Cary and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary in the Florida Keys aka My Happy Place :). I find the center of my soul when I am at the ocean; there is peace and clarity and love there for me. I'm so thankful that Cary feels the same way and that we are both drawn to it when we want time away together. Our friends, Toinia and David Walker joined us and we had an amazing time together. Cary and I flew into Miami and drove down to the Keys, while T&D drove down from Georgia. After we got in our car and were driving out of the city, David called Cary and asked where we were. Unbelievably, they were only ten cars behind us on the same highway! So the trip started out very fun and just got better. I spent 6 days with the man I love and wonderful friends who have known me since grade school. It was a beautiful time of celebrating our marriages and the journeys that have brought us to where we all are today. We do not take any of it for granted and it was so joyful to be with a couple who are as madly in love as we are!
I took a bazillion pictures, and tried to narrow down to my favorites here.
This was the view out the window - this morning I tried to picture it in my mind when I woke up, but it wasn't quite the same!
We stayed at Tranquility Bay in Marathon
Bahia Honda State Park
We were walking along the beach and found this "shell tree". People had hung shells with holes on the little branches.
One evening, we had dinner at Burdines - a little restaurant on a waterway and there was live music and great food while we watched the sun set.
Dry Tortuga Islands/Ft. Jefferson
On Saturday, we took a 2 hour boat ride 70 miles west of Key West to the Dry Tortugas. I wasn't sure what to expect; we were planning on snorkeling and touring the fort. It was one of the most incredible places I've ever visited. The Fort has such rich history and was a feat of engineering in the 1800s. We were riding along for 2 hours in the middle of the ocean and then you start to see it....
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The boat that took us out to the fort
We started our snorkeling along these old remnants of a dock and the coral was HUGE! You would never imagine looking at these old posts what lies just below the water's surface. We ended up snorkeling around the entire perimeter of the fort! The guide had told us what to expect to see, and one of the things he mentioned was nurse sharks. I really wanted to see one because they are Casey's favorite shark. I knew that they were nocturnal and tend to lie in the sand during the day, so I kept looking down. At one point, Toinia and I were ahead of the guys and we looked up and saw a nurse shark coming straight at us. I froze and I heard Toinia screaming - we watched it go right between us! I was not expecting to see one like that! Another encounter was when Cary and I were snorkeling side by side and he grabbed my arm and pointed out a huge pink/purplish Portugese Man o War. They are extremely dangerous and large. I took off and it seemed the more that Cary tried to get away, it stayed within inches of his arm. That was not a pleasant encounter! We finally got further from it and had to take a few minutes to get our wits back.
I don't know why but I love this pic that Toinia snapped while we were waiting in line - just my man and me.
Cary took us up to get a bird's eye view of the islands. It was so cool! Toward the end of the flight, I spotted a shark, and then another and another. They were surrounding a very small island - there must've been over 2 or 3 dozen. It was kinda creepy!
You could see people snorkeling along the reefs.
Honey, I'll take.....that one!
Jet skiing on the Gulf
We went on another snorkeling trip that I dubbed "Deadliest Snorkel". It was windy and the boat ride was very.....nauseating. The reef wasn't great and Toinia had something very very large and dark swim by her. I got out and didn't get back in. Neither did anyone else.... But on the way back to land, a pod of dolphin found us and we had a blast watching them. There was a mom and baby (I've posted a video at the end), so it made the trip worth it!
One of our highlights was renting scooters for the afternoon and evening on Key West. We went to the sunset celebration on the pier and had soooo much fun tootling around (in spite of the whole highway incident Mr. Ryan!). 
5 comments:
What a great time and beautiful pictures. Glad you all had so much fun. I would love to go there sometime. It is beautiful.
Looks like a beautiful place. I wouldn't mind visiting there myself although I could certainly do without the sea creatures.
Wow - that looks like an amazing trip! Certainly makes me long for some sand and sun. I would LOVE to visit the Dry Tortugas - that fort looks so cool!
Honey, I had such a great time with you. That was such a fun trip. I love looking at the pictures over and over.
I keep looking at these and longing to bask in the sun... you got some great shots.
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