My muscle man and I were very excited about our trip down to the keys, my uncle and his fiance are scuba divers too, so we were so glad to get into the water! The seas were not really in our favor until later in the week, the first day we went out on my uncle's boat and it was choppy and the visibility was poor, but we still had a great time! Despite the seas being not so great, they did clear up more through the week, so we got in several excellent reef dives =D I adore reefs, I could just spend hours looking at all the little details like the flamingo tongues and little christmas tree worms! And the local dive shop had the red underwater filter for my gopro, so my photos and videos don't have that greenish tint anymore!
Since my muscle man only got scuba certified last year, we haven't really made any dive trips with other divers, so that was fun also. My uncle is an old pro, him and my dad have been divers longer than I've been alive, and his fiance is new at it like my muscle man. I'm nowhere near as comfortable or knowledgeable underwater as him, but it was fun that each couple had a veteran/novice dynamic, and my muscle man is convinced more than ever now that he wants to get advanced scuba training.
And naturally, no dive trip to the Florida Keys would be complete without a trip to Molasses reef to see the Christ of the Abyss statue. There were lots of snorkelers there which made for some cool pictures as well. The surrounding reef was very nice, though shallow, so many cool soft corals!
My muscle man and I recently decided that we definitely deserved a spring break this year, and my uncle was gracious enough to offer for us to come stay with him in the keys for a while!! We had such an amazing week, between scuba diving and kayaking to just plain enjoying the touristy stuff, it was so much fun!
We were able to score a super cheap flight into Tampa, which is a nice little drive from the keys, but we figured it would be nice to drive through the everglades, plus even with the cost of a rental car it was still way cheaper than airfare to the keys or Miami. =) And it gave us an extra day to just sight-see before going into the keys. My muscle man is a huge "ancient aliens" fan, so when he found out our planned route was taking us straight to Homestead FL, he insisted we go to Coral Castle. It was a great little 1950's roadside attraction, and quite fun to look at all the neat stuff.
The best thing about the place though was that they include a guided tour with your ticket, and the guy running the tours just makes a big loop, so you can join up whenever you arrive and just listen until you're back where you began =P
And then, there's the obvious cool factor that they let you touch all
the creations, explore on your own, and they even encourage you to sit
in the chairs! (Sadly, the coolest thing to play with would have been the big-ass rock door that used to swing around like a turnstile, but it broke some time in the 80's and no one could seem to fix it... It's still remarkably incredible to look at, even if it doesn't rotate anymore)
We also made a stop by a little state park to check out the water, then it was off to the Keys bright and early the next day! Lucky for me, Dunkin was running a free iced coffee promotion, so I was able to get my caffeine on before the drive =D
A few days later me and my muscle man decided to head down to Key West for the afternoon, and we happened to run into some key deer on the way! They are super cute, and coming from Alabama, deer here are cute but very deadly at 5-6 feet tall, these little key deer were just too darling, even if they were getting into trouble when we happened on them (they had found a trash can full of yummy things apparently, and tossed it over to enjoy the contents)
I convinced my muscle man to try conch fritters at lunch (I got the crab cakes, yum!) and then we were off to enjoy the island. We decided that the trains were all too expensive since we hadn't gotten into town until noon, so we just used my muscle man's smart phone to take ourselves on a walking tour from one side of the island to the other. We literally walked from one end of the island to the other and back again (hindsight, I totally should not have worn flip flops) but it was really a lot of fun to just take our time and enjoy the scenery.
We had to go to the lighthouse, and of course had to climb to the top, even though I absolutely hate spiral staircases with an intense passion (they exasterbate my vertigo, so I have to go really slowly and I feel like I'm going to fall the whole time). The view was great, it's so fun to be able to see water all around!
We definitely had a wonderful day out, but in the end we decided to skip the sunset and head back to the middle keys for the most awesome dinner ever... LIONFISH SUSHI... now that was an experience!
