"Lauren and Tutu Honu"
Grandfather Sea Turtle

 
     When Lauren first put her face in the Hawai'ian waters she met a huge Honu, sea turtle. It scared her so bad she climbed up on my back as we snorkeled in the water. Both her arms wrapped tight around my neck I reached back and pushed her big girl body up on my back so if Honu took off fast we could still follow. Then I tapped her arms and just reminded her ( first that she was choking me ;>) second, to relax. She was still fascinated and hadn't stopped staring underwater at this huge sea creature who was still about a foot and a half away from my face and watching us with great pleasure. I blew through my snorkel and reminded her to breath slowly through her snorkel, relax... be turtle... float and flow.

     Honu slowly turned around in front of us and away he went. We followed, slowly carefully, never overtaking or trying to touch, just enjoying the feeling of being together in such a beautiful environment. It wasn't long and Lauren slide off my back, comfortable that this huge (his back shell measured 3 feet across at least) rather formidable looking sea creature, wasn't going to attack us and eat us. In fact if one looked carefully one would notice a knowing eye and a glance back or two, were we keeping up? We followed all day and had a wonderful adventure seeing what this ancient grandfather turtle had to show us.


      Skip ahead several years and here she is again, only she discovers the honu all by herself and here is that story in pictures...

Lauren, my sweet 26 year old daughter.
She will always be my baby!

My little turtle with her shell (boogie board) discovers one honu.
While the honu nearest to me which Lauren doesn't see, is going to be coming around behind her.

So around in a circle they go, Lauren never notices the one
following behind her.  Around and around they play...

Lauren so relaxed now, honu too, they just float and stare, 
boogie board forgotten...

Some kind of mystical connection even shows up in photos. 

Honu says, "Hey Lauren, come on, follow me, let's go!"

So off they go to discover new excitements.

Like a little slice of Heaven!