to me.
"Eliza, where are you, Eliza?" the voices cried. I turned around and there on shore was my family. I swam fast towards them.
"Where were you? We looked for the top of your snorkel but, we couldn't find it. I was so worried." my mother said frantically.
"I was right there." I said pointing to the place I was. "I was just underwater."
"For half an hour?" Lucy my 6 year old sister said.
"Really? It was that short I thought it was longer." my mom said to no one in particular and then turned towards me and said "Eliza, you couldn't have been underwater for half an hour. Where were you?"
"I don't know." I replied. Lucy snickered.
"Well, what do you have in your hand then?" she asked. I slowly uncurled my fingers to reveal a piece of sea glass that looked exactly like the sun. All the memories came rushing back. The dive under, the burning pain, the black out.
What had happened down there? I wondered and so badly wanted to say. Instead I turned towards Lucy and said "It is just some sea glass, I'll probably throw it back." I knew the sea glass had some hidden mystery that my body was just aching to find out. I also knew how valuable orange sea glass is. All the reasons why I shouldn't throw it back swirled around in my water logged head and my gut feeling, throwing it back because it might be dangerous, was over powered by the curious part of me. I held on to it the whole ride home and then put it on my window sill.

I love snorkeling!

The local girls were really cool.

A lizard on Great Bird Island.