Memorial Day Weekend is near and it just makes you think that you want to get away for a while. Someplace remote and far away. Somewhere that might make you appreciate home when you return but also amazed you and will fill you with a good memory. There aren’t too many places like that left on earth anymore but I found one.  Summer is near and you may see some great fish when you hop into the water but on a journey to the other side of the planet you will see fish that you cannot see anywhere else.  There is a very real underwater water land not offered by Disney. It is offered to us for free by our creator.  It is a mysterious place that is a swarming blue color pallet teaming with the magnificence of a healthy marine life. A place that is untouched and should be also gleaming in our parts of the world if we didn’t ruin it with pollution and over exploration.

The place is called Palau that is a string of 300 tiny islands in the North Pacific Ocean southeast of the Philippines. The tiny island nation is a underwater utopia with the world’s first shark sanctuary. There are gigantic clams in the sand and it is not uncommon to have a 400 pound Napoleon Wrasse fish swim side by side you for the fun of it. They are curious too you know. Palau is also home to a fluke of nature called Jellyfish Lake. You have to hike about 20 minutes to get to the lake where the jellyfish are located.  Take a dip into the lake surrounded by lush trees and vegetation and before you know it you are surrounded by fluff balls of jellyfish that do not sting at all. You suddenly feel like you have emerged into a giant lava lamp.

Jellyfish nation has been caused by the lack of predators in the water that not only caused the jellyfish to multiply but it also has caused them to lose their stinging cells. Evolution works in mysterious ways in this paradise we live on called earth. They look like swirling globes of marshmallow puffs that just move about you in the water. It is so special and so different it is hard to not react with caution out of habit.  The truth is that weather you go to Palau to snorkel at a sunken ship turned barrier reef or scuba dive with the sharks and giant Napoleon fish or swim with the jellyfish, just being in such a clear clean remote place engulfed by the wonder of nature will make you feel like a kid again and be so grateful to be alive

Yes Memorial Day is approaching and weather you have plans for a beer and BBQ in the yard or an exotic adventure to Palau be grateful for whatever you have and preserve it. Take care of it. Paint it or sweep it. Hold her or his hand and tell them something you like about them. Or get as far away as you can reach halfway around the earth and appreciate nature in it rawest most unspoiled form and preserve that too. Make plans to appreciate life.  Your life and the lives of the people,   places and things around you. We only get to take this ride of life once.