Islamorada - Year #2

(Warning: Long post, but worth reading some at the end if you are looking for a good laugh or travel suggestions)

We went to Islamorada, Florida again this year for vacation. We rented the same beach house and loved it just as much! I think (no, I know) that Carl would move down there in a heart beat. I told him we should quit our jobs and he should be a fishing guide and I will waitress. I am pretty sure we would be the youngest by at least 20 years. Lets just say the island is not full of young families!

Here are some highlights from this year's trip:

- We went to the Dolphin Research Center and did the "dolphin dip". There were plenty of places to do this, but this one was a non-profit and you could really tell that these people L.O.V.E.D these dolphins, so I felt really good spending our money there. Carl and John got on a platform in chest deep water and the dolphin, named Santini, swam by them and they got to pet his back, shake his fins, splash him, make him laugh and have him do tricks. John was not scared at all! He loved it. The child has no fear of animals! I guess I would be worried if Dinosaurs still roamed the earth or if the animals were not in cages at the zoo. :)

Tyler did the "dolphin swim", which consisted of all the things mentioned above, but they also got to hold his fin and swim with it!!!! They also got more one on one time with the dolphin. Tyler did great and they got some great pictures.

- One of my favorite afternoons was when Carl was throwing his net and catching some crabs and little fish off the shore and putting them in a bucket. That proved to be a great time for Tyler and John (well, really everyone). John just stuck his head and arms in the bucket and was trying to catch them all (SUPER cute picture below). He could have stayed there for hours.

- We rented a boat for the week and kept it at a local marina. Carl and Bob got up E.A.R.L.Y. every morning and took it out. I am pretty sure Carl finally wore Bob out to the point of exhaustion! He was such a GREAT trooper!

All of us went out on the boat the first day and although Adrienne and I had sea-sick patches on, poor Tyler did not. He did not quite have his sea legs. :( I was there last year so I felt terrible for him. He laid down and was okay, but was able to get up and fish a bit. He caught a big grouper, but it was endangered so we had to throw it back in (after a quick picture, see below). Carl had to jump in after it to perform a successful emergency surgery on its air bladder with a deflating tool.

The next day we all went out the waves were much calmer. We fished a bit first (Da caught a big black grouper that we took home) and then went over the Alligator reef (a popular spot from our last trip) and all got in the ocean and swam. The water looked like we were in a beautiful pool! We were about 13 miles off shore, but 8 feet of water, it was beautiful. Made me sad to think about the spill in the gulf and how horrible it is to ruin this incredible sight.

One morning, I went out with Bob and Carl. I felt a little icky, but was able to snap a couple of pictures of the mahi mahi that Carl caught (we took that home to eat it too).

When the boys went alone they brought up some big mahi mahi's and more grouper. There are some awesome pictures.

- Every evening we would all make our way down to the beach at some point to look for seashells or try to catch crabs, or take a ride in the kayak. After which we would sit on the back porch and wait for the 12 foot crocodile that liked to visit the pool (did not see him this year either, but saw his tracks). We really called every night an early night, but the mornings came pretty quickly.

- Key West. Well, what was supposed to be one trip ended up being two; however Carl, John and I did not go on either. Adrienne and Tyler headed down there one day to find that it was not much of a "family" town :). They took the last tour bus around the island for the day... luckily... because his book bag was accidentally left behind with electronics in it! I can not imagine the pit in their stomachs! It is nice to know there are some honest people left in the world. Someone found it and turned it into to the lost and found! So the next day, Nana, Da, Tyler and Adrienne headed down there again to retrieve the book bag and get fun souvenirs!

- Robbies - we took 1 trip to this place last year and 2 trips this year. It is a very small marina that has an outdoor restaurant and a little outdoor shopping village right outside. It is a huge tourist attraction because of the mammoth sized tarpins that hang around. You can pay $1.50 and get a bucket of bloody gross pin fish and feed it to the tarpins. John loves doing this, we will back every year. He will tell you all about it if you ask.

- Carl got John a crab and a gecko, both of which had to come into the shower with us to take a bath. Not sure they loved that, but they survived.

- Tyler was a regular in the pool. I love having the pool and ocean all right there at our disposal. Tyler was so patient and good with John, he would play with him and help him with things. It was cute.

- John had outgrown the house's crib that we used the previous year, so we put a twin mattress on the floor next to our bed and surrounded him in pillows. It worked awesome! He only ended up in bed with us 1 night. He was such a trooper and really was a great boy.

- The flights... oh the flights... I would have stayed on the plane coming home for another 4 hours if I could. We all used our miles to upgrade to 1st class. I tell you what... SPOILED ME! The flight to FL was good, of course we got delayed on the tarmac, but not for long. I was sitting with John while everyone else was surrounding us. We bought a 2-n-1 seat for him, it was a car seat and a stroller (but was thin enough to fit through airport security thingys and the aisles of the airplanes). I HIGHLY recommend borrowing ours if any of you need to, it was great to have. He sat in his seat all strapped in and was a great boy! We played, watched a movies/shows on my ipad, played games on my ipad, looked out the window, played with Diego, ate the breakfast (which turned into lunch) that they gave us, etc. Just towards the end he got a little restless, we all were, he just does not know how to control it. :) So I switched seats with Nana, and then everything was new again!

Okay, so I thought the ride there was easy... the flight home... I seriously would have stayed on it until they made me leave. It was a 777, the biggest passenger plane there is (I think). At first we all panicked because we were not actually sitting together due to the arrangement of the plane. I asked the check in desk person point blank if the seating arrangement between John and I would lend itself to a toddler, she assured me it would... she was CRAZY and CLEARLY had no kids. Anyway, after a Chinese fire drill when we got on, everyone ended up okay. I just put John in my lap (oh, don't feel sorry for me, it was a luxury) and his car seat in the random seat that was BEHIND me and BY ITSELF that the check in girl thought would be okay for him (I am not bitter about this or anything). All of the seats laid completely back for a bed (yes a flat bed) and turned around so you could have your own DESK, each of them had their own pop up TV's and you could order movies individually, and then if you were not in a bed position, you had another seat in front of you that you could ask a friend to come over and pull down a table between you and dine together! WHAT? Or you could shut yourself off and put a wall between you and the next person. Okay, I will stop (somehow this was the longest part of my story of the entire vacation?!?) Anyway, John was great, he sat with Daddy most of the time and watch Alvin and the Chipmunks. Then we all got together in one little pod and played, it was AWESOME!

- And lastly, I have to document this as I was in tears I was laughing so hard about this. Our drive home from the airport: Imagine 8 days away from home, traveling all day long with A LOT of luggage, we were just ready to be home.
1) the rod case (10 ft heavy, awkward case) got caught in the conveyor belt and was "lost" for a bit at DFW and all the workers are taking their SWEET time to help us out, so we had to wait for that.

2) the van that was supposed to pick us up and take us home ended up being a "party bus" in all its glory. Flashing strobe lights, champagne glasses, STRIPPER POLE and everything! It had NO seat belts for John's car seat or a trunk for our luggage, all 22 piece of it. WHAT?!?!?!

3) Carl = furious = calling company to say we would not pay.

4) Driver pulls me aside as we are on 121 and says to collect payment right then or we would be let out and find another ride home. I look over and Nana has her wipes out trying to sanitize the stripper pole and John is jumping from person to person and I am desperately hoping Carl does not realize what is happening. I choked up the credit card. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!? BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, we made it home and Carl called the CC company and cancelled the charge... haven't heard anything more from the car company.

And finally - pictures: