My Story: March 2006

Sunrise

Hello Florida

Florida was so gorgeous that I stayed up until about 3 am every night looking at the stars and I'd wake at sunrise. I didn't want to miss anything. After the sun rose, I'd go back to bed until the girls came and jumped on me, though. This is a pic of sunrise from my villa.

Hot Wheels

In the retirement communtiy where Felice's parents live, everyone has a golf cart. Each house even has this little mini garage where they keep them. It's so cute. Felice took my on a golf cart tour of the neighborhood at sunset. I tried to convince her to get her parents neighbors out to drag race me, but she wouldn't. Some day I will race...someday...

These neat trees were all over. I don't know if you can see it, but it looks like it's roots are attacking it.

At Felice's parent's house, they had a hot tub that overflowed into the swimming pool. It was nice.

The edge of the Everglades

Exciting!

Fun with a box of Fruit Loops

Who would have known that one small box of cereal would keep a six year old entertained for a full hour? When you are in the backseat of a car for four hours, you get a little desprerate to keep them entertained.

Ahh, the Keys

Bonnie entertained herself in the curtains quite often.

A lagoon by the resort. It was gorgeous! One time, Felice and I rented tiki boats (they are similar to kayaks) and raced in this lagoon. We also raced backwards. I won her going backwards, but she won going forward.

Parasailing

Felice took pictures from the boat, as I took pictures from the parasail. As soon as I get those pictures from here, they will be posted.

The View from here

When everyone came down, they talked about how quiet it was up there. I went tandem with Bonnie, and she screamed the WHOLE time. I don't know of this "quiet" they speak of. I screamed just to scream with her too.

The view of Duck Key Island where we stayed

Trainer for a day

At the resort, they had an area where they kept dolphins. You could work with the trainers and the dolphins. It was a lot of fun.

Water Skiing

I could NOT, for the life of me, get up on skis. It gives you a major wedgie, but kneeboarding was definitely fun. I was ripping it up! Here's all of us having fun and getting sore.

Snorkeling!

Snorkeling, bar none, was my favorite! It started as a "glass bottom boat ride," but the "glass bottom" was a little glass panel on the very edge that was half covered in moss or something. And it smelled over there, so I was sorely disappointed. About an hour out to sea, we stopped at a large reef and went snorkeling.

When your head was above water, you would have no idea about all the life going on below you. I saw so many tropical fish! I'll tell you of the most exciting instances, though. One time, Sarah and I were above talking about a "Dori" fish that was mosying along the reef. This guy grabbed my fin and was frantically pointing down. When I went under, there was this HUGE green eel right below me. He was longer than I was! Sarah freaked and swam away. I followed him, until he went under a rock. Then I imagined him popping out at me or something so I swam away (rather quickly).

Another time (and this is most exciting of all) Sarah and I were once again above water talking about what we had just seen. We went back under and saw a three foot long barracuda right in between us. Face to face! Sarah screamed and swam away. I looked up to check on her, looked back down, and he was gone. Just like that. It happened so quickly. I wanted him to come back so I could get a better look.

Snorkeling was fo sho my favorite of all.

One time, I was looking up at the boat, and when I went back under, I found myself in the middle of this huge school of fish! There were hundreds of them. Some of them were bigger than my head! I held really still. Some of them came right up to my face and just stared at me. It seemed like they wanted to look at me as much as I wanted to look at them! After a while I started feeling them along my stomach and legs, so I swam away. That was just too wierd! These are pictures of that school if fish. (from the boat)

From the boat, It looked so funny to look out into the ocean and see a bunch of people just floating.

Little Beauties

These neat red flowers had litte tiny white flowers growing in the middle of them. I also saw some in Arizona. I liked them.

A neat tree

Look but don't touch!

The sidewalk to our villa.

Bath time...

One night, Mike and Felice went out to dinner and I watched the girls. Bonnie didn't want to get in the bath because her sandals had given her blisters and she didn't want to get her feet in the water because it would hurt. I demonstrated how to get in the tub without putting your feet in the water...fully clothed. It was the only way to get her in.