February 27, 2024 - John Pennekamp State Park, Key Largo, Florida Keys

 Tuesday

Kip was up early and caught a sunrise shot.

Once we both were awake, we had coffee and breakfast.  Then we sat on the dock and read for a while.  About 11:00 a.m. a couple from Wisconson in a sailboat came over and started talking to us.  We had a really nice chat with them, but it was 11:30 a.m., and we had to be at the snorkeling boat by 11:45 a.m.  We politely excused ourselves, packed up our snorkeling stuff, changed, and hurried to the boat.

We listened to the snorkel boat captain's safety talk, etc., and he told us we were going to be snorkeling in 2–3-foot waves.  There are 37 people on the boat.  The ride to the coral reef was "sporty" (as Kip would say).  

The water on the way to the coral reef was several beautiful shades of aqua blue depending on the water depth.  Once there, everyone put on their wet suits and gear and got into the water.  Kip and I tried to stay together.  We were only in the water a few minutes and below us swam a shark (the captain said it was approximately 4-6 feet).  Kip and I immediately went vertical and said, "holy crap".  We also saw beautiful fish in all sizes (blue, green, yellow, silver), huge purple plants moving in the waves, a school of barracudas (there were more than 5 of them), jelly fish, coral, and more.  It was very scary but exciting.

                                                    People from the boat snorkeling.

After about 40 minutes of going up, down, up, down, I began to feel sick from the movement of the waves.  I went back to the boat and told the staff I felt sick.  They said stay in the water if you have to throw up...  So, I stayed in the water for about 5 minutes until I felt a bit better then climbed into the boat.  Kip was right behind me.  There was about 20 minutes left, and I suggested Kip to go back out and continue, which he did.

On the trip back the boat captain stopped a couple of times to show us Osprey nests.  They are very pretty birds and are supposedly better hunters than eagles.

After we got changed, we went up to the food trailer and had supper.  We walked around by the beach, etc., and then sat outside for a few minutes on the dock.  It is really windy on the dock, so we moved indoors.

I have to say...  Mike Bednarek taught me how to play 2-person Spades.  I taught Kip how to play and would continually beat him.  NOW, not so much.  He won the last couple of times we played.  Maybe I taught him too much!