Weekend Snorkeling Adventures at Commercial Pier

Well this weekend was amazing for snorkeling. Though I like to think its free diving since I spend more time under water than floating up top.

I've determined that the best tide for commercial pier is going from low to high tide.

I went into the dive wishing to see a sea turtle, my fellow nurse shark and a ray. I had my trusty canon camera with housing as it gets the best photos.

Water was nice. Viz was about 15-20'. Not the best but for this season about as good as it gets really.

About 20 min into the dive I was already hanging out with a sea turtle. Such a beautiful creature. So graceful. If you just hang out at the beginning without going after it then eventually it get comfy with you around and you can get closer. I was only able to get about 5' away from him. I've been closer but he was a bit cautious. Cruising for food. After a while he got bored and swam faster and further out. So we parted.

I was just hanging out cruising around enjoying listening to the fish chomp away at the coral. Watching as the huge school of tangs cross by. Watching the fish interact with each other and defend their area. The larger fish getting picked on by the smaller fish. The abnormally large parrott fish hang out. Hang out with the black angel fish since they are true camera whores and extremely friendly.

So as I'm getting ready to head back in before my time expires, Fred, my 6' nurse shark is just cruising by me. For those of you that know me, you can just imagine my excitement. I of course swam as fast as I can to catch up to him. Unfortunately, his speed and the poor viz made it where i lost him. No worries though. It was a treat just to watch him swim so graceful through the water.

I just have to say that maybe because I respect the ocean and the living creatures that the ocean gods give me what I want. I truly love the ocean. Its just so alive and I hear nothing but fish. I never understood the people that listen to music when they go diving. Why would you want to drown out something that has its own beat.

So since Saturday was fantastic, I decided to go back again on Sunday some time and place.

I also discovered a new part of the reef. I thought I'd seen it all but it was exciting to see something new. Within 20 min of being in the water, I was again lucky enough to see my first spotted eagle ray. I really love just watching them glide through the water. The wing span on this bad boy was atleast 3.5'. Which is pretty good size. They seem like they could be mistaken for a manta ray which is what I think some people thought they saw. They are very commonly seen around piers. They are also known for flying out of the water and landing in boats. Watching him eat was a real treat as well. He also allowed me to hang out with him for quite some time. Always looking back checking on me. Making a circle getting food. He then went to the bottom and then shot off like a bullet dislodging a remora which then came straight towards me. I freaked out nearly jumping out of the water because I wasn't sure if it would hurt if it attached to me and plus it was looking to go up my board shorts. Which would be humiliating. :)

Again another day that totally rocked in the water. I also got to see a moray eel grillin' me. They just love to stick their head out and open their mouth and show their teeth. It's quite amusing. I was also followed by a school of cudas. They kept eyeing my belly button ring and camera. I quickly covered both. They are just the creepiest fish.

It was truly one of the best snorkeling weekends I've had locally. I can't wait for Key Largo next weekend.

Shark and Turtle encounter at Pennekamp

Today was a fantastic day in the keys. Went to Key Largo John Pennekamp State Park for the day. I try to get everyone together atleast once a month. Its only a 1.5 hour car ride. Of course a stop off at the dunkin donuts is crucial to those non morning people.

This time we had 7 adults and 4 children. Serena and Chris, their 2 kids Corine and Christoph and their neice visiting from Germany, their friends Linda and Bryan and 7 yo daughter, Mike, Shari, and me!

I had made a special request since it was my birthday trip. Its not for another month but I wont be going till after. I had requested where the christ statue was... and they were able to accommodate.

It was Mike, Shari and I that teamed up to explore the deep blue. After 5 min of swimming we came across a hawksbill sea turtle. He was just chomping along at the reef. He didn't mind us being around. Then Mike started to go in and he swam around with the turtle and he still stuck around. Then I decided to go and swim with him for a bit. Then he got bored and we got bored and he swam off. He was of decent size. So graceful too.

We came across a large school of tangs and even nestled inside was a trumpet fish. I think he was hiding from the police. haha. Also spotted quite a few large, and I do mean LARGE parrot fish. Beautiful colors. After that we lost Mike for a bit. Me and Shari continued to explore. The waves were getting a bit choppy so I brought Shari in.



Before going in, I brought her to the christ statue which is always a neat thing to see. Being that had some congestion, swimming deep was a bit painful. So I stayed at around 8' feet or so.

