WHALE SHARKS!

 2nd post of the day

We left our hotel early to drive to Oslob to swim with the whale sharks again!  Here we are getting our safety briefing-including directions about staying 3 meters away from the animals!

 The name of the place we went was BCD's place and they were great!  Thanks to a friend, Jennifer, at Greg's office for the recommendation!

 Scott, Bev, and Ashley still in our boat

 These are amazingly gentle, huge animals!

 Their polka dots are like our fingerprints.  Each sharks' are different.  They are actually sharks-called whale sharks because they are so large!

 Above is Ryan in the water

 These are Ryan's legs and fins to give some perspective

 One of our boatmen was trying to help us get good pictures!

 Underwater pictures, when holding your breath are not very flattering!

 Above is the boat with the small shrimp that was being fed to the whale sharks

 This was one of Greg's most favorite parts of the trip!

 filtering water/shrimp into their mouth

 Ashley and Ryan enjoyed watching from the boat too!

 Eating some more!

 They were absolutely fascinating to watch!

 We all had a terrific time!

 Ashley got in the water too, briefly.  Think that she is still rather awed and intimidated at their size!

 My mother always said that she didn't understand how people could look at a newborn baby or the ocean and not believe that they had been created by God.  I think that she would have thought that even more strongly if she had seen even some of  what God created that lives under the water!  I am amazed at the creativity and awesomeness of God every time I dive!

 After seeing how close this one came, she decided she wanted to get back in the boat!

 We ate pizza for lunch at a little hut down the beach and this was our view while we ate!

 Tumalog Falls-a stop on the way back to Cebu.  We were offered motorcycle rides down to the falls and said no thanks we'll just walk.  We took them up on the rides on the way back because it was a STEEP uphill climb.  The kids loved the motorcycle rides.  They laughed when I told them that when I was younger than Ashley, my Mom and Dad put me on a motorcycle and we would go on rides to Stone Mountain on the weekends and I would hold out my hand to catch the wind, until I fell asleep riding between them.  I cannot believe that they did that but it was fun!  I even had my own small helmet!

 The waterfalls were beautiful but it was extremely muddy and slippery around them!