My father and I got up at 4:00 AM to drive the three hours down to West Palm Beach, load the car up with rented diving gear, and then get on a packed boat called, of all things, "The Minnow". Off we went on our three hour tour. Actually, the time was closer to four and a half.
We arrived at our first dive site, suited up and rolled into the water. Fifty feet down, I found that I couldn't see anything. The old spit-in-the-mask trick hadn't worked, and the inside had fogged up. The water was cold, and, what can I say? I'm just too hot. This took my ego down a few notches, though: I had lost my mask somewhere, so I had taken my sister's instead. There I was, fifty feet under water, effectively blind, wearing a flourescent pink mask.
I debated my options and picked the only realistic one available. I knew it would hurt because I was wearing my contacts, but I pulled the mask from my face, flooding it. The next step was to hold the top of the mask against my forehead and blow out through my nose, the air pressure forcing the water out of the mask.
Except my nose was stuffed up.
Not mucous, mind you, or anything that gross. Just that inflammed polyps that keep my nasal passages sealed off 90% of the time. Trust me, that's a big help in Ukraine. But it wasn't much help underwater, where I found myself wearing a flooded flourescent pink mask, eyes shut tight against the salt water, floating in the darkness thinking "I just screwed myself."
I sucked in a huge lungful of air and tried to force it out of my nose, head feeling like it was going to pop like an over-full balloon. Finally, with a high-pitched noise, enough air managed to get out. Finally, I opened my eyes. They stung, but that was to be expected. And when they focused, I was looking at a beautiful coral reef.
I took my regulator out for this shot, so appreciate it! Note the pink mask that still has some water in itThere was quite a bit of life down there, tropical fish in yellows and blues. I kept having Finding Nemo flashbacks because the movie did such a good job of recreating the fish. I'd see this fish or that fish and remember where it was in the movie. Checking some of the holes, I found a huge Florida lobster in one (they don't have claws) and a moray eel in another. The eel bared its teeth at me after I took its picture.
Some fish. These shots don't really do the reef justice. You can notice the difference between this shot from a disposable camera I bought and the next shot from another diver's professional camera 
A Florida lobster
A mean little moray eel
We surfaced shortly thereafter. It was a drift dive, so the current had taken us quite a ways away from the boat. And there, in the open water with us, were dolphins. There were five or six of them, and they were beautiful, light gray with darker gray spots covering their backs. About five of us slowly swam towards them. The dolphins were investigating us, staying too far away to touch, but not running away either. We became spread out as we approached them, and as they swam away from one diver, they swam straight past me, not more than five feet away. If I reached out and kicked, I could have touched them. There were four of them, one slightly smaller than the others, and I could hear their high-pitched chattering.
Diving with dolphins
Dolphins
I've been to Sea World, seen the shows, seen dolphins close up through glass, but nothing prepares you for how amazing it is to have them swimming around you in the open water. Knowing they're not trained, but just there and genuinely curious about you... It's awesome.
They darted away as the boat approached, but after we climbed on board and started going to the next dive site, they followed us, jumping out of the water and landing in the boat's wake. I have shaky video footage of them following us, but another diver took pictures of them in the water with us and e-mailed the above shots to me.
Pictures from the entire dive, including both mine and the other diver's can be found here:
More Diving Pics
It was fantastic, it was totally unexpected, and when I went home I crossed "swim with dolphins" off my "Things to Do Before I Die" list.
My father
Me, as can be told by the mask