Vacation - Doer or Snoozer?

Zee doesn't want to go shark diving with me, and this began a large debate about vacationing. If I want to just take a few days off, I will lay around and sleep and be lazy. I don't need to cough up a bunch of dough to go somewhere and do that.

I like vacations that allow me to escape my mini-reality. I want to see other people's world, and places I haven't a clue about. Although I have been a great white shark fanatic since early childhood, going and realizing my dream of being in the ocean with them is something I feel needs to be fulfilled. We can go to Morocco next, or do the pyramid thing he keeps talking about.

He feels that this is some kind of weird extreme adventure-danger addiction I have. I find that kind of silly. I don't consider myself much of a personal risk-taker anymore, I kind of thought that was over upon the advent of sobriety and motherhood. I don't feel that there is any danger in this activity. This is just more of the little girl inside who swam in the breakers off Pacifica and saw the fins go past. She wanted to dive under and see more, but her fear overwhelmed her, and visibility in Northern California waters is not all that great.

You can now go dive in two different locations near CA for two completely different effects. The sharks off Isla Guadalupe (22 hours from San Diego, off Baja) are docile, calm, and somewhat shy. You have a better experience in a cage because for the most part they don't breach. You can also now go back up to the Farallons (30 miles off San Francisco) and get a violent, hunting pinniped-experience that is bloody, gory and full of acrobatics as these larger sharks go nuts. This seems to be better taken from the boat. I don't really see the point in being underwater in crappy visibility when the activity is mostly taking place afar, and on the water surface.

I am trying to encourage zee to think about at least going with me onboard. He can fish in Guadalupe, and I find saltwaterfishing a pretty exhilarating experience. It isn't like you can fly fish in the temperate ocean, but we do that all the time.

I hate the idea of going alone. Not for the factor of being alone, but because I think this experience is kind of meant to be shared. I would hate to come back and have this huge gaping breadth of perspective that I can't really explain.... you just have to do it.