My mom has always been full of advice delivered in idioms. A few of her favorites:

• If it’s meant to be, it will be.
• That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
• If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Today, she was the embodiment of this third one. We spent the day on the Great Barrier Reef. First of all, can I just say — amazing. I’ve snorkeled in several places in this big ole world, and this is by far the most amazing, vibrant, lush experience ever. Yes, some of the reef is dying and it’s noticeable. I’d say it’s about 25% or less. The dive guides explained this is a natural part of the life of the reef, although it has sped up in recent years. Still, most of the reef is full of life. It’s colorful – the coral is bright yellow, electric blue, hot pink, white, lime green, and purple. There are plenty of beautiful fish, including all of the Finding Nemo fish. We saw HUGE clams, along with turtles and reef sharks. The tiniest little minnow-like fish and really big grouper-looking fish.

Our guides were fantastic. We made two stops to snorkel at different parts of the refund went on a glass-bottom boat tour to see yet a third part of the reef. But the real story of the day is mom’s courage to try again even after her first snorkeling experience ever – at 70 (go mom!) – wasn’t the best. I was so proud of her for getting right back out there at the second stop and this time, getting. It. Done.

A note about the pics – we had to wear stinger suits cause box jellyfish, which are apparently very dangerous, are out this time of year. We didn’t run into any that we know of, but if we had, our suits would have saved us!