Hey everyone,
So its time for the update of the vacation. To start we went to Tunisia, its a country in the north end of Africa. We landed in Tunis, the city, then drove to Hammamet. 'Mamet' means baths in arabic, oh I should start by saying that Tunisia is arab country and they speak Arabic and French. I think we were the only Americans in the country. Some of you might have already seen parts of Tunisia if you watched any of Star Wars. The filmed the desert planets in the south of Tunisia where the country is in the Sahara desert. The north end where we stayed has the same vegetation as Greece and Italy, with olive trees all over. There was some strong winds on our beach and at night got kind of cold. During the day in the sun it was nice and hot.
So the trip started with trying to arrange the scuba diving, you might understand this later on. We walked 15 min to the pier and the dive shop was closed. We then walked back to our hotel and walked down the beach on the other side of our hotel and there was suppose to be a hotel with a dive shop 5min away. This was closed too, man my plans were going south! So we went to the hotel front desk and asked them to find us another dive shop as the 2 they gave us were closed. The front desk called a shop who gave them to another shop and finally we got to talk to a real dive shop. This was Sunday and diving was set for Wednesday 2 dives, one reef and one ship wreck.
We were temped to go to the south for the Star Wars huts, canyon's with water falls, and the mosque. Too bad it was 2 days, more than 8 hrs of driving and the only thing I wanted was the canyon and waterfalls, although if Niko was there we would have hit up the Star Wars convention. So we didn't go and decided on the zoo and carthage day trip instead. So we enjoyed the sun the first 2 days then hit up the zoo/dinner and a show. When they pitched the zoo they said there was a dolphin show but it was really a seal show. Anyway that was pretty cool. The animals were fun and then we went and had dinner and a show at the hall. They had 2 shows the south african type show and also a arabic, show it was nice to see some native dancing and eat some authentic food. Also lindsay was 1 of 4 people that went on stage to dance with the show.
The next day was diving and most of you know what came here. Lindsay was worried about the cold water and there maybe being sharks. I just kept telling her Lins just remember what ever happens under the water just remember just keep breathing.
So we went to this dive shop and we had to go underground to "the bat cave". There was no beach or pier, we just "shot" the boat out the tunnel. well it was more like a boat ramp that wasn't created correctly. So we had to help push the boat in. The water was cold so they had us wear full wet suits, and even hoodies. This cramped my style a bit as I had a plan. So lets get to what happened as most of you know. I proposed underwater! Yeah I know most of you thought that hell would freeze over before that day would ever come. So back to the story. I planned on holding the ring in my swimming trunk's pocket, as it has held my valuables during diving before. So the wet suit was the problem. I decided to go on with the plan so I improvised. I already had the ring in a film case. So I put it in my wet suit around my waist.
First dive was the reef dive. So I decided not to do it there as the reefs in the Mediterranean aren't the best, so I was hoping for a cooler wreck dive. I kind of didn't pay attention to the ring that much as I was swimming around and stuff. I got to the top and remembered to check on the ring. I felt for it thru my suite and I can feel the film container, but I also felt the top wasn't on. I stuck my hand in my suite to check for sure and felt the container then the top inside. I couldn't feel the ring but figured it was behind the top. We were still in the water, 60+ feet of water. I pulled the film container out to make sure and it wasn't in there. Right then I was like oh man what now. I seriously thought in my head, oh well, guess she'll have to wait until I go buy another ring. At the same time I was like the ring has got to be in my wet suit, as you can imagine it was a snug fit, the normal guys in Europe are small in stature. So I reached in my suit and found the ring!
Then back into the boat to the next dive after putting it back into my wet suite, in the film container. This time I kept my hand on each side of the container until I jumped into the water for the next dive. I then held the ring in my hand the first half of the wreck dive. Underwater I got the attention of the other 2 divers and had the girl take a picture of lins and I. Lins thought it was weird that I was taking a picture with her in the middle of a dive. Then I turned to get the ring out and show Lins. She had no clue, she thought it was something I found underwater. Then she finally realized that it was an engagement ring when I took her hand. The lady taking picture didnt' know but luckily got 2 good pictures and her husband noticed and was clapping underwater. It was pretty funny, Lindsay was so excited she couldn't breath under water, I was cracking up. The rest of the dive was a blur for Lindsay as she spent the rest of the time looking at the rock instead of the wreck! There is a good picture of this. I tried to document most of the dive after that. Lindsay was then yelling YES when we got to the surface. So that is the climax of the story.
As you can see I foreshadowed the event for her the whole trip, as I kept telling her to keep breathing underwater the first 3 days of the trip.
The next day we went to Tunis/Carthage/Sidi Bou Said day trip. It was a good day because the other people at our hotel said they didn't see the sun all day. We saw the Roman ruins of Carthage, the blue and white buildings of Sidi Bou Said. Just like Greece here. Then there was the mosaic museum and in Tunis we hit up the market. The last day was cloudy and windy so we saw the sun every 10 min or so. All in all the trip was fun and Lindsay loves her ring.
So yes as most of you have asked, yes that is Lins and I on the front of http://www.taboys.com
Just remember you can see all the pics from this trip and the previous ones at
http://taboys.com/london2.html
John

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