Upon going in, I saw a 5' nurse shark. His head is the size of my forearm in width. Massive beautiful creature. Shari named him Fred. So Fred the shark was really into trying to get some fish from under the rocks. I swam near him of course. He didn't seem to mind. He just looked at me a few times whenever I swam to close to him. So I didn't go touching him like I normally do. Nurse sharks are very docile creatures so I'm not worried though he looked determined to get food so I played it safe. Didn't want to be the first retard to get bit by a nurse shark in Pennekamp. haha. It was so amazing to watch him contort his body and move so gracefully in the water. I was just in absolute awe. I really wanted to go and hug him. I love love love sharks.



I am actually in the process of learning to really free dive and stay down long. My goal right now is 3 minutes.

After about 15 minutes, we swam in and spotted Mike. I brought Shari to the boat and we went off to get into trouble. I was thinking to myself. What an amazing day. A shark and turtle the same day. What would really make it is if a sting ray came by. In no less than 2 minutes did a good size sting ray swim by. So of course I thought, wow, it would be so great if a reef shark swam by... NOTHING.... so the boat horn blew to tell us to get in. Of course we were the last ones on. :)

It was quite an adventure. We shared our stories and showed our photos of the encounters and enjoyed the boat ride back. The weather was really looking bad. Luckily I'm lucky in weather and it didnt rain till later. After showering we headed over to the usual spot of Sundowners to eat and drink.

Home by 7p. It was by far the best trip to Pennekamp. Then again it seems like every trip is the best. I am just so thankful I could share the experience with my friends. I am glad that Shari got to see a shark for the first time and she wasn't scared. Now onto bigger and better.

See all the photos

Just a train ride away

Florence. Day 3.

Up early to get on the eurostar train. They tell us what platform and I feel like I should be in a harry potter movie. Oh wait, wrong place. Oops. ;) After a 20 minute delay which they apologized for over the PA, which is surprising cause airlines, would never EVER do that. Get on and we are riding 1^st class so we don’t have to be with those lower class folks. Haha. JK.2 hours later we arrive in Firenze which is Florence, which is part of the Tuscany region. Just to give you an idea. The train ride was nice but hard to take photos as its going like a 180mph. It’s the newest and fasted train in Italy. Hooray for us.

Just a 7minute cab ride and swearing in and out of traffic and riding close to mopeds and people we are at our hotel. The Hotel Bretagna. Well, there aren’t many elevators here. They are called lifts. This one was quite interesting and took a bit to figure it all out. You have to call it down. Open one door manually, Push open another door, squeeze in with your luggage and then push a button. Now you can open the door to make it stop anywhere… of course I did. I’ve done a lot of things on this trip I shouldn’t have. Haha. Then being a silly American, I realized that its not automatically going to open for me. Haha. Done that plenty of times prior.

Check in. Well they screwed up and so the parents get the master suite. I go to my room and its the size of a closet. I’ve never seen such a dump of a room. You need a regular key to get in and to lock it. So at night I have to lock from the inside. All the beds so far are hard as a rock. I sleep on my side so its quite difficult to sleep. And the bathroom, I now see what they call it a WC, watercloset. Cause its smaller than a closet. I can barely sit on the toilette normal. I refuse to use the shower. I just go up to my parents to use the shower. Next time I get the upgrade. Age or not.:)

So, since we arrive early we dump our luggage off and head out. We have an appointment to get into the Uffzzi Gallery at 2pm. So we grab a bite to eat. Head over there. They have the Birth of Venus there. Most people would recognize it from the Adobe Illustrator program. Its quite a great work of art. The gallery features mostly renassaice paintings. Not to bad. Small though but after a while they all look the same and I started to get bored. However, the artists back then had some crazy issues. Lots of death, murder, centaurs, and naked babies err cherubs in them. There was one where it was a 2 parter. Had a small group of women hovering over a man who was missing his head and he was naked. Then the other one was 2 women, one walking with a platter on her head and the head of the dead guy and the other one walking like, “ha, you fucked with the wrong woman you bastard” type of look on her face. Another one where it had kids pissing into a river, one boy one girl. Just really weird stuff. Here I thought the artists of my century had issues. Well its been going on for centuries apparently.

Gelato.. yes please.

Day 2 in Venice. View photos

Well I actually slept in. I cant remember sleeping for 9 hours at home let alone on vacation. It was good considering I was up close to 2 days. Crazy right. Swelling in my legs and ankles went down but by end of day back to swollen. Not sure if its weather or what. Seems to happen in heat but not at home. I also have these strange blood spots on my lower legs. Doesn’t hurt so not concerned.

Finally got up and out of the room after 12ish. Missed breakfast and not late enough for lunch so we ordered a ham cheese wrap which was amazing. So far the food here is so clean and pure of preservatives and all the crap. Then they had asiago cheese slices. OMG. It was absolutely delicious. I must order that again.

