Over Thanksgiving week we decided to take a trip down to Key Largo, Florida. My sister Jessica came with us and we had a great time. We did some scuba diving/snorkeling, laid on the beach at our hotel, went to Kennedy Space center and the Miami Zoo.
Jeran and I drove down a day early so we could go to Kennedy Space Center before picking Jessica up from the airport. We stayed in a nice little family resort in Daytona Beach called Viking Lodge. The next day we went to Kennedy Space Center and saw lots of awesome stuff there. Jeran really liked the Saturn V rocket. It was pretty amazing.
Then we drove to Ft Lauderdale and picked Jessica up and got some groceries. We drove down to Key Largo and found our hotel. The next morning we left to go diving and snorkeling and it was quite chilly. The boat people kept saying that it was warmer in the water. We got to the first dive site, Christ of the Abyss, and got in and it was definitely not warmer. It was quite chilly and a bit murky.
Jessica liked this first dive site. It was her first look at the reefs and there were some very shallow reefs and fish that she could see right up close, and she wasn't too cold. Jeran and I didn't like the first dive so much because it was turbid enough that visibility was quite low and it was too cold to be comfortable, even with our full wetsuits. We didn't see anything awesome, mostly just shivered along looking at the little fish and wondering where the statue was- we didn't want to miss the actual site there. We eventually found the Christ statute and it was interesting to see it underwater with hands reaching up to the light.
When we got back on the boat, it was just as cold as underwater, maybe colder with the wind. Jeran and I weren't too impressed with Key Largo diving at this point. We went to another dive site about a mile away and got in the water. This time, the water was warmer than the air and it felt quite nice. This was a wreck site called City of Washington and there were pieces of coral-covered ship strewn all about as you swam around. We saw a big grouper and lots of big barracuda all over the place. I saw a green huge moray swimming around trying to find a hole to hide in. They are so creepy.
After those two dives, we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up. The hotel owners had invited all the guests over for Thanksgiving dinner (about 30 people) so we went over there and waited and socialized. It was pretty good and interesting to talk with and listen to the other guests from such different backgrounds. The food was pretty good and we got to try deep-fried turkey. It's good, but not good enough that I would want that instead of regular cooked turkey. We ate homemade key lime pie, made by a lady who has lived there for a long time and with key limes from a tree she planted, so it was very authentic and delicious. Outside their house, which is adjacent to the hotel, they had some green lights that shown onto refracted sheets and caused there to be sparkles all over the house exterior, patio, trees, and yard. It was pretty neat and beautiful.
The next morning we went back out on the boat. It was just the three of us and the boat captain. We went back to near the site of our second dive. As we approached and tied up to the buoy, we saw a lot of sea turtles swimming around near the surface. We got in and saw some sea turtles close up. Jessica swam with some and we watched one eat jellyfish. Jeran and I dove along the reef and Jessica snorkeled around. While we were apart Jessica saw two sharks! Probably a reef shark and a nurse shark. We saw some lobster and some pretty neat reefs and more barracuda.
It was much warmer this day and the waves and wind were quite calm. For the second dive that day we went just a short ways off to a different section of reef. It was so beautiful and peaceful.
The sun was shining and warm so it was a pretty nice boat ride back. We got cleaned up again, and laid on the lounge chairs on the beach and read our books and napped a bit. We also cooked two delicious meals that day, pineapple chicken sandwiches and pizza. We went souvenir hunting and saw the African Queen boat (it's pretty small). We hurried back to catch the sunset from the beach and caught the tail end of it in these pictures.
Our dive the next day got canceled due to high winds and waves so we went to Zoo Miami instead. It was pretty good. The gibbons were entertaining and the rhinoceros was amazingly huge. My favorite was the okapi because it was right up by the fence and paying attention to us and sticking it's tongue out to reach the shrubs. It was so silky-shiny and beautiful. After that we stayed one night in Jupiter, FL (where we were supposed to have dived that day) and then drove back to Atlanta to take Jessica home and see Aunt Kara.
It was a lovely Thanksgiving and I'm thankful we could do take such a fun trip!
