Florida Kays - Scuba Vacation w/ the Girls!

Day 1 – June 28, 2006
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale, FL, then took road trip down to Key Largo in the ugliest rental car known to man (a Chevy HHR), our "fugly-mobile".


On the way down we stopped in Miami for lunch and some shopping where seriously, noone speaks english, thank goodness my Spanish is good! Though it didn't matter, I later got nicknamed the "gringa" anyhow -- not my fault as Ammy is 100% Puerto Rican, and Sandra is half, so therefore, I was the white girl.. oh well! The drive down was very pretty and there was lots of singing and "serenading" between Ammy and Sandra, but it didn't stop me from being excited!




Not to mention, I was meant to be there...


We arrived at Ammy’s friend’s parents house, where we crammed into a small room with a bathroom and a little kitchenette. After getting settled into to our "cozy" house, we decided to head out to dinner. I discovered there was no way to keep my hair from becoming an afro, and I was warned I couldn’t primp, so I decided to just be in vacation mode! We went to this restaurant called Snooks, which was ideal with it’s amazing waterfront view, outdoor dining, and incredible food (though a bit pricey)!

Only problem, the worst service EVER! We entertained ourselves by dancing to the great music, but even on vacation a 3 hour meal (2 and a half waiting for our food) is a bit ridiculous!

Day 2 – June 29, 2006

We got up and decided to explore the gorgeous town of Key Largo. We discovered that Key Largo is a diver’s paradise, with practically every other shop being a dive shop! We got signed up for all our dive trips (our main plan for being there), bought some new dive gear (yay!). We wandered over to this pretty park across from the house we stayed at which had this little inlet with shallow water (with a crab that almost bit Sandra's butt!) where you could snorkel or just play in the water. We took our books, some Blue Hawaiians and enjoyed the gorgeous weather (85 degrees + 100% humidity) - hot, but somehow just right... vacation perfection. Only complaint, I didn't get pictures.

Day 3 - June 30, 2006

Day 3 began with an early rise, then our first day of diving.

We went to see the Christ of the Abyss, which is a statue donated to the US by Italy of Jesus with his arms outstretched to the skys, sunk in about 25 feet of water. It has a creepy dedication on it, saying to Dr. Michael Kevorkian! Apparently, it isn't the suicide one, but still, whoa, tripped me out! We also went to a dive site called Double North. I almost got attacked by a baracuda (those suckers are everywhere), and discovered why fire coral is so named (ouch!). It started to sprinkle before we got in, and the rain was cooler than the water! The water was a warm 82 degrees, with incredible visibility, absolutely to die for...
do I really have to go back to reality?

That night we went down to "the happening place in town", a bar called Hog Heaven. Apparently we weren't smart enough to figure out from the title, but needless to say that was an amusingly interesting evening. Every time I left Ammy alone there was another guy trying to make out with her – quite impressive!

Day 3 began with an early rise, then our first day of diving..

We went to see the Christ of the Abyss, which is a statue donated to the US by Italy of Jesus with his arms outstretched to the skys, sunk in about 25 feet of water. It has a creepy dedication on it, saying to Dr. Michael Kevorkian! Apparently, it isn't the suicide one, but still, whoa, tripped me out! We also went to a dive site called Double North. I almost got attacked by a baracuda - those suckers are everywhere, and discovered why fire coral is so named (ouch!). (Underwater pictures coming later - I don't have these pics yet).. It started to sprinkle before we got in, and the rain was cooler than the water! The water was a warm 82 degrees, with incredible visibility, absolutely to die for...
The inlet to where our boat left from... do I really have to go back to reality?

That night we went down to "the happening place in town", a bar called Hog Heaven. Apparently we weren't smart enough to figure out from the title, but needless to say that was an amusingly interesting evening. Plenty of stories if you're curious, but I'm not going to go into detail here.

Day 4 – July 1, 2006

Saturday we slept in, then went and got pedicures and decided to take a road trip down to Key West (about a two hour drive b/c it's only 2 lane roads all the way down there). The girls had told me about the most amazing desert in the world, Key Lime Pie on a Stick.

It is frozen and covered in dark chocolate – absolutely the most amazing thing in the whole world, or “joy-gasmic”, as Sandra says. Therefore, it was the first thing we went in search of upon arrival.

We took a stroll down Duvall (though didn't get to enjoy an infamous "Duvall Crawl"), and saw a bunch of Drag Queens, and lots of t-shirts and items making me thing Key West is famous for crude boys and pot?

We had to stop in at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, and had dinner at a place called Willie T's (I highly recommend it), where the girls even convinced me to buy a t-shirt!

We then headed over to the Southernmost point (yes, as it sounds, that is the southernmost point of the US). We couldn't see Cuba (though supposedly you can in the day time - it's only 45 miles away)... but we saw some other bizarre things that were good for a laugh!

Yes, we know we are immature... =)

Look, it's the crazy bunny from Monty Python!

Then we headed back up to Key Largo b/c we had another early day of diving on Sunday!

Day 5 – July 2, 2006

We got the chance to dive the USS Speigel Grove (a boat sunk by the Navy off of Key Largo to create an artificial reef), which had originally sunk on it's starboard side. Luckily for us, it was blown upright in a hurricane last year, so we were able to go through it. It was my first wreck dive (it's about 85-130 feet deep) - an advanced dive, due to the depth and the surge, but I got to do it with a guide! Incredible - I'm hooked!

After our dive, we went out to lunch with some Ammy's friends from Florida that we went diving with. Since we were in the best place for fresh seafood, we had all made a plan to eat seafood for every meal (minus breakfast). I even tried fish tacos!

My goal was to eat seafood for every meal since we were on the water. I even tried fish tacos! This was bacon wrapped scallops - YUM-O!

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the hammock at the house.

Day 6 – July 3, 2006

The next day we got to enjoy another day of diving! We went to Elbow Reef, a site called City Of Washington. WOW! My best dive to date, I think... we got to dive with Nurse sharks (This one was about 4 feet long, and look this one has a baby too!)

and a big jewfish (AKA grouper) named Bob? Don't be fooled by the picture, as he was bout 15 feet behind me and 10 feet above, this baby is about 300 pounds -- freaking huge, but gentle as a lamb...

We also saw trumpetfish, pufferfish (though tempted as I was, I didn't make one puff up), and lots of gorgeous angelfish.

Our second dive was at another site where there had been hammerhead sightings (a 9 foot, and a 14 foot!), but I'm secretly glad we didn't see either of those...

That afternoon we decided to check out parasailing! I got quite sunburned.




It was kind of a let down in terms of "thrill" factor (yes, I know I'm an adrenaline junky), but the views were spectacular!

We ended our trip with one last amazing meal with our hosts.

It was one of our host's birthday, check out her "birthday cake"

I got caught enjoying one last piece of Key Lime Pie (hey, when in Rome, but it is so time for me to diet now!)

Day 7 – July 4, 2006

The next morning, we headed back to Fort Lauderdale to catch our respective flights (they were headed back to Cali, and I was headed to Baltimore, Maryland for work), but even though we were sad to leave, it'd been a perfect trip!

So next year the plan is either Cozumel or Hawaii... who knows! Hope you enjoyed my LONG blog!