My muscle
man and I decided that his birthday weekend would be a great time to
take a little long weekend road trip! And since our roommate had Monday
off for Martin Luther King Day, he decided to tag along!! With the
recent cold snap, I figured that it would be a perfect time to go swim
with the Manatees in Crystal River Florida!! I've been before, but my
muscle man never has, and it's really such an awesome experience! Of
course, since it was his birthday, he decided we would also take a
diversion to a cavern about an hour away for a little scuba diving!
There are actually two cave/cavern dive locations we had to choose from, Blue Grotto and Devil's Den. I've actually been to Blue Grotto before, and would have been my choice, but our roommate was with us and not a certified diver, so we decided Devil's Den gave him a cooler swim since he would be down in the cave with us. This was my our first time diving in an overhead environment, which is admittedly a little more dangerous than I would normally venture, but my muscle man was set on it! So after some assurance from the proprietor that it was safe so long as we stayed in the main chamber we were ready to suit up and dive in. Our roommate stayed at the surface and snorkeled while we went into the icy water, it was quite the experience! I mostly got video inside the cave since our GoPro isn't the best at still photography, especially in a darkened cave.
After our dive, we found the best little local restaurant, they had the most amazing rice-cereal breaded chicken! And mac-n-cheese! And sweet tea in massive mason jars, of course haha!
We spent the rest of the afternoon at Rainbow Springs park, which happened to be on the way between Devil's Den and Crystal River. It was such a cool park, and we were able to bring the puppy with us for some exercise after she had to spend the morning in her kennel in the hotel waiting for us to dive and enjoy lunch. Not only was the park positively gorgeous, our puppy loved it, and was so happy to have so many trails to lead us down into the marshes. We thought about going back the next day for a swim, since the hot springs feed into the river it makes the water quite warm, but never quite got around to it.
Sunday we set out for our manatee tour at day break, and we all felt quite a bit stupid knowing we were about an hour away from jumping into water, considering that there was frost on our car windows! Lucky for us, the river is hot-spring fed, which is why the manatees come into the water in the first place... So the cold was actually good, it would mean more manatees wanted in the warmer water! The sun warmed things a bit, but man the water still stung, even when we got closer to the spring. But the manatees were amazing, my muscle man and our roommate were both like little giggly girls when they started seeing them hehe! And there were a few little pups that were just so cute and so curious, it was so fun and really worth the near hypothermia =P
There were some great trails in the Crystal River area, so we decided to
spend the afternoon hiking with the puppy, thankfully it had warmed up
quite a bit since our frosty morning, and the sun was awesome at raising
our spirits and capping off a great little weekend getaway!
Alabama is one of those places that usually shuts down at the hint of
bad weather. And why, you ask, do they do that? Because the absurdly
crazy reports on the news today of abandoned cars, shut down interstates, and
people stranded in all manner of places (work, shelters, cars,
stranger's houses...) Birmingham is simply not prepared for any type of
winter weather, much less a freak of nature snow storm in the middle of
the day, so yesterday when it became clear the snow was sticking,
EVERYONE tried to leave the city at the exact same moment. The worst
possible moment to be leaving, when the snow was just melting under the
warm ground and causing ice to form under the fresh snow that was
falling...I found myself one of the lucky ones who was stuck at work,
and even luckier, I was with my muscle man!
We carpool, so when the
weather started turning sour, we decided to try to get out of town and
home to our dogs. 2 hours later, and nearly out of gas, we had only
moved 3/4 of a mile from my work. So we found a parking lot and walked
back to my work, where there was at least food (and lots of booze, my ceo's were stuck too, along with a dozen or so coworkers). We thought about trying again before the sun
set, since we hadn't been able to get in touch with our neighbors and no
one was home to feed the dogs, but our better judgement told us to just
stay put, worst case scenario we would wind up with hungry, upset dogs when we finally were able to get home. Thankfully, the neighbors came through and had their kids come feed the dogs (that sentence doesn't do justice the difficulty that task was, but I'll leave it at that for brevity). So now, with my bosses out to get more food for the evening, we slowly started accepting that we would have to sleep in my office. Great.