So we’re off again. Learning a better route to the bus stop we headed that way. Ended up meeting a couple on the way. Claire and Chris from England. They are on their first anniversary. And stayed with us the whole day. It was quite wonderful having a larger group. We seem to have that happen which is quite fantastic actually. More the merrier as you know I always say.
We jump on the water taxi and head over to see the Guggenheim. Get off and ended up getting lost and not making a right turn. So we wondered around. Ended up back at San Marco square and went to take a gondola. Claire is deathly afraid of water because of a bad run in with a baskin shark as a kid. I know a baskin shark. Well it didn’t eat her or attack her…well not on purpose but it hit her with its tail and landed her in the hospital for a few days. Craziness. So while I was excited to think about seeing one the end result was quite sad that it will hinder her from experiencing what the ocean can offer. Me being a water baby and loving the ocean. We are very convincing and assured her no sharks or catastrophic events will occur. It was actually quite fun. They are such a hilarious couple. Always joking. The gondolier was super hot. His name was Luca and is 3rd generation of a gondolier. He has a son which will soon take over the family biz. We were a roudy bunch for sure. I wanted to go under the bridge of sighs. The whole trip though was quite relaxing and we even ran into a few gondola traffic jams. I swear I thought we were either going to hit the wall or another gondola we never did. Very close though. I thought, wow this guy is perfect to go on a kayak tour. Hehe. Plus he was hot! It was also great to go through the narrow waterways. I felt like I was at home sort of.

After that excitement we headed over to Murano. It was about a 30 minute ride. Not to bad. Just a bit warm even with the overcast. Not as bad though. I would have preferred the sun. With some clouds. We head over there and get a bite to eat. I finally had a pizza. It was pretty good. Unfortunately after finishing, everything was closed. Apparentely everything closes at 6pm. Though a boat runs till 9pm. Such a bummer, I really wanted to see glass blowing. Oh well. Next time we’ll know. So we headed back to the piazza. Walked around a bit, ate more. Got some souveniers and headed back home. This time it was after 9pm. It was neat to see everything lit up. The lights shimmering off of the water. It just made things a bit more surreal. Its still hard to believe we are here in Italy.

I have had about 8 scoops of gelato throughout the day. Maybe more. It really is quite delicious. I have tried a different flavor each time. So far the one with nuetella is the best. Though strattichella is quite delicious and pistachio and bacio, chocolate and bianco. OK so I haven’t had a bad one yet. Hehe.

As we returned to the hotel, we decided to sit at the bar and have a drink. Claire is unable to drink so her and mom had a coffee and hot cocoa. I got dad an Italian beer which was quite tasty and me and Chris split a bottle of Cabernet Savignon. It was quite delicious. I had a ½ a bottle of chianti. It was alright. It was a bit like a rose but seemed to have a bit of a bubbly to it. Its all been quite interesting. I’m glad I was able to share a wine with someone though. Once I get to Tuscany my aunt and uncle with drink with me.

So tomorrow we have to be up at the butt crack of dawn. 7am. Its not 1:52a and I am wired as usual. That 9hrs of sleep will keep me going for days. I was watching American movies in Italian and quite interesting. Now I’m watch a british film. They have it in English on one channel and Italian on another. Its fun just watching it and listening to it. No idea what it’s called.

Well off to bed for another long day. We are headed off to Florence for a few days. I really wish I was able to spend another day here but mom got tickets so we are on a schedule. I truly hate schedule for this reason. It would have been nice to head to murano for half the day then go over to Florence. Oh well. One day again, I’ll be able to check it out.

Day 1- Learning Italian 101

I wake up early like a kid going to Disney. The flight leaves at 1215p but getting picked up at 10am. I'm repacking again and again to make sure I get it done right. I've never traveled to Europe so I am hoping I do it right and don't forget anything to important. I packed an extra set of clothes in my carry on JUST IN CASE.

Get to the airport to find out you need to check in for the international flight. oops. I was wrong thinking it would be done in NY. D'oh. No biggie, we checked in online so just need to reconfirm the passport.

Everything is on time. good sign. The plane to NY JFK was easy. Even exit row with movable arms. SCORE. The ride to Italy. No so score. crammed and I believe the seats were smaller and shorter. Note to self. Get 1st class earliest before its overbooked.

Land in Venice. All luggage accounted for. Sweet!

Get a taxi... understands we need the hotel nothing else. The traffic is just as bad as Sofla. However they have different vehicles. The scenery is nothing different so far. Hell we even got flicked off in Italian. Ah. just like home.

