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November 08, 2005

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Other than all the fish and marine life, while snorkeling, I really didn't get a chance to see too many animals there in Hawai'i. But I did play with some of the little crabs on the beach. They were actually not very easy to even notice, and most people just seemed to be oblivious to the fact that they were even there, as they just walked along the beach and right over the tops of these tiny natives. 

But as I was walking along the beach, I kept noticing something moving out of the corner of my eye. As I started to look more closely, I noticed a lot of small holes in the sand. Some very tiny holes and some up to about the size of a quarter. Ahead of me, I could see something waiting right at the edge of a hole, and watched it disappear as I approached. The little crabs seemed to be all over the place, waiting right outside of their holes, and darting back in as people got closer. At one point I was able to get up close to one that was too far from its hole. As it realized it couldn't make it back to its hole, it took off like a flash, and for its size, faster than any animal I've ever seen. It almost looked as if it had turned on its side and took off rolling across the sand, like a leave blowing in the wind. It headed straight for the water, and when it got to the edge of the water, where the sand was soft and loose, in the blink of an eye, it buried itself and vanished.

I caught one and was showing it to a small girl that was playing on the beach with her family. It got loose and we had fun trying to catch it again. We cornered it and it kept running for the shade of my feet, actually darting under them. I picked up my foot and it would take off and run under the other one. Back and forth I started to dance as it went in and out from under each foot, as the young girl laughed hysterically at my crab dance.

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