Florida Keys...

A huge thank you to Delta for offering a great deal on tickets from Atlanta to Miami so we could enjoy an end of the year trip to the Florida Keys.  Usually, we fly stand so having "real" tickets was so awesome!  Oh, the joy of having a seat assignment upon arrival at the airport!  Sometimes, it, indeed, is the little things in life that bring happiness.

We are really spontaneous trip takers, but for this one, we did our homework ahead of time and actually had a few reservations made beforehand.  Miami really offers the same sort of city family entertainment that Atlanta does, so we opted to drive South right off the plane.  Along the way, we stopped at Biscayne National Park and enjoyed watching some wind surfers putting the ocean breeze to good use.  We looked into taking a boat tour, but decided to move on to our room at Sunset Cove on Key Largo...kayaking and snorkeling were calling out loudly and clearly!

Our cottage was about 20 paces from the shore of the warm Gulf waters...ahhhhhhh!  The sight and sound of palms instead of pines was refreshing to this lady's soul. 

Bags tossed in the room and swimming suits adorned, off to the water we went.  So warm!  So wonderful! 

This was the boys' first experience using snorkeling gear to actually see fish and the like.  It took some adjustments, but in no time they had it down...and loved it!  Usually I don't like to think about what is about to eat me, but somehow snorkeling doesn't bother me.  After snorkeling for awhile, we went kayaking.  The funniest Tim moment of the entire trip was when in the kayak when he turned to me and cincerely asked, "Is there a speed limit for kayaks?"  Happy that there wasn't, he returned to helping me row across the bay.  Still grinning at that one.

The day seemed to last forever...all of it good!  Dinner was at a The Pilot House restaurant that had glass squares under the tables and bar area so you could enjoy seeing the fish as you conversed and ate.  They even offered free fish food for the boys to go to the pier and feed the fish.  The food was great, sunset was beautiful, and the day's end couldn't have been better.