Swimming with Radar

I love turtles. It all started when we moved here. One day I walked out to the driveway and there was a turtle. I took a picture of him for evidence since Dave was not home and I figured he’d never believe me. Here is his picture on my scrapbook page from 2007.

Timmypage

Since then, when we travel we are always on the look out for turtles or Timmy, what we named the turtle in our driveway.

We have lots of turtle art on our walls and have taken lots of pictures of turtles.

I’ve even made a stencil of a turtle for stamping on one of Dave’s shirts and some fabric.

Dave's turtle pocket

But this was the first time that we were able to “swim” with a turtle.  Next to our lodging in Hilo on The Big Island, is a park which break walls form a great place to swim and for turtles to live.

hilopark

We saw turtles a couple years ago when we were here, but never got close to them. The day we went into the water was overcast so there were few people out.

Meet Radar. According to locals he is 80 years old. A marine biologist comes out and checks on the turtles and has determined he’s been around that long.

radar

To give you an idea of how large he is, here I am with him in the water. He came right up to me. He was just one of several turtles who make this area their home.

radar2

What a thrill to not only see the turtles, but to get so close. For me, this was the highlight of our trip.

As promised, that’s the end of my Hawaii photos. Now to some serious art play!