168.

I woke up around 6am to cries of something that sounded like a young child being murdered in the woods. So needless to say I was just lying there in my sleeping bag for a while going wtf. We were all planning to get up early and go watch the sunrise, but it was so cold out and we were so tired that no one bothered to do so hahah. I'm really glad Mom talked me into bringing my huge mauve (or whatever color it is) jacket, because I layered pretty much everything I had, and actually wasn't entirely freezing at night (I hear Dinuk didn't even bring a sleeping bag LOL, that guy came totally unprepared hahaha). Also, if it's possible, my voice was even worse than it was yesterday.

After we had breakfast and packed up all our stuff and all the tents, we headed out to the beach for canoeing! (: The people gave us some quick instructions on how to use our paddles and such. They made me borrow some shoes cuhs I was wearing flipflops, and they also made me stick all my stuff in this red plastic bag they had, even though I said I didn't mind getting my purse a little wet, and I felt like I was just running back and forth borrowing stuff from them lol.

I was partnered up with Jen. Jane and I both really wanted to take our cameras out with us (me for my blog, naturally lol) even though Jen warned that they'd probably get ruined. We had our cameras in plastic bags and then I had mine in a pocket in my vest and Jane put hers in one of those red plastic waterproof bags. And then one of the instructors (I think his name was John; he had a blond goatee lolll) asked if anyone had a waterproof camera or digital camera he could use to take pictures of us at Estabrook's request, and Jen told me to give mine to him, since we could definitely trust him not to flip over or get it wet, and it turned out to be so lucky I did, because he got some really great pictures for me!

The water was so cold when we first got in; I totally wasn't expecting to get as wet as I did! As soon as we left the shore, we met this rush of waves that just like pushed some people overboard and my shorts and legs were completely wet!

It was so much fun canoeing and being out in the water! It was so gorgeous too. Jen and I kept falling behind for some reason (we're too weak!) hahah.

We got to go into all these caves; I can't say much about them besides the fact that it was dark and kind of damp, but it was pretty cool just being in there.

That's Estabrook's cousin (I think her name was Donna?) and her son Andrew.

The instructors had told us that some caves were gonna be kind of narrow and have sharp rocks on the sides, and that the current would push us against them, so we would have to use our paddles to push against the walls and direct ourselves in the right directions. Anyhow, in the first such cave that we went in, Jennifer lost her paddle lolll.

Some of the caves were really low, and then even lower when the tide came in! I got kind of scared in this one, because the water rushed in so fast, and I totally thought we were gonna get our faces smashed on the roof of the cave! We just had to lean back and push ourselves out with our hands lol.

Ehehehe Ned looks so awkward with his helmet.

So they found this dead jellyfish somewhere (the stingers were gone), and everyone was just passing it around LOL. Kind of gross if you think about it long enough. It just felt like a glob of slime hahah.

Guano!

We went back to shore shortly after this picture, and had lunch. And then we went back out with our canoes lol. I was hoping the John guy could take more pictures for us (and he did too I think, he held onto my camera cuhs he was planning to) but then I guess he had to go take another group out, so one of the other instructors returned the camera to me. Still, I'm really glad I got him to take pictures for me, especially since Jane's camera was ruined! Apparently her and Tiffany's canoe flipped over at some point, and water got into the red bag, and then there was a hole in the plastic zip-lock bag, which sucks! She managed to save her memory card though.

Anyhow, we were canoeing for about another hour or two, even. Jen got really tired and I was just like paddling by myself for like twenty minutes! Needless to say we were really behind. But I got such a great workout with my arms today! Seriously, I love canoeing! If I could do something like that regularly I totally would. I didn't even get sunburned from it because I loaded up on so much sunscreen before hand hahah. Learned my lesson from yesterday!

Anyhow, our guide would tell us about birds and such as we saw them; like there was this one bird that could dive underwater and catch fish, and people in some Asian countries domesticated it by putting a ring around its neck so it couldn't swallow the fish. And I thought it was really funny because afterwards we'd be talking to Dinuk (he didn't go canoeing because I think he just got surgery on his back and his mom didn't want him to go) and he'd be telling us about these birds (since he's like a bird expert!) and he'd tell us the exact same thing! Hahaha.

After we went canoeing, we were just relaxing and waiting around for our boat to come pick us up. We found a frisbee just lying around, so we were throwing it around between me, Ned, Katie, Katie, and Alex. And I forget who threw it, but it ended up going into that muddy area right there, and Ned went to get it, and the most hilarious thing ever happened. I guess he was walking on the dirt part to the middle, and it was wetter than he'd thought, and all of a sudden his foot just sank in, and when he pulled his foot back up, his shoe was still in the ground! And at this point we were just dying laughing, and he just hopped back over and Katie had to go fish it back out for him! So amazing hahaha.

After that, I was sitting on the rocks with Ned and Alex, and then later Andrew came along, and then a little later we dragged Dinuk over to take some pictures, and there was this sea lion that we kept seeing in the same general area that they kept calling Dennis. And then after a while I figured it probably wasn't the same sea lion we kept seeing because it would show up all the way on the right and then again a few minutes later all the way on the left and so on lol.

Everyone was pretty exhausted on the boat ride home. There were so many more people there than when we had come to the island too, so we couldn't even sit inside, so we all just kind of huddled together outside.

Katie Burke's mom picked us up, and I went in their car with Katie, Katie, Brandon, and Angie again. We had talked about having dinner with everyone altogether, and I'm not really sure what happened, but we went to In-and-Out, and there were so many people so we went via the drive-through, but we saw Ned and Alex going into the restaurant, and that's the last we saw of them, because afterwards we just headed home hahah. Pretty much everyone fell asleep except for me and Angie, although I was exhausted. When I finally got home, first thing I did was head for the shower. I've gained a new-found appreciation for showers. And trashcans. Can you believe there were no trashcans on the island.