Aloha from the sharks

If there’s one way to avoid thinking about the bar results being published, it’s spending the week before traveling. Five days, four airports and three states later, I’m so exhausted that even anxiety can’t keep me awake. First was a very short three days in Honolulu, then I had about 4 hours in California to get from Oakland Airport to home. Then I unpacked my bag from “tropical vacation” and re-packed for “business trip” and zipped over to San Jose Airport.

J was a great host in Oahu and spent the whole weekend playing tour guide. We went straight to the heart of Waikiki from the airport on Thursday night. I had that strange feeling of just getting off a plane in a different time zone and a different place. The humidity and the jet lag made me feel like I was swimming through the city. The sounds seems amplified and the colors all run into each other. I felt like I was staring at everything.

J is not one to take the well-beaten tourist path, and so on Saturday morning we went out on a boat and got in a cage surrounded by sharks. You can see I’m doing my best not to have a full-scale underwater melt-down.



In California, you can’t rent much more than a bicycle without having to sign a waiver and watch a safety video. In Hawaii, things are a little more informal. For example, the safety lecture was basically this: “Here’s where the lifejackets are. If anyone gets eaten by a shark or the boat starts to sink, use this radio to call the Coast Guard. The more panicked you sound, the quicker they’ll get here.” Then you get in the water with the sharks. For extra effect, they’ll chum it up for you.

I had suspected this wasn’t an ecologically-sensitive practice but I didn’t find out until I got home that shark feeding has actually been banned in state waters. I guess this is why they were so intent on telling us that we were three miles out (and therefore outside state jurisdiction). J has spent enough in a boat to be able to look at the coastline and say, “No way this is three miles.”

I don't feel guilty for going on the trip, though. Watching the sharks live is mesmerizing. They are so graceful and powerful that it gave me a completely new appreciation from them.