Today was just all around another great day. After breakfast and cleaning up, we decided to take the sailboat out to Sand Key Lighthouse where there is another portion of the huge reef that lays a few miles off the Keys all the way down. The lighthouse reef is just as amazing as Looe Key. It only takes about an hour to get to Sand Key from Key West, so it was not a bad trip. We were the only boat there when we arrived, but within an hour, there were 3 or 4 of those huge catamarans filled with people. [View Full Entry]

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Today started out as lazily as the rest of our trip. After our clean laundry arrived (that's right, I'm on vacation and I sent our laundry out to fluff and fold where they pick up, wash, fold and deliver all your clean clothes), we hit Harpoon Harry's for breakfast. After breakfast, we loaded up the dingy, piled on the sunscreen and headed out to sea for a cruise. We were in search of a snorkeling spot and/or a sandbar to hang out. We found a bunch of patch reef right off one of the islands just outside the Key West channel. [View Full Entry]

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Well, today was one of the laziest days yet. The boys got up and rushed down to the Ron Jon Surf Shop to pick up a paddle ball set and hit the pool. I actually got to lay in bed and relax until well after 10 a.m. Unheard of for me! We had lunch and spent the afternoon by the pool at the Conch Harbor Marina where we are staying. Once we'd had enough, we headed back to the boat to relax and watch a movie. We headed down to Duval Street for the evening. We stopped in for a drink [View Full Entry]

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When my ma first approached me about spending my Spring break with her in a mother/daughter bonding trip, I was really excited. We had never done anything like that before. All our travels had been enhanced by the colorful and slightly disgusting inclusions of my dad and brothers. I was imagining a week of never having to put down a urine-coated toilet seat. A bit later I would remember how much I love and enjoy spending time with the Herrold dudes. They're my main muses for my attempts at humor, and I worried about what me and the Ma would have [View Full Entry]

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Today started with a trip into Marathon. We needed to pick up some fuel filters as Scott realized that one of the problems we had was that we got some fuel with a little too much water, so we are going through filters faster than you can imagine. After some blueberry pancakes on board, we took the dingy to the Marathon City dingy dock, where they charge $13 a day!!! Can you imagine, for the priviledge of tying your dingy to their plastic docks, they want $13???? We walked about a mile to West Marine and got what we were needed [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up early and enjoyed the complimentary continental breakfast that came with teh cost of teh hotel room. We were going to go snorkling but the 10 minutes of rain at 9am scared us into cancelling our trip. In the end, however it was all worth it since Summer and Dave were not going to come with us because Summer does not do well on boats. This way we were able to spend the day with them. We started out the door without a particular direction and ended up renting bikes for 7$ for the whole day. We hopped [View Full Entry]

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On Saturday morning, we took a ride up the Shark River in the dingy. After that, we decided that it was time to head to the Keys. We planned to make a quick stop at Cape Sable, which is the southernmost beach on mainland Florida. We got ashore, but decided pretty quickly that despite the gorgeous shells, we just couldn't stay. The deer flies were in full bloom, and we could tell they were hungry. We strolled for shells for a few and then were on our way to Marathon. We approached the 7 mile bridge around 3 p.m. and got [View Full Entry]

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May 31st, 2008 This weekend we decided to take a trip to Key West with our friends Summer and Dave to get away from the crazy, dis-attached life of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale living. On the trip down we stopped at our trust restaurant just before the 7-mile bridge and enjoyed a pitcher of Key West ale and some freshly caught sea food. We arrived in Key West at around 3:30pm and checked into the Best Westen just 2 blocks from Duval street and 1.2 miles from Mallory square. The hotel was immaculately clean and very nicely decorated, not to mention reasonably priced. [View Full Entry]

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Grace and I took a trip to explore South Florida. We'd been to other parts of Florida and so far had not been too impressed with what the state had to offer, but had heard and read that this part was different. We both thought it was great. Miami had some of the best food we've ever had and Key West was a great island town. [View Full Entry]

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If you can survive the endless stream of cars heading into the Florida Keys, the scene that awaits you at the end of your journey is certainly worth all the brake lights and cursing that will be seen and heard along the way. After stopping at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast again this morning (why don't they have these in California???), we set out from Miami Beach toward Islamorada, located about 27 miles south of Key Largo. The traffic wasn't too bad along the Florida Turnpike, but once we hit Highway 1, I'm fairly certain it would have been faster to park [View Full Entry]

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