Chun's Reef

Yesterday, CRH came home and we headed down to our beach. We had planned to meet up with his cousin, Ben, for dinner. Ben called and asked us to come hang out early with him at his Uncle Carl and Aunt Jesse's house. Uncle Carl was a Dr. before he retired. They have an awesome oceanfront house at Chun's Reef. This area is incidentally RIGHT beside the turtle beach. OMG...
We get there and Ben, Ben's girlfriend (who is here visiting with her sister this week), and girlfriend's brother (who lives here) are all out at the beach surfing and what not. So, we go down to the beach area right in front of Carl and Jesse's house and watch their turtles! These people have turtles in their front yard! I'm so jealous...seriously. There were 2 of them sunning (with NO ropes and more importantly no turtle protector volunteers). Then, CRH spotted 1 out in the water. We walked out to where he was swimming. He was swimming around right in front of us...it was so cool! I could have reached down and touched him, but I didn't. I didn't have as much restraint on land though.
Eve and I went back down later in the afternoon to watch the turtles some more. We saw one of the two on shore turn around and swim back out to sea. It was just the two of us down there and she made some comment about wanting to reach out and touch the turtle's shell. So, I let her...and then I let her touch it's flipper. We both did it and she looked at me and said "Mom, this should be our little secret, so you don't get in trouble.". I loved it. If the turtle volunteers read this and find me, it was worth it. The look on that kid's face was priceless. The turtle didn't care...all was well.
Right after our turtle touching, CRH yells down that we just missed seeing whales. Of course I did...I've lived here almost a year and I've yet to see a whale. Eve finally saw one last week at Khristy's. She said she saw it actually come out of the water! She was super excited. I went back up to the house to watch sunset and lo and behold...I did get to see the whales! I saw one's tail come up and several blow spouts. I can die happy now.
We had a great time last night with this extended family. Uncle Carl's house is full of animals. They have rescued most of them. They have 3 dogs, 2 cats, a bird, and 2 rats. I've got to tell you guys about these rats. They surf. I'm not freaking kidding. The family has a surfing magazine with pics of their son and these rats out in the water surfing. I swore it was photo shopped, but it wasn't. These rats actually surf on their own boards...seriously.