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Florida Keys (part 3- All the other Fun)

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I guess it’s rather appropriate that a trip to an island cluster would be filled with so many water activities, especially since my uncle lives on a boat! My muscle man and I spent the whole week just soaking it up and enjoying everything we could!

 

While we were planning our trip, I was kinda disappointed that I just couldn’t make our schedule work to go on a kayak trip around the everglades. But we got the next best thing, rental kayaks and a perfectly placed boat launch (an unexpected perk of staying on a boat in a marina haha!) So off we went armed with plenty of sunscreen and snacks for a great little paddle around the gulf side of the island. It was so peaceful, just me and my muscle man, paddling around wherever our arms could take us. There were lots of great little coral islands covered in mangroves, and we pulled into this little grassy lagoon that was home to loads of upside down jellyfish! We also saw a pufferfish chilling out around one of the islands, and of course there were so many neat birds to look at above land as well.

 

Naturally, the scuba diving in the keys is great, and the area is very well known for its shallow coral reefs, but leave it to my muscle man to want more! He has been hounding me to dive a wreck pretty much since he got certified, but as they are usually reserved for more advanced divers since they are usually deep and tend to be more dangerous, I’ve been easily able to avoid the issue. But there happens to be a great dive outfitter in Marathon, and after a talk with the head dive-mistress, she decided that we met standards (and I think needed more people to join a trip they already had planned!) and we were on our way to the Thunderbolt wreck. Though it was a little deeper than I prefer (100+ feet) it was still a great dive!

Florida Keys (part 2- Fun in the Coral)

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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!

 

Florida Keys (part 1- Fun on Land)

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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!

Bucket List: Cave Dives and Manatees

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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!

Bucket List: Spur of the Moment Vacay

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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! )

2nd Anniversary: Back in Time

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My muscle man and I decided that for our anniversary, we wanted to do something a little special. But since the day fell during crazy busy times at work for both of us, our options were kind of limited. We couldn’t take a day off or even a half day to enjoy ourselves, so we figured the next best thing would be to eliminate our hour long commute and stay in the city for an evening.

But seeing as how we are very much not urban creatures, spending an evening in a swanky high rise just isn’t my thing. We were lucky enough to find a bed and breakfast only a few blocks away from our work, and we thought that would be an absolutely perfect option!  (link) So I called and booked us a room for our honeymoon night, figuring we could at least get off work and relax for a few hours without having to deal with traffic!The room was super cute, there was this toile canopy over the iron bed, and there was even a TV tucked away in the armoire!

 

 

After we took a little tour of the house (gorgeous!) we headed off to find some dinner. There’s several dozen awesome restaurants only a few blocks away in Birmingham’s 5 points area, so we had several choices in front of us, ranging from fast food to 5 star gourmet… We chose a great little sushi bar and lucked up with early bird specials, haha we like food, but we’re super cheap =P Then it was back to the hotel for some relaxing time! TV for my muscle man, and a nice bath for me!!

I was super excited when I booked our room that it had a restored clawfoot tub, so of course I couldn’t resist a nice long soak!

And of course with it being our anniversary, I had to get a few shots with my muscle man!

 

After our little one night stay, I think my muscle man and I are totally ready to sell our house and move downtown! haha well maybe not for real, but it was so nice to get off work and have so much time in the evening, not to mention waking up the next morning later than usual, enjoying a fabulous home cooked breakfast, and still making it to work on time! All in all, it was a perfect little anniversary escape for when our busy schedules didn’t allow much else =D

 

Bucket List: SCUBA Diving (again)

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This year has really been quite an adventure for my muscle man and I! This is really more of a ‘bucket list’ item for him as I’ve already checked it off mine… I’ve been a certified diver for 13 years now, but had gotten out of practice since I didn’t have anyone to go with until now! So even though  I was a little worried about diving into such an expensive hobby (pun intended =P) I’m really glad my muscle man decided to get certified!

The best thing about him deciding to get into scuba is that we actually live about 15 minutes away from a great little quarry that’s been flooded and turned into a dive location. It’s actually the place I took my check out dives when I got certified(it’s like the road test when you get a driver’s license, you have to pass a written test, but then you have to go on several dives with your instructor before you can scuba dive on your own). And as fate would have it, it’s also where my muscle man wound up going to do his check out dives too!

