snorkeling and scallion pancakes

Leah and I went for an unplanned snorkel this morning - unplanned in that we meant to go for a exercisey swim, like a huff-and-puff, my-arms-are-sore-from-this swim. But the  Caribbean Sea was at its clearest, calmest, and most glittery gorgeous today, so as soon as we started, we saw tons and tons of amazingly beautiful tropical fish and huge, awesome coral, and any ideas we had about cardiovascular workouts were quickly forgotten. We doodled around for the next hour, trying to get each other's attention by pointing excitedly when something was particularly cool and giving the underwater thumbs-up.  We saw ALL THE THINGS! So many tropical fish! It really felt like we were in a giant version of a dentist's office fish tank. We had to swim through schools of teeny fish, the little silver kind that look like they'd show up in an Asian snackfood - thousands of them, all darting from one direction to the next totally in unison, like they had a single brain.  There were iridescent fish and spotted fish, weirdly shaped long ones and so many different colors - electric blues and yellows and greens! And the biggest brain coral in the world, probably. I wish we had some pictures, but we don't have an underwater camera, so I took some from this awesome website that identifies fish for you:

it was kind of like this!

oh yeah, we saw tons of these clowns.

bluehead wrasse - looks like a sneaker to me. there was another fish that I thought looked like a crossword, so...

trumpetfish!

Blue Tang. bluetie tang. 

Later this evening I made scallion pancakes because I thought I'd make the day even more excellent. They were flaky and greasy and great; tasted just like scallion pancakes, though I did miss the hoisin sauce.  I used this recipe and after I gobbled up the testers (that's what the first two of any kind of pancake are called, right?), I brought them over to where Leah is studying with a couple of friends, because I'm the greatest. 

ginger wine rolling pin

this is hard for me to look at because now they're all gone. I miss you, my little delicious one.