Life is Great

So sad when vacation ends. We managed to cram a week's worth of fun and relaxation into 3 days. On Thursday we woke up at dawn to go scuba diving. The water was warm and gorgeous and we had a great time. We got back and immediately got into the hot tub to warm up (it was overcast and windy all morning but luckily warmed up in the afternoon). We ordered lunch by the pool and laid there for a couple of hours, then decided to check out Key West, which we had heard so much about. Key Largo is the first island closest to the tip of Florida, and Key West is the last, 100 miles southwest. The drive was beautiful and we stopped and shopped along the way.

We were crossing one bridge when a rescue vehicle stopped traffic. If you have to get stuck in traffic somewhere, that's the place to do it. We got out of the car and visited with the other passengers around us. A helicopter flew in from the south and landed right on the bridge, then an ambulance drove up and they transferred a patient onto the helicopter. It was probably about a 45 minute delay, but it was a nice excuse to get out the car and enjoy the view.

Shortly after that, we crossed Seven Mile Bridge. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Just as we were pulling in to Key West, I pulled out a pamphlet to try to find things to do there. We read about the nightly sunset celebration held on the west side of the island, which seemed fun. Every night street performers and vendors gather and draw huge crowds to watch the sunset and party. We parked the car and arrived about 45 minutes before sunset. There was a cruise ship docked, so it was packed, but we were able to get an outdoor table on the harbor with a great view. On the East Coast, we don't have a lot of opportunities to see the sun set over the ocean. It was very cool.

We ordered dinner, watched the sun go down, and watched the crazy street performer next to us with his trained house cats. He had them playing leap frog and jumping through flaming hoops. I've never seen anything quite like it. We loved Key West and are so glad we made it down there. Right before we left we had to visit the southernmost tip of the continental US, which is closer to Cuba than Miami. We had a long drive home. It was a clear night with a full moon and very fun, but towards the end we were both tired and fell asleep almost as soon as we arrived (if not a few minutes before). Friday morning Jason arose at 6 am to go bonefishing. (More on that later.) I slept until 8, went for a short run, then went to the spa for a massage and facial. I finished up just as Jason pulled in. We checked out of the hotel and drove to Everglades National Park, where we saw alligators along with a bunch of other wildlife.

There are several alligators in this picture...I swear.On the way to the park, we stopped at a fruit stand that has a great history and makes to-die-for fresh fruit milkshakes.

We had some time to kill before we had to be at the airport, so we did some shopping at Aventura Mall, where we went with the Moores years ago after we got off our Caribbean cruise. We reluctantly checked in at the airport, ordered some dinner, and even more reluctantly got on the plane. If we didn't have kids to go back to, we may have just abandoned all our responsibilities and stayed down there forever. We had a great time. We arrived home at 1:00 am tired but happy to see our kids.

We woke up on Saturday and got to visit with Todd (and celebrate his birthday), Ashley, Toby, Ben, and meet adorable Chase for the first time. He has the most amazing blue eyes and great hair. I fell instantly in love with him. It did make me sad to see how huge Colin is compared to Chase. It's just a reminder that he is growing up way too fast! The boys had a great time with Grammy and Papa while we were gone. The weekend visit with everyone was fun but controlled chaos, without the control part. It's kind of impressive how loud 5 tiny little boys can be. I can only imagine what it will be like at the beach house this summer. On the positive side, most of the time they were making happy, fun noises rather than trying-to-kill-each-other noises. The flight home was crowded, delayed, and an overall pain, but we survived. The kids did pretty well...Jason and I were tired and over it. Maybe we were just sad our vacation was over. It was too fun!