Sucking it up I heard myself say, “okay, let’s do this<\/i>” and I proceeded to put on the mask.  I declined the flippers as I intended to never let my feet get off the bottom. I hated<\/i><\/b> the mask.  Suck it in, no breathing through your nose, yuck! Jane patiently showed me what to do and I finally came to terms with the mask.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

I’m doing it!<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n With our big blue raft\/mat to hold on to, I proceeded to bend over and put my head in the water.  Nothing, not a thing could be seen in the middle of the lagoon.  Disappointed, I asked if there was more over by the rock wall.  With Sue standing above the rocks, camera in hand to document this historic occasion, Jane and I made our way over to the side.  Once more my  head went under, and this time – success!  Little neons, bigger fish of some type appeared at once.  Off I went to explore.  Picking my way carefully over the rocks I made my way along the wall. My ears were out so I could hear the conversation between my SIL and MIL (who had by this time put the camera away and joined us in the water). “She’s doing it, she must be seeing something.” “I’m not even touching her, she must be okay.” I listened to them with amusement and continued my exploration.  I thought “I’m probably never going to do this again, so I’m going to do it all now<\/i>.”  Coming up for air I was surprised to find I had made my way all the way to the end of the lagoon, actually finding myself at a place where my feet couldn’t touch, I was grateful for the mat and my SIL there to keep me safe.  Taking a few breaths, I went back under and made my way all the way back to shore looking at the sea life below the surface.<\/p>\n It was with a great sense of relief and accomplishment that I surrendered the snorkeling mask to Jane and sent her on her way for one last exploration of her own.  Laying out on the lounger, I thankfully reapplied sunscreen and laid back to enjoy the Caribbean sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n See dinner above our heads!<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The trip back to the hotel was pleasant and we once more rested a bit, cleaned up and headed to El Gaucho Argentine Grill<\/a> that came highly recommended by a friend of Sue and Jane’s. With a strolling Cuban guitarist serenading us, we ate a great meal and I indulged once more in a glass of white wine Sangria (which was much better than the one I had the night before).<\/p>\n As I went to bed after having packed, I acknowledged that it had been a good day.  I had gotten a fair amount of sun, had faced a fear, and enjoyed a great day and evening in Aruba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before we ever left for Aruba my sister-in-law was after me to snorkel. “Sheila, will you snorkel?  Please?  I’ll take care of you, I promise!” “I promise to think about it, I’m not saying no, I’ll be open to it (I’ve got to find a way out of this, I don’t want to do this! …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zbKo-Pz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}