Obama comes home!

Yes, Barack Obama is here on the island, enjoying a vacation. He was born here and graduated from high school here, though I think he also lived in Indonesia as a child. He arrived on Friday and attended a rally in a park, the only event that will be open to the general public. People started lining up at 4:30am for the 12:30pm opening. A few soundbites from his speech were on the evening news, including his plans, such as a possible plate lunch at Zippy's (we've been there!), some shave ice (yes, that's shave ice without the "d"), body surfing and just relaxing on the beach.

He's staying at some $8.3million estate in Kailua, a beautiful part of the island. He was jogging on the beach Saturday morning around 6:30am with two Secret Service agents, when he was spotted by a local woman who sent in her picture of him to the Honolulu Advertiser. More people hung out at those beaches in general on Saturday hoping to get another look, though one woman expressed disappointment that those people weren't watching the filming of "Lost", which was what she hoped to do...

He then played golf in the afternoon (no report on his score), went to see his grandma for a short visit, and then went to dinner with his family in Chinatown. I thought he looked too thin, so I hope he eats hearty while he's here and has lots of those plate lunches. That Chinese food may not do it....

We have started watching lots of Olympic coverage and trying to avoid the news since Beijing is 18 hours ahead of us. Most of what we see is delayed tape coverage, so if we're not careful, we will know the results before we see the events and that's no fun.

I bought a snorkel and mask at Kmart and I think it's been the best 18.99 I've spent so far. I feel a mild sense of claustrophobia when I first put on that mask with the way it covers your nose, so I was a little nervous about doing it again. But as soon as I started seeing fish, I was so overcome with the wonder of it all. Something about snorkeling delights and relaxes me like few other things do. I just love watching the fish! Some of them were BIG, too.

I missed seeing some of the color of the reefs, but that's okay. To be able to walk to a place where I can snorkel still seems like a miracle. I saw some parrot fish (I think), flat fish, striped fish, schools of silvery fish, little tiny fish, one really spotted yellow and black fish, yellow-white-black striped fish. And they were just hanging out, looking for dinner, ignoring me completely. They're so fast, some of them! I'm going to have to get a guide on Hawaiian fish to know what I'm looking at. Not that it really matters. They're beautiful anyway.

Well, almost time for more Olympic coverage to start! Can't wait to see tomorrow how Obama spent his Sunday...