I went with his group for a bit of a refresher for myself, there were actually quite a few parents of kids in the group doing the same thing haha. My muscle man’s instructor decided they would do the required 4 scuba dives in one day, which was quite exhausting, but really fun!

Since that trip was mostly more about testing skills, and since we had a really big group, we didn’t get to see much of the quarry. But since it’s only 15 minutes from our house, we decided a few weeks later to go back just the two of us and get in a few more dives and have some fun.  =)

This trip was a lot more relaxed, and it was great to get into the water with my muscle man and swim around for a bit, and explore some of the less explored areas around the quarry. It goes down really deep, something like 180feet, but we stayed shallow since there was this terrible thermocline (level of freezing ass cold water) at about 40′.

So aside from dipping down into that cold area to check out a wrecked car or something, we stayed shallow and just took our time checking things out. As we were swimming around, I noticed the absolute coolest thing I’ve seen while diving in freshwater… jellyfish… no really… A JELLY freaking FISH… In freshwater! I tried to get a photo of it, but without a macro filter or any advanced settings on my little point and shoot 35mm underwater camera, a blurry little smudge is the best I could do =P

It was still quite a fun little day out at the quarry, but we still haven’t fully explored all that’s in this little hole. So I’m sure that we will check it out again at some point, if for nothing else than to just keep our skills up between more adventurous dive trips. =)

Kicking off Summer Right

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The absolute best thing about summer is that my muscle man loves to travel as much as I do!! =D So when my parents invited us down for a little half-week getaway to the beach, we couldn’t say no! But since we have more traditional days off, we decided to start our vacation a day early, and we took advantage of having a free Sunday to go visit the naval air museum in Pensacola link. I hadn’t been since I was a kid, and my muscle man had never been, so it seemed like an excellent way to spend the morning while we waited for our condo to be ready.


 

 

In addition to the awesome planes and signs, they also had a flight simulator, which my crazy, adrenaline loving muscle man decided he just had to try out! And because I get motion sick really easily, my mom stepped in and rode with my muscle man haha!

 

It was a great little day trip, and a wonderful way to start off our half week off! =D And then we were off to the beach! I positively love the beach, but my muscle man likes a bit more adventure in his vacations, so this was a great compromise =)

Bucket List: 3 Miles Underground

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In his effort to really make 2013 positively awesome, my muscle man went off in search of more caves after our failed attempt the other weekend (link)… And lucky for us (him?), he found a trip offered through the university where he works! And lucky for us (definitely him… I was so hoping for a bit of a break) was only a few weeks away! So off we went this weekend to a private cave with a group and (at least semi-)professional guides!

The only clue from the road that anything is abnormal about the space (and by road, I mean 4 mile long private drive =P) was the “to keep people out” barb wire fencing… Oh and the big “keep out” sign haha! It’s definitely not a tourist attraction, and the curators have no intentions of it ever becoming one, which is pretty cool, but it would be so awesome if more people could experience it! It was quite literally a hole in the wall, totally unassuming but wow what wonders were inside!

That’s no perspective error, the door/opening to the cave was tiny, we had to hunch down to get in! They broke us down into small groups, and into the cave we went with a guide in front and one in back to make sure none of us got lost in the abyss!

 

I decided not to take my slr, so these photos are seriously lacking in quality.. I only had my ancient point-and-shoot (seriously, I think I got it as a graduation gift, from high school…and my 10 year reunion is getting terribly close =P) and it has zero manual controls, sadly… But not having to worry about a camera was very nice, considering I was WAY outside my comfort zone when it came to the climbing! While there were several places where it was just walking around in relatively flat, though sometimes cramped, rooms and passageways, there were a lot more times that it was like climbing a huge dry creek/river bed, if the river was 20 or so feet tall! So lots of big boulders/rocks, and I’m just not very good at climbing those types of things, up or down… But it was so worth it!

Here’s the big, open room we took a little break in, we had a pitch black rave party, complete with a glow stick battle haha!! The first photo was when I forgot my flash was on, the second is more what it actually looked like, with one headlamp still on! It was completely dark with no lights, like in the video below! (no audio… again, super old camera haha!!)

