Angela's trip to Tisa's

Angela, Jessi's sister, arrived on the Thursday night flight from Honolulu. Yesterday she got her first taste of AS when we took her to Tisa's for snorkeling and dinner. Several of our friends came as well.

I was impressed. It was Angela's first time snorkeling, and she easily and with no fear went out past the reef. So did Jessi and Jaydn. The fish living in the water at Tisa's are, it seems, on average twice the size of those everywhere else. The waves gave the girls a bad time, however. Several got pretty scratched up, and Angela tore her brand new swimsuit on the coral.

I arrived at Tisa's a little late from work. I was super happy to get there after taking a bus that seemed to be trying to break the world record for the most people in a bus. It was a dreadful ride.

Once I got there, I wanted to see the elusive barracuda that lives past the reef. Candyman, the bartender at Tisa's, claims that the barracuda is about 6-feet long. This was something I had to see for myself.

I took the deep ravine out to the drop-off a little tenuously. This was my first time snorkeling at Tisa's, and I knew there was an ava (fast moving river of water) at the ravine. Anyway, after being fascinated by the amazing fish, I glanced down to the bottom of the ocean floor and saw something very large. This is always a little spooky for me, but I hung around to see if I could see more. I could tell that the tail of this creature was swaying very large and slowly in the water. At the opposite end, I could see long white things--they would appear, and then disappear, and then appear again. As the clarity of the water got better, I could tell that these "white things" were really teeth--this creature was sitting on the bottom and opening its mouth to eat. When I wasn't able to see the white, it meant his mouth was closed. After coming to my senses, I realized I was basically sitting in the barracuda's living room. And I could attest to the fact that the barracuda was indeed probably 5 to 6 feet long.

That is when I decided to get back on the safe, sandy beach. Anything that had teeth like that should not be around me for too long. I had no experience with or knowledge of barracudas, so I had no idea whether he would decide that he wanted something bigger to eat and come after me.

Needless to say, I did not take this picture.

After I told everyone I had seen the barracuda, they all darted out to the ocean for a peek. It's really funny how obsessed we are with being fascinated by water stuff.

After swimming, we had dinner. We ate with John, Caroline, and Pyper. The food at Tisa's is excellent! The price, however, is not so good. Needless to say, I should not have had the steak (since the fish was just as good, if not better, and is about $10 cheaper).

One beach down, a handful to go!