Scuba diving!

This morning I went out to Hawaii Kai to go scuba diving with Gabe, the dive master Daniel Christian dove with while he was stationed here. It was a little cloudy in the morning and a bit choppy, but once you get deeper than 10 or so feet, you can hardly feel the waves. We did two dives, a wreck dive down to about 80 feet, and a reef dive around 40 feet. Here's the picture from the boat between the first and second dive:


And here's me hanging out on the boat between dives:


After the dives, I headed back to Tripler to get the salt and the Hawaiian ocean bacteria off me (we had a noon conference lecture on skin and soft tissue infections, and apparently, there's methicillin-resistant Staph aureus [MRSA] around the islands). Then I hopped in the rental car that I deemed necessary for the four-day weekend (cheaper than taxis, but unfortunately not reimbursable) and drove to East Oahu, to Kailua beach, which was recommended to me by my friend Shannon, who was here in July. Here are some pictures from the beach:


It was still pretty windy, so the windsurfers were out in full force.


And the sun beginning to set at the beach. The only unfortunate thing I've found about being in Hawaii in November is that while the weather is pretty much the same as Hawaii in July, the sun sets around 6 pm.

After that was a trip to the Pearlridge Mall for dinner and to buy a wrist brace. Unfortunately, all the typing that I do has lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. I'm hoping that a couple of weeks of bracing my wrist while typing and sleeping will take care of the pain and I won't have to go see a doctor about it--at least until next year, when 100% of my medical care will be covered.