Once our little rave was over, some of the group continued on to the more adventurous part of the cave… And with my muscle man and his friend egging me on, I wasn’t about to go with the wimp group that headed down the easy path back out of the cave… The second part of the cave was really a tight squeeze, so we left our backpacks as they would have just gotten in the way. We had to crawl/slide through several narrow passages, and even with my knee pads I still wound up with several bruises! But sadly, no backpack means no camera, so I don’t have a photo of the coolest room there. It was amazingly large, it was like being inside a football stadium with a roof (never actually been in one of those, but that’s the best idea I can think to compare to…) We got to sit and enjoy it for a few minutes while an even more adventurous group went to the top of the room up a boulder wall…

Oh and then there was an indoor waterfall!! OMG so amazing and overwhelming!! I did take my camera with me to the waterfall, but with its limited capabilities I wasn’t able to get a good shot… Definitely couldn’t have taken my slr to that without a housing, you had to climb up a hole to get to the waterfall… oh and that hole is where the waterfall drains out…

Still, despite not getting any amazing photos, it was such a great trip! And my muscle man was so excited to be inside the cave, he really enjoyed himself and is ready to go again!! As for me, I’m totally ok to let the bruises and sore muscles heal for a little bit lol =P And for my first time in a ‘real’ cave(aka not touristy, not permanently lit, and no handrails/walkways), it was quite the experience!!

Bucket Listing 2013

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We’re filling our bucket quick quickly haha! My muscle man decided to jot down a list of ‘bucket list’ items he’d like to do in 2013, and since his birthday comes at the first of the year, he took advantage of the warm-ish weather to go ahead and (almost) knock one of the items off the list! He really wants to go exploring in a cave this year, and we had heard there were some ‘off the map’ ones at Desoto State Park in Alabama. So after a little sweet talking by me to the park ranger, we had our (literally!) hand drawn map in hand and off we went! No such luck in find the real cave, but we did get half-way there with a (man made, but several hundred years ago) cove/overhang in  the rock wall =D

First though we went to the park’s namesake waterfall, desoto falls, which has a man-made dam just before cascading over a gorgeous rock face… Here’s the view you get from the normal, easy to walk from the parking lot overlook: (I only took my 50mm lens with me, since I knew we’d be in possibly treacherous areas and didn’t want to risk my expensive–not to mention heavy to carry on a several mile hike–lens…so my angles were quite limited)

And then here’s  the view from the mile or so hike that we thought would take us down to the river’s edge after swinging toward the waterfall (it didn’t.. but still, very glad we took the detour, this view was absolutely amazing!!!) If you look really closely you can see little people off to the left side, that’s where the first photo was taken.

So, slightly disappointed that the trail didn’t take us down to the water after the gorgeous overlook, we tried again to figure out where the trail the park ranger had drawn for us was… We finally found it, but were way too tired to hope that we were right and continue on down river and away from our car… Instead we walked around between the two trails, which gave us some really amazing vantages and it’s also where we discovered the little welsh cave (named apparently because welsh settlers carved them, I think I remember the ranger telling us).

See that little person at the bottom left? That’s my muscle man, about 20 feet away from the rock face that goes up so far you can’t see the sunlight!! I wish I would have had my regular lens to really capture how huge it was! I was also concerned my battery wasn’t going to last, so I didn’t take many photos in case we did find the big cave and I wanted to use a battery-draining flash to light photos in it…

And here’s the whole expedition group!! We even brought the dog along with us, he absolutely loved exploring! =D Granted, he was so excited when we finally got home from our journey haha, his poor little paws were exhausted after 2 days of hiking!!

From the very back of the cave to the opening, I’d say it was probably a good 30-40 feet? Lol I’m really bad with distances, but suffice to say it was quite large! I think all three of us sat down on that large rock to the left with plenty of room to spare… The 50mm lens really didn’t do it justice, but I was very glad to have a lighter weight camera than my other lens, which is a beast…

Oh, and then we decided to stay for the night because my muscle man wanted so badly to find the cave, and we figured that since we had found the unmarked trail that was close enough to merit staying, and I certainly wasn’t going to tell him no on his birthday trip!! But that’s another story for another day =D