So last week was my school's "Spring Break". Now of course you have to realize that there is no real "spring" in FL. It just goes from slightly warm to hot. I'm not quite sure when that happens but it does. Anyhow,

I was fortunate enough to have my mom come down for 2 weeks, yay! I loved it! While I had flown home the weekend before Easter (just for the weekend, 3/15/08 was the two year aniversary of my dad's passing, and I felt it necessary to be home), but other than that I hadn't seen her since New Year's.

So she spent one whole week with me while I still had to go to work. I actually brought her to school one day. Yeah, I know she seriously had to be bored.

Finally that week was over and my vacation had begun. My (2nd) cousin, Kevin, came to visit for the weekend, and we brought him back to my cousin's (Kevin's uncle, it's confusing I know) and then the following day (Monday, May 31) my mom and I went on our vacation, Key West. It was beautiful! We left here at 7:30am and we got there at 4:30. We were unable to check into our "hotel" room yet so we had to get changed in their public bathroom, then we ran to the car in order to go jet skiing!!! We went on a 2.5 mile tour around the island of Key West on jet skis with a group of other people. It was awesome!! Once I learned how to use a jet ski (the key is to go fast enough so that the water doesn't constantly hit you in the face), I had a blast. The water was sooooo beautiful, words and pictures can't begin to describe it. The water was like a light aqua blue with different shades surrounding it. The water in the Gulf was so clear and smooth that when we were given 10-15 minutes to play around in it, I couldn't help myself and I did some spins on the jet ski... awesome- the water not my aquatic techniques. The Atlantic Ocean on the other hand was choppy and dark. It was a stark contrast from the Gulf. There were a few times where I thought I was going to fly off of the jetski the waves were so harsh. Fortunately I didn't. Finally we came to shore and returned the skis I looked at my capris that I had on when I first started, they were so wet that they hung down to my ankles. I was wet from head to toe. We were so tired afterwards we just went back to our "hotel" and even ordered in pizza.

(I put hotel in "" because it was in sore need of renovation. Doors were cracked and damaged, there was rust in the bathroom, and bugs. But I won't focus on that because there was so much more that we did.)

The next morning (Tuesday) we went (tandem) parasailing! I never thought I would do that, but again it was ... AWESOME! Mom and I went out on a boat,and were hooked up (and fully instructed what/ whatnot to do), and slowly let go 600 feet up in the air! Now, I know you must be thinking- you'd be scared. I thought the same thing, but once we got up there it was too beautiful to be scared. Again, seeing the shades of color of the water was amazing... Some of the waters looked white almost, and then varrying shades of blue, and almost into a jade color. Gorgeous! The captain of the boat dunked us once or twice in the water- all in good fun. The ascent and descent was so gradual that we couldn't help but enjoy the ride.

 

We walked around "downtown" Key West afterwards, gift shopping, postcards that sort of thing. For a small space (Key West is only 2 miles by 4 miles long), there were a lot of people. There were also chickens! All over there place I saw chickens, chicks, roosters. I heard the roosters a lot. Apparently they're a big part of Key West.

Tuesday night Mom and I went on a sunset dinner cruise. Wonderful! We sailed out to the Gulf and Atlantic, had dinner and watched the sun make it's daily decent into the "big drink". This was a picture I took as we were sailing of another schooner doing the same thing we were. We had great Cuban food, and returned 4 hours later.

The following day (Wednesday) we were going to go to the Dry Tortugas, however I wasn't feeling well and we stayed on the island and got to see a few more sites. We got to see the "Southern most point of the Continental U.S."  Mom wanted to do some more shopping. That night we had dinner at a fantastic resturant called A&B Lobsterhouse. YUM! Yes, I had lobster.

We left on Thursday morning, I was taking pictures all the way from Key West to Key Largo. We stopped in Key Largo at the Caribean Club. That's where they filmed "Key Largo" with Humphry Bogart and Lauren Bacall back in the day. We then continued back home. We left at 11:30 and didn't get home until like 7:30. A very long drive. But worth it!

Friday was spent getting mom ready to go back home, and tying things up here. I tried to get my passport (because we all know I'm going to escape from the country), and we had my cousin Joe, Rollie and Kevin down for dinner.

Saturday was spent trying to make our way to Orlando (a good 45-50 minute drive). Mom's flight left on Sunday at 6am, so we spent the night in Orlando.

And Sunday was spent looking around my apartment going... wow.

And that was my Spring Break.  :)

 

 

Hi everyone! I'm just getting started on Xanga... Drop me a comment if you've got some ideas on what to do first - or just to say, "Hi!" :-)