There is more to Florida than Retirement Centers and Beaches

When I was in Jacksonville on a visit, I got away to to see some of the sights. I visited Fort Caroline (http://www.nps.gov/foca/).

The fort was actually a bit of a dissapointment. Historians do not know where the fort was actually located so they built a reconstruction based on their best guess. I would imagine they are not close at all for how it looked or where it is located. I went inside the fort and it is nothing more than a triangle with some walls and a few replica cannon.

After visiting the fort I went on a nture hike and it was a cool experience. It was a little path through the woods and looked like a jungle.

Towards the end of the trail, I noticed some movement along one side and it turned out to be a turtle. It has been while since I have actually seen one in the wild and I stood and watched him for a bit.

I also shot some video of him.



There was also a pretty good panaramic view.

Diving Key Largo (Or, Everyone Looks Goofy in a Scuba Mask)

Ever since October when I went diving in the Keys I have wanted to get back down there to do some more diving. This Easter weekend my wish finally came true. My brother flew down and joined me for 6 dives off of Key Largo.

We stayed at the Bay Cove Inn (http://www.baycovemotel.com/). It was decent and definately worth checking out for the price. The rooms were basic but clean and there were grills and we had free use of kayaks. The grills came in very handy because we were able to cook our own dinners instead of eating out. It was cheaper and at this point in my travels, I will be happy if I dont eat at a restaraunt for a few months.

This was the view from the dock at the Bay Cove Inn. Not quite a sunset into the water like in Key West, but still very impressive.

And we also dove some. On Friday, we signed up for 4 dives. Two were in the morning at 9am and then 2 more at 1pm. We showed up to the dock and got on board the boat. The other people on our trip boarded as well and began to set up their respective gear. Besides my brother and me, there were 9 other divers on board. It is a bit more than I like but I wasn't too worried until the guy next to me asked a question. "Do you know how to set this stuff up? Its been a while since I last dived." Now, to a non-diver this may seem like a simple question but it really is a big deal. Scuba equipment is basically life support equipment. It is that important, so not knowing how to do a very basic setup was worrying. I was determined that he would not dive with me.

The boat pulled out and headed out to Elbow Reef. As we got farther out to sea, the waves grew progressively worse. They were around 2-4 feet with the occasional wave cresting at 5+feet. By the time we got to the site of our first dive, a girl on the boat threw up all over herself. She was no older than 14 and I felt bad for a second but then I had to get away from it. I cannot be around people who are throwing up. By the time we ended the second dive, 4 out of the 11 passengers on the boat had thrown up and were in verying stages of sea sickness. (I am very proud to report that I was NOT one of the 4 who got sick).

This is on the wreck of the City of Washington (http://www.silentworldkeylargo.com/City_of_Washington.htm)

These little fish followed me around everywhere like the expected to be fed. They were so close that I tried to poke them on several occasions but they were too quick for me.

More from the City of Washington. This was a pretty cool dive. The wreck doesn't look much like a ship and is really just a bunch of metal scraps and pieces strewn across the sand.

On the surface after coming up from a dive. The waves made it interesting getting back on the boat.

Overall, Friday was a long but good day of diving. We did four dives and by the end of the 4th dive I was tired and cold and needed to get out of my wet swimsuit. We also took a pretty good beating with the waves. Our reff dives were only down to about 30 feet at most and so the wave action and current are very strong. It was tiring to fight that all day.

On Saturday we woke up and got out to the dock for the dive I had been looking forward to the whole time. We were going to do 2 dives on the U.S.S Spiegel Grove. The Spiegel Grove is a 510 foot long LSD (Landing Ship Dock). More basic info can be found here: http://www.spiegelgrove.com/

In a word the dive was amazing. The wreck lies in 130 feet of water but most of the superstructure can be reached at 60-90 feet. We dropped down the morring line and as soon as we got past the thermocline, a huge ship came into view. I was almost breathless.

Here are a few videos to give you a better idea of what it is like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yCpI929fE0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO9yo8yfs3k

The Superman pose really was unintentual but I thought it was kind of eery that there was still an American flag on the wreck.

All in all a truly fantastic trip. I am already thinking about when I can dive the Spiegel Grove again.

I would also like to recommend the dive outfit we went with, Silent World. They were great and their website is here: http://www.silentworldkeylargo.com/

Summer in January (okay... well, at least Spring in January)

I woke up Saturday morning in Lexington, VA and it was 5 degrees. yes, you read that right.... 5 degrees. My car really had to struggle to start and I headed off to Charlotte to catch a flight to Miami, FL. I was flying down to Miami to help them with recruitment over the MLK weekend.

The weather was ideal. While the rest of the country was in the grips of a bitter cold front, it was 71 degrees and mostly sunny in Miami. I ate breakfast outside and just seeing the sun. I know fully understand why so many people live in Miami.

Because it was recruitment, there were several other consultants in town and it was great to get away from the chapter and explore some of Miami. This was my third time in Miami but I hadn't explored the city much.

I gave my recruitment presentation and I think it went pretty well (I will have to wait to hear what numbers they get). My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:45 on Monday morning so I packed and spent my downtime watching the NFC and AFC championships. I went to bed and then around 3am my phone started buzzing. I was in and out of it because it was so late but I figured that of the call was important, they would leave a voicemail. 30 seconds after my phone rang it buzzed again signalling that I had a voicemail. I got up and listened to the voicemail.

I heard a robotic voice telling me that my flight in the morning had been cancelled and that I was rescheduled on a flight on Tuesday morning. I was beside myslef at this point. Not only had American Airlines called me at 3am to tell me my morning flight was cancelled but I had another visit to get to on Tuesday and so the new schedule just didn't work for me. I called American's customer service line and got a woman on the phone to see if there was a different schedule. She said that evry flight on Monday going from Miami to Charlotte was booked except for one. It left Miami at 8am and went through Dallas. I got the last seat on both flights and then tried to get to sleep.

Bright and early the next morning I was at the airport, ready to fly halfway across the country just to fly back east. Here is what my route looked like:

The red line represents my orginally scheduled flight. It was non-stop and was about and hour and forty-five minutes. The blue represents my rescheduled flight. It was 3.5 hours to Dallas, then an hour layover and then 2.5 hours to Charlotte. I was exhausted but finally made it to Charlotte and then drove home to spend the night.

But wait.... it gets better. The whole visit my cheek felt like it was a little swollen but it didn't look too swollen so I didn't think it was a big deal. The morning I got up for my flight, I walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror and my left cheek had a bulge. I had my wisdom teeth out a few weeks ago and so I figured that one of the sites was just acting up. When I got home and my mom saw it she called the oral surgeon and got me an appointment.

The next day, the oral surgeon took a look at it and confirmed that it was infected and said he would have to open it back up again. I hate dentists and anything that causes pain in my mouth so I was less than enthused to have him cut me open again. I got a couple of shots to numb my gum and then the doctor went to town. He cut my gum open and then stuck some gauze in there so it would bleed and hopefully drain out whatever was stuck in there.

Now I am back travelling with my left cheek all puffed up and some gauze stuck in a hole in my mouth. Fun stuff. Getting my wisdom teeth out has been an awful experience overall and I just want it to heal and be done with.