We rented a huge house for Mema, Mom and Dad, the Puckett 4, the VanderBurg 3, LesGoupil 3, and myself. We were joined later in the week by the Rosteing 5, the Schueckler 4, the Andrews 4, and Marie who rented condos a few blocks away. That makes 28 at one point!
The babies were everywhere, my family is multiplying.
We had an amazing two weeks barring a rocky start and finish courtesy of the airlines. We ate and drank like kings. We fought off scurvy. We golfed, kayaked, swam, fished, flew, snorkeled, and celebrated another great year.
The trip was amazing and I am lucky to have such a great family to share it with.
Some of the beautiful sights of Marathon Florida. The seven mile bridge was pretty cool. The old railway bridge had been turned into a pedestrian bridge after the new, modern highway replaced it. A very interesting relic on the verge of being taken back by nature. The Keys are truly unique. You really get the sense of how vulnerable the islands are as practically no land is more than a few feet above sea level.
Key West, Boys will be boys.
Richard asked me if I wanted to come flying with him as he got checked out on the plane in FLA. I said "yeah, that would be fun". So we head off to the airport and make our way over to the little plane and Richard says to the plane's owner, "Jeff doesn't know yet what we are doing. After I take it for a spin around Key West, we'll switch seats and Jeff can fly us home."
Inside I said "What?!?" Outside I was calm and cool...No problem.
So after Richard took us on a sightseeing flight down and around Key West, sure enough, we switched seats and with less than 2 minutes of instruction, we were full throttle down the runway..."and Rotate." Flying was so much fun and the little Cessna 172s (N21277) performed wonderfully. Landing was a little hairy, but the level flight was a piece of cake. It helped the conditions were nearly perfect and there was a VERY experienced instructor sitting co-pilot.
All in all, I highly recommend it. Thanks Richard and Julie!!!
Snorkeling/Diving the reefs off the coast of Marathon, Florida.
This was really cool. I had never really been snorkeling before minus the dorky kid stuff in a pool or on the lake growing up. This was real life tropical fish, giant sting ray, sea turtle, snorkeling. We woke up super early and headed out to the boat. A short ride out to the reef and (again minimal instruction) splash, we were in the water.
My first few kicks and my flipper kept falling off my foot. There was a tear in the heel, so back to the boat to get a new pair. Now that that was fixed, I hit the open water. Now, I must have an oddly shaped head or face, because I tried two different masks and put the silicone on my face and made sure I didn't break the masks seal and didn't breathe through me nose, but no matter what, my mask would BOTH fog up and leak water. I need to figure that out because it killed the experience for me.
On the good side, when I wasn't chasing down swimmers that wandered too far from the boat or clearing the water or fog from my goggles, it was really amazing. The sea life was stunning and the experience was totally peaceful.
New Year's was a blast this year. We were all able to gather at the house for the annual fete. Hors d'ouvers were made and eaten, limes were bombed (care of the Lime Bomber, http://www.limebomber.com/) and all had a good time. Jac wore his tux with the appropriate footwear, I had the Tux bib, and through the joy of the White Elephant, Richard was rocking a sweet biker shirt with pre B.O. and booze scent, and Blue donned the leopard thongs. We laughed, ate, and toasted in another wonderful New Year with Mema and family.
New Years day, we decided to relax a bit and take a leisurly boat ride throgh the mangroves. We were fortunate enough to see a manatee swimming along side us.
No comments:
Post a Comment