I've at least got a decent size office, with a locking door, and we had grabbed some blankets before we left the car, and I keep a stash of jackets and sweaters at work that along with a chair cushion became makeshift pillows, so not the worst set up. But still... It's work... So it was quite the sleepless night, plus we knew that we would want to try to leave as SOON as the roads cleared, otherwise we would be in the chaos of all the other workbound refugees trying to get home. All night I would wake up and check the traffic website, only to hear reports of all lanes blocked due to an accident or abandoned vehicles. But finally, just after the sun rose, it looked better than it had all night. The interstate we use was still delayed in downtown, but it looked like if you could just make it down far enough before getting onto the interstate it would be smooth sailing, and off we went into the cold to pick up the car, get gas and try our luck.
Since both of us hate normal traffic, we already know quite a few back roads to avoid the interstate, so after some very creative navigation and at least 3 "uh oh, not this way" u-turns, we arrived on the interstate to find that not only was our theory correct and NO ONE was on the road, but that the ice/snow was melted where cars had been trekking all night, and the single melted strip wasn't terribly slick. (again, for brevity's sake, I'm leaving out details, but it is worth mentioning we felt bad breaking gov't prompts to stay off roads except in emergencies, but the cop that rode in front of us for 4 miles didn't seem to mind us driving. Plus we figured a big dog stuck outside in the cold, a puppy who's never been alone overnight, and an old dog who acts out when he's not happy kinda qualified as an emergency)
Once we were off the interstate, it's thankfully just a few turns to our house, on pretty major roads. So the ice wasn't very bad there, although it was definitely in worse shape than the interstate, and would have been very dangerous had my muscle man not known what he was doing (we passed 3 or 4 cars in a very deep ditch just before our subdivision). I was so excited to finally be home I could hardly contain myself. When we pulled into the driveway I just literally started jumping up and down in the driveway like a little school girl! We could finally enjoy some of this gorgeous snow, and better yet, take our little snow puppy out into it! I know that's petty, but I don't have a kid, and our puppy is pretty darned cute and has never experienced snow =P And most importantly, we were home! Not stranded, not stuck, not wrecked, and not stuck for another night in an office or shelter or some other place that's not home. As for the dogs, they are all quite fine now, and yes, our little snow dog definitely had a great time playing in the yard! =D
What an interesting two days to say the least!! So glad to be able to end it on such a happy note!
This summer took quite a while to pick up speed it seems, we didn't get out much during the first of the summer due to colder and rainier than usual climates... So once we got started, we really took the bull by the horns and have had a blast making up for a dreary summer this fall!
My parents were taking a fall vacation too, and so on their way back, we decided to meet them for a few days in Chattanooga, TN. We couldn't leave without going to the aquarium, and with my love of everything underwater, I was definitely loving it!
My muscle man was super excited about the penguin exhibit, and he had lots of fun making the penguins chase his hand down the glass! Those little guys were super fast, I barely got a good shot at all haha!
And of course, there were sharks! We stumbled on the big tank while they were doing a fish feeding show with a diver in the tank, so the fish were super active and we were able to watch from a side window since we didn't much care for watching the diver, we just wanted to see the fishies!!
But my favorite was the jellyfish exhibits!!
Quite an enjoyable little weekend trip for me and my muscle man, and definitely helped make up for the rather blah start to our summer... So at least we were able to end the warmer weather season on a high note! (We're not tied to school schedules, so "summer" for us runs from when you pack the sweaters away until you break them back out again =P So this mid-October trip makes our summer list haha! )
My muscle man and I were very excited about our trip down to the keys, my uncle and his fiance are scuba divers too, so we were so glad to get into the water! The seas were not really in our favor until later in the week, the first day we went out on my uncle's boat and it was choppy and the visibility was poor, but we still had a great time! Despite the seas being not so great, they did clear up more through the week, so we got in several excellent reef dives =D I adore reefs, I could just spend hours looking at all the little details like the flamingo tongues and little christmas tree worms! And the local dive shop had the red underwater filter for my gopro, so my photos and videos don't have that greenish tint anymore! 
