rainboots on a desert island

so i work with this really cool girl named sam, and she surprised me with these fabulous rainboots for my birthday! (they're so great that she couldn't resist getting a pair for herself!) i understand that such a wardrobe accessory isn't crucial for life on catalina...or in california for that matter, but who could pass up something as swell as these green and blue rainboots?! i mean, c'mon...just look at them! i love them! so yesterday, sam and i decided that no matter what the weather was (which actually turned out to be an awesome sunny day) we were going to wear our boots. and that we did. :)

we were in line for breakfast together when one of the guys that works in the kitchen said to us, "what are you suppposed to be?" he thought it was a part of our halloween costume. haha, it was quite funny.

silver peak

when i started off this season a few months back, one of the things that i wanted to do was to hike up to silver peak...which is the fourth highest on catalina, but the tallest spot on the west end. seeing that i've got less than two weeks left here, i thought it was about time. so yesterday nemo and i had a free afternoon, so we set out. it was a beautiful day, no doubt. just in case any of you out there have been skeptical or think i've been lying to ya, i just want ya'll to know that catalina island is absolutely beautiful! :) not in an everything-is-green-and-life-is-thriving kinda way...but it's amazing just the same. when we got close to silver peak, we were walking down a gravel road where we could see the ocean on both sides. it was awesome. we couldn't see the mainland at all, probably mostly due to the smoke from the fires that are still burning over there, but we did get a glimpse of one of the other channel islands to the west. we were hoping to see a whale breeching, but that was wishful thinking. i'm going to miss this place when i leave...

my home away from home

i totally appreciate weekends on the mainland. it's freedom. it's fun. and it's an adventure...because this just so happens to be where i stay. at first i greatly disliked sleeping on this boat. i mean, sure it was kinda fun...but not ideal. and sometimes there's shady people there. but i realized this weekend, after i rolled into the marina one night, that strangely enough, there was actually a somewhat comfortable feeling to it. maybe just because it has become familiar. as i walked through the gate and rounded the corner to the somewhat gross bathroom...i caught myself feeling at home for a second. maybe that's a good thing, maybe that's a bad thing. i haven't quite figured that one out yet....but it definitely just confirmed my vagabond lifestyle.

my search for a home and a job continues. two and a half weeks left here on the island! whoa. i'll take any prayers ya'll want to bring before the Lord on my behalf!

under the sea...

check out these photos from yesterday! for one thing, snorkeling in emerald bay is just plain great! i was able to go out without kids, which means i can just have fun and relax and enjoy everything underneath the surface! one of these is a shovelnose guitar fish...and the other is a leopard shark. the leopard is the only shark i've ever seen...and they aren't harmful to people, but yesterday a friend and i were going through an enormous school of small fish. and i'm talking huge! meaning that i could hardly see through the school, they were packed in so tight. there were quite possibly hundreds of thousands of them! so awesome! right as we see those, emily says to me, "oh this is a great spot to see sharks cause there are so many fish around!!" she was all excited...and so was i for a moment. then i thought....whoa, she's not talking about those cute little leopard sharks! but unfortunately, we didn't see anything other sharks.

as usual, these photos don't do them justice. if only ya'll could go snorkeling with me here...it amazes me! there's that verse in psalms that talks about the sea teeming with life, great and small...and it's so true!

hope all is well with each of you...

love,

b.