Somewhere off the coast of Kauai. . .

Like sands through the hourglass. . . These are the days of our lives. . . Hawaii style.
We woke up late that morning and even though we are on "Hawaii time" we felt rushed to get to the reef early because that's when the fish are plentiful and the light from the sun creates less of a glare. We arrived at the beach and ran down the powdered strip of heaven, snorkel gear in tow, and belly flopped in the crystal clear Pacific. Our innocence still in tact. . . for the moment. We were so delighted and somewhat bewildered because we had the beach to ourselves. We should have known better.
Our smiles as wide as the deep blue sea, Brad says to me"Don't forget to spit in your mask babe, remember, the greener, the cleaner!" As we competed for the biggest loogie to defog our masks I sized up the reef. It was a long off-shore reef with a seemingly endless supply of fun. We started off our snorkel adventure in a lazy, dreamy float and our eyes were constantly lighting up with every new and different species of fish we "discovered". We were the Lewis and Clark of the ocean and ready to share our discoveries with any willing listener at the local pub after our journey.
Reef on our left, drop off channel on the right, we meandered our way through pockets of bright colored coral loaded with beautiful tropical fish, moray eels, eagle rays, sea turtles, sea urchin, lobster, and oh, so much more. . .
It was about that time to defog our masks again and when we lifted our heavy heads out of the water we both looked at each other with slight distress. . . Wow, we were extremely far from that "powdered strip of heaven" we mentioned earlier. "No worries", Brad says, "let's just head in". We were cruising in at a rather steady pace when. . . Cue jaws music. . .
Brad taps my arm and does the universal scuba sign for danger. Thinking it was just a lionfish or scorpionfish I motioned for the location. By that time he was grasping my arm in a way that meant there was real danger involved. He looked at me with panic in his eyes and I knew this look meant one thing and one thing only. A Shark.
I pop my head above water and say. . "HOW BIG!!!???" Brad doesn't answer this but instead, his voice shaky says" swim slow, be calm, and do not panic Sam. Let's just get into shore safely".
I was out of my mind! "baby, where is it?". Once again, he avoids the question and at this point he has my arm in a death grip and he is literally pushing me through the water like a 500 horse powered engine. I tried to remain calm but my adrenaline was pumping so hard I felt as if the shark could hear every beat of my heart and I was sure it could smell the blood rushing through my veins. We were on our borderline hysterical way back to shore and Brad claims "it's stalking us, BE CALM." O.k, sure, be calm my ass! It is nearly impossible to remain calm in that environment, and that's when I noticed my bracelet; Glistening and sparkling in the water like a fishing lure. Oh my God!!! It's my bracelet! In a frenzied attempt to rip it off my arm I caught a glimpse of a very large dark shadow slipping in and out of the reef. That's it. We're doomed. Shark bait is our destiny. Brad held the lured hand above water and continued to maintain order. If it wasn't for him I would have been swimming faster than Michael Phelps on crack, but Brad, my calming husband promised me everything was going to be O.K. After what seemed like an eternity we arrived back at our powdered strip of Heaven, and Oh, did it feel like Heaven. We made it!!!!! We made it!!!!!!
That's when the laughter came. Rolling around in the sand like a bunch of lunatics (I was so elated to be on land I think at one point I was eating the sand). When we finally calmed down I asked him again. "So, seriously, how big was it?"
"that's between me and the shark" he says, and until this day he has not revealed the size of our oceanic predator, and honestly, I'd rather not know.