YEAR IN REVIEW – December 2004: VACATION Part 1

THE KEYS:
We left home a few days after Christmas to spend a week exploring the Florida Keys. I found a “keysee” place in Key Largo via the internet called The Hungry Pelican. In a strange sort of confirmation that this was an “ok” place to stay I accidentally dialed the wrong phone # when I was calling to ask a few questions. The lady on the other end of the line was rather inquisitive and asked who I was trying to reach. We chatted for a few minutes and I found out that her son had almost purchased this particular “Mom and Pop” place. She vouched for it’s identity and gave it a thumbs up. I took that as a sign, dialed the correct # and booked the reservation. Here are a few pictures of us at the Hungry Pelican.

We spent a few days exploring several of the beaches around Key Largo and met one of my internet loop friends, Lisa and family at one of them. The kids REALLY enjoyed having some other kids to play with for a day.

We rang in the New Year watching a multimillion dollar fireworks display put on by one of the Key Largo hotels, stayed up playing cards, and packed for the next leg of our trip which was a drive to the Southern Most Point of the US in Key West. We made it just in time to see the sunset from Mallory Square.

Our 2nd day in Key West was spent shopping to find a particular Key West bracelet that I wanted, doing laundry, and parasailing. Josh and Emily weren’t quite sure they were up for this, but the captain said they could come along for the ride and decide after they watched the rest of us. Looks like they aren’t convinced they should try it.

Parasailing was Amanda’s “main thing” for this vacation. She and Tim went first and you can see by the looks on their faces that they were both having a great time.

Emily decided to give it a try so I went with her. You can practically hear her screaming as you look at the picture of us coming in to land. Afterwards you can see she’s giving a thumbs up and reported that it was a lot of fun and she would do it again. Nathan enjoyed the ride for about 10 minutes and then he slept the rest of the time. He didn’t even seem to mind the life vest.Tim’s folks even tried parasailing:Later today we will head back to Miami. We leave on our cruise tomorrow.