The Black Lake.

It's hard to think of anything besides Harry Potter these days.

Actually, 

I can't think of anything but Harry Potter. 

The months have turned to weeks, 

the weeks to days, 

and now, 

the days to mere hours.

Hours. 

 Cassie convinced me to stay home from work,

yet again.

but only so that I could finish rereading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 

Ok, 

Cassie didn't care if I stayed home or not 

but I swear that book is gold. 

And come on,

Work < Harry Potter Week.

Deciding that I needed to get out of the house, 

having been preoccupied with Harry Potter obsession for the past few days, 

I did go to the beach with Cassie, Emily, and our Oklahoma friend - Mary - who's visiting for the week. 

We snorkeled.

It was sunny and clear 

but then a Florida rain shower transformed.

Typical.

While snorkeling we saw many creatures. 

Angel fish. 

Sea cucumbers. 

Cassie saw some snook.

We were looking for sea turtles but none showed up. 

However, we did see two huge nurse sharks and a few smaller ones throughout the day. 

The two were the largest I've ever seen. 

Cassie spotted them with her well polished snorkeling eye. 

We just swam and watched them. 

So big yet so docile, 

unless you provoke them - which we don't
I had to stop myself from touching the tail,
I really wanted to but I didn't know how it would react.

So cool, right?
It was exhilarating.
Cassie started swimming away at precisely the same time one of the
larger sharks started swimming away.
Cassie turned around to see one of the larger sharks headed in her direction.
That gave her quite the scare,
but it turned completely around not a second longer.

That was pretty much the coolest thing we saw all day.
We knew the rain shower wouldn't last too incredibly long,
so we sat it out.
and swam in it. 

The next thing we knew we were back in the water, snorkeling.
This time we had a contest,
for whoever could find the largest or smallest sea urchin.
I was judge - meaning Cassie slyly traded my mask for the one that leaks
Rude.
It was unnecessary to have a judge because we were comparing sizes,
not quality urchin - so I just photographed the competition.

Cassie won for smallest urchin
and Mary found the largest one,
it was so big she couldn't surface it.
It was like we were in HP4 in the Black Lake searching for our stolen loved ones.
Except for Cassie,
she's a squib.

I hope you noticed how still the water was,
because this is prime ocean snorkeling conditions.
Had it been a sunnier day,
it would have been perfect.
Mary was happy to be exploring the ocean again,
she's a future marine biologist,
so this stuff's just practice.

It's all fun and games until you start throwing the urchins.
We only did this one,
I don't know if someone's actually offended by this.

 

That was probably healthy to have my mind partially taken off HP for a bit.
But now it's lock down time.
The hours are turning to minutes.
Harry Potter will be arriving soon.
My heart might just stop beating,
the anticipation may kill me.
"Come on, Tom, let's finish this the way we started it...together!"