Get to the hotel, this is where the language barrier starts. Luckily I did deep for my early years of spanish and make it enough to pay the right euros and even a tip.

Drop off luggage, change to shorts and head to Venice waterways. We are staying just outside so its cheaper. MUCH cheaper. Once again, the language makes it difficult to even find where we start to walk to find the bus. Apparentely, not alot of people speak English. Finally get to the bus, and to Venice. Wow. Its simply amazing. SPot the gondolas. Now the adventure really starts.

Trying to find a watertaxi and figure out what we are to do with it. Find one that is 80 euros for 3 people and one that is 39EU. Whats the difference. Dammit. Go for the cheaper one. I want adventure. haha. Ok. soon discover the cheaper one is truly a water BUS. (say it in italian speak...water.. BOOs..) hehe. Find out it goes through the Grand canal. Yay. Free tour. it really is spectacular. Old. Pretty. and the statues are really neat. Its hard to imagine there are no motorvehicles on this little island. Though with all the boats i'm sure they go through just as much fuel.

WOW. they have a guggenheim. note to self: visit the museum. The artwork on the buildings is amazing. Arrive in San Marco Square. Follow the crowd to the hopefully right direction. Tons of painters, and nicknack items to walk through before you get their. Not sure if ii should get a oil painting. hrm. Maybe later. But i guess you talk these guys down also. Yay. I love doing that.

Arrive in the famous san marco square. The Basilica is here and a few other things. One of the most spectacular buildings I've ever seen. Such detail. The marble is breathtaking. The time that was spent was done with love and being feared of whipped to death. Who knows but it is truly amazing. I've never seen such detail. And to know that its so old 11th century I believe.

There are so many pigeons. They play a game amongst themselves. its "lets see who can swoop down the closest to those silly humans". I swear they are going to use my head to lift off more from. Its crazy. You'll see in some pics that they are always close.

Mom and dad are resting so of course I'm venturing. I am getting better with the one-arm single shot. Though the pictures won't show how truly amazing the detail. I also think the basilica is made out of gold in most places. It looks that way.

THere is just so much here. We tour the basilica. Its free. Unlike the 8EU coke. Atleast the cans look cool. Oh and for those who don't know what the exchange rate is its for every dollar is 1.66EU. You do the math on what was just paid for a can of coke! hehe. So back to the church. Its amazing. Yes I got emotional. Not because I'm religious but its finally hitting me where I'm at. (as I type this I finally get to hear the sound of sirens on a ambulance) The church is amazing. Pay to see the relics. Well, it was 3EU and i was curious. They had a tooth, an femur, a backbone, a jawbone, and a little hand. Yes a freakin hand. OK> I'm creeped out enough. Time to move on. What a bunch of weirdos. I have no idea who or what for but creepy.

Move on to shopping. Well looking. Lots of glass but holding out for murano first. Beautiful though.

So we decide that, ok i decide that i want to venture more. Hop on a waterbus and go to what is said to be the best place to see a sunset. Harry's Dolci. Well take the wrong bus again. I'll get the hang of it. Jump off walk more. Jump on the right way. Well need to hope off again. Walk a few blocks to catch a another one to Pancheco. Get over there after walking the wrong direction. I'm notorious for that. Get there and they dont open for 1.5 hours. DAMMIT. So have a drink. Relax in a/c. Which is very uncommon to have around here. Its like 88 degrees with humidity BTW. Its just like FLA. Only hotter and you are walking instead of driving in a/c. Clothes soaked but having really cared except for the fact that I've drank about 4 water bottles. haha. So we decide to go across since dad thinks its going to be a better sunset since it'll be behind the buildings. Finally get to eat real italian food. I'm game and friggin starved. I order lasagna. It was delicioso. Mom some lobster thing, and dad steak. Steak was good and tender.

12 hours later and we are Heeeeeere

Day 1 in Venice, aka Venezia View photos

We land and get outside and its just as hot as FL. Not at all what the weather said but ok. No biggie. Catch a cabbie and the guy doesn’t speak any English. Hooray!  We tell him where we are staying at and that’s it. The ride to the hotel felt just like home. Crazy drivers. Big 18-wheeler trucks on the highway. However the cars are MUCH smaller. Lots of smart cars on the road. No SUVs that I can see. They have RAV 2 instead of a RAV 4. Funny stuff. Then trying to understand the cost to pay him was interesting. I had to dig deep to my school days of Spanish.

