Yup, that's a sea turtle! At last, we've captured one fresh out of the ocean, coming ashore for his nap. This was the icing on the cake of a lovely day off work!I had a doctor appt this morning, my 6-month anniversary of my knee surgery. Doc says my ligament on the right knee is doing great. He was very happy. I told him the bed news was that my left knee, the "good" one, continues to be funky. He contorted my leg in various ways and says he doesn't think it's anything serious, but wants me to have 4 weeks of physical therapy on that leg. He also had me fitted for a brace to wear when I'm active, a much smaller one than my post-surgery brace, thank goodness.
So I'm trying to look forward to being in much better shape in one month. But it's hard to get excited abt the strain the PT puts on my schedule. Since they don't have evening hours, I have to leave work by 3:30 to get there on time, and sometimes that's just hard to do. But I'm going to have these legs longer than this job, so I just have to do it.
I'd already planned to take the day off and celebrate six months of recovery. I actually finished with the doctor early, so I took off for the Ala Moana Mall, our local fancy mall with stores like Cartier and Hermes and Louis Vuitton (stores I never actually go into...). I went to Macy's and bought lingerie and then wanted to have a manicure at a salon there. My local across-the-street place is a tad industrial. They do a good job, but it's not very relaxing.
But the nail place wasn't open yet, so I went to a fancy local store and indulged in some retail therapy with a few items. Fortunately after that, the nail place had opened (or I might have had to wander into Cartier or Hermes or Louis Vuitton). This place was more soothing than the place across the street, though the color is a little darker than I wanted (Chris says it's brown. I say it's a deep plum...).
Next I went to Home World to buy a home accessory. I had my eye on this large blue platter with sand colored accents that looks great on our coffee table with our blue walls and beige tile.
Then I headed to Costco to buy gas, have lunch (they have great pizza) and pick up a few things. I dropped my belongings off at home and decided to run up to the North Shore to the Laniakea beach where the sea turtles tend to hang out. We went up there a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday evening and saw one turtle asleep.
Today, when I arrived at 3pm, there were no turtles, just a lot of tourists. I ran into the water to cool off, then went to a shady spot to finish reading the latest John Grisham book. I saw tourists acting excited a couple of times and then saw the turtle volunteers spreading out a red rope.
The volunteers man the beach to keep tourists from touching or bothering the turtles. After the turtles come out of the water, the volunteers make a perimeter with the rope and shoo the tourists behind it. You can take all the pictures you want, just as long as you don't try to touch the big guy. The turtle didn't seem to pay any attention to all the commotion around him.
He had his eyes closed when I got there, but he raised his head and moved up the beach a few inches and then settled in again for his nap. By the time I left he was sacked out like a baby. His back flippers were stretched behind him like a dog will do.
The volunteers all know the turtles and told me this was was Oakley, a young male. It's hard to tell from the picture, but his shell was probably 3 feet long. I plan to go back again and hopefully see more than one at a time. Chris and I may run up there one day after work, have Mexican food and turtle watch.
I got home in time for Final Jeopardy with Chris, which I got and none of the contestants did. That's always so satisfying... Then I went out for Thai food for our dinner.
So it was a grand day. Shopping, pampering, wildlife viewing, and no cooking...
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