Jenn and Alan were a little late for the evening cruise. While the rest of us went off on an afternoon snorkel, Jenn and Alan got right to work finding their transponders. You can see some of them in the bucket in front of Jenn. They use these to track the movements of fish in the lagoon. Later in the week we had an opportunity to go out with them and tag travalli and shark. Scott caught the only shark that we tagged. I got to help hold the shark while Alan and Jen measured and tagged it. That was pretty exciting!

Lori and I both looked inside this wreck but didn't find any treasures!

By the end of the week we were all the best of friends and no one wanted to go home!

Normally I'm taking the photos, so we don't have any shots of me or of us together. Jason was quick to grab the camera several times on this trip to make sure that we had some really nice couple shots. Thanks Jason!

Scott can't resist showing his true affection for Karin.

It started off like most conversations. Alan was throwing fish eyeballs at John, Jason and Lori to emphasis his point - "Hey look at the size of this eyeball, their whole brain must be wired for visual processing." Someone said "What can we do with this?" Duh - award! "We'll need both eyes." "Don't let the shark eat the other one." "How should we present it and who should we give it to?" This is the kind of serious debate that really required a few beers, but we were pressed for time. Several candidate names were thrown out for review, but only one island guest really stood out.

Like most good projects, this one involved almost everyone except the victim, er . . . the honored recipient.

The cooking staff arftully arranged the eye balls in a carefully chosen frame of crab shell, surrounded by fresh greens. Paul was a good sport but wouldn't eat the award (good move Paul).

On the last day, as the plane is getting close to landing, everyone puts on a new hat and lends a hand. On one end of the island the runway needs to be rolled, fuel has to be moved, luggage is readied. On the other end of the island beds are stripped, cabins swept and reassigned, and last minute boarding passes are printed out.

John and Denise making some last-minute adjustments to a fuel pump before the pane arrives.

Karin and Paul relax at the end of the runway to get a good view of the landing plane.

Derry, Jason, John and Denise sit below the runway, hoping for a good look at the plane as it comes in. Jason got some awesome video of the approach.

Alan, Scott and John. I'm thinking these three could get into some fun trouble!

John and Denise are the ground crew. First they block the wheels and then they'll refuel the plane. Who gets to do the windows?

Plane approaching the runway.

Last view of Palmyra as we headed for Oahua.