Then once we check in we venture off. Of course we get lost just leaving the hotel. We finally get out to the street and make our way to the public transit. We are staying just outside of Venice. So it took like 20 minutes to get there. Then we take a water taxi through the Grand Canal. Its pretty cool to see the gondolas and Gondoliers, to see the waterways. Again I feel at home with the canals and waterways. However, we don’t have cool buildings like they do here. The history of the buildings and how they don’t ever knock buildings down they just restore and leave it like it was built. Its quite breath taking.

So we ventured over to one of the piazzas. When you get off you have to go through all the street vendors. Its really cool to see all the artists. They had a lot of watercolor and oil paintings of all the famous areas in Venice. Then we went to the piazza, San Marco. It was really neat. They had these 2 huge columns and at the top was one of a griffin and one of a man killing what looked like a dragon or crocodile. They must have been like 200feet up. So mom and dad wanted to sit and rest for a bit so I went venturing. The buildings were just amazing. So detailed in decorations on the buildings. The way they have arches. The marble is so beautiful. I can’t believe it’s outside and not in MY house.  Then I come across this basicilica. Which is a church for you that aren’t familiar. The outside is quite amazing. There is a mural that is a mosaic. Which must have taken forever. It looks like there is gold plated also. I guess if they ever get desperate for money they could always huck a few of the gold mosaic pieces. Hehe.

I go to get my parents and decided to try this so called gelato that I heard so much about. I tried kiwi and bacio.I am not sure what bacio was but it was most delicious. Had some type of nut and it was chocolate. It’s amazing. The gelato was 2EU and a coke is 8EU and yet a water is only 2EU. So that will be my theme. Stick to gelato and water. My goal, to try as many flavors of gelato as possible.

We venture around and decide to go inside the basiclia. Its beautiful. I can’t believe how old everything is and how long ago it was built and how it was made.Pure craftsmanship. I wish we had people to have that type of talent.

So after a long day of walking around we decided to get some dinner. It would be our first meal there. The meals here are an ala carte way of eating. They have appetizers, then 1st meal which is like pastas, then 2nd meal which is your meats and main course, then you have sides which is served after which includes salads, potatoes, veggies, ect. The food is all very fresh. I don’t like uncooked tomatoes but in bruschetta form its amazing. The pasta sauce is fantastic. Hopefully I’ll have home made pasta on this trip. I ordered a filet which was delicious. They don’t seem to have much in the way of chicken, which is good I guess so I can have something different.

The sun sets pretty late here just before 9p. Its still like a dream that I am actually and FINALLY in Italy. I really feel at home here. Its strange. To feel that way but I do. Its truly magical. I am learning the words. Bonjourno and Ciao and Gracie. Which means, hello, good bye and thank you. The accent I can get down pretty quickly. I’ve had a client that would speak Italian and so I know how to mutter the few words. We tried to eat at a place that I read about that had the best sunset but we got there to early as we were expecting the sun to set on our time which is before 8pm and the place didn’t open till 7 and it was only 6pm. So we just stayed for a drink. It was so hot out that we needed to sit in some a/c. Which is a rarity we are finding out. Actually I don’t need the a/c but they folks did.  I decided to try the lemoncello which I’ve heard so much about. It’s a liquor made from the lemons which Italy is well known for. One taste and it was not what I was expecting. Very strong. I didn’t really like it much. Then after we decided to go across again to find a ristorante…aka restaurant. I’ll be throwing in Italian just to help educate you.  We found a place that was on the water, which actually most places are in venice. Hehe. It was quite a nice little place. There were these little finches that would actually eat out of your hand. I tried my first wine of chiati which is popular in this region. I wasn’t to impressed. It tasted more like a zinfandel but I’ll keep trying so that I can develop an opinion.

I got to see my first sunset. It was quite nice. I then realized that you needed to be on the opposite side so I took the boat across the canal to take pictures. Then we decided to head back. So even though its only around 930ish we’ve been up for like 36 hours. Which is just insane. Long day of travel and we still have to take the boat, take a bus, and walk back to the hotel. Of course stopping to get more gelato. We check in and get to the rooms. It’s a holiday inn. Mom’s friend had already stayed there so we knew it would be nice. They had hard beds but a nice flat screen and shower. There is this 2nd toilet, which I assume to be a bidet but never seeing one I am not sure. Then they have the shaver 2000 which is a hair dryer but not sure why is says shaver.

Its been a great day but I am pooped. Its extremely hot here for walking all day but I survived and so did my flipflops. Hooray for teva.

And the adventure begins...

This blog is about myself and the travels along the way. I do so much of it but stopped documenting that this is a good way to start and just in time for my Euro tour. I'll eventually post past travels. Stay tuned...