(By the way, you'll get the title when you get to the last pic)
Sarah and I came down to South Florida today, intent on seeing Biscayne National Park, Everglades National Park, and party a little in Miami before we and head back to Orlando to party Saturday night.
We checked into the Everglades Hostel this morning, which would certainly be on my top ten hostel list, if I ever had gotten around to making one. 1930s Art Deco buildings, the most stocked and organized kitchen I've ever seen, free internet, thick mattresses, big screen television with two shelves of DVDs, and a huge, beautiful landscaped backyard with a camp fire, grill and hammocks. Nice bit of paradise here in the tip of Florida.
We got in just under the wire for a snorkling trip in Biscayne National Park. If you were unaware, Biscayne National Park is 90% water: protected coral reefs, islands, ship wrecks and the largest mangrove forest in the nation (the trees rise out of the water on their roots, which look like stilts made of sausages). We snorkled a decent size reef (if Sarah were scuba certified, we definitely would have done the wrecks), but let me point out something: we were snorkling--in nothing but swimwear--in JANUARY!
I LOVE FLORIDA!
Admitedly, the water was a little brisk, in the mid 70s, and maybe chucking out $6 more dollars for the wetsuits would have been a good idea, but we're poor Corps volunteers and, well, we got to go snorkling--in swimwear--in JANUARY! IN JANUARY! I also got a bit of a tan, just to rub it in when I get back to Ukraine.
In any case, tomorrow we're going to do a 5.5 mile trail in the Everglades, except the "trail" is water and we'll be in a canoe. Can't wait. It's so good to be on the road again!
Here's pics taken with a cheap-o underwater camera and then one-hour developed with scan to disk at Wal-Mart. I not only love Florida, but I love America. Knock it all you want, it's damn convienent to live in. Since I'm just uploading at the hostel, no editing can be done, so the pictures are too dark and blue (you really need special filters and a flash to take good pics underwater) but hopefully you'll get a sense of what we got to see.
Purple fan coral
Sarah above the waves
Sarah below the waves
Fish and coral
Pretty coral shot
Me and Sarah underwater
Yes, this is me giving the camera an underwater mooning