Don Killingbeck, Jeremy Killingbeck, Judy Killingbeck, Cara Killingbeck

Today me and Jeremy got up early to go snorkeling  and scuba diving.  We went to the dive shop where an Australian guy got our stuff for us.  We then came all the way back to the Holiday Inn to get mom and went to the nearby docks.  The boat we took was The American Dream.  It took a good 30 minutes to get to our first dive spot.  I watched as we rode up and away from the key. 

The coral reefs were quite beautiful.  The coral would sway back and forth with the current.  We saw coral of all different colors and shapes.  Some coral looked just like huge red leaves while other corals were large spongy circles.  There were millions of different fish.  Some fish were as long as 3 – 4 times the width of my arm.  Some weren’t any larger than my pinky.  There were many different colors of fish.  Some were yellow and purple.  My favorite was mostly green with rainbow colors.  I also liked the barracudas. 

Our first dive site had a large Jesus with his arms spread.  It is said if you get between him and another Jesus farther away that you can’t be harmed.  The next dive site had minnow caves where thousands of silver minnows swam.  When we returned we went to Wendy’s to eat and drove toward Key Marathon.  On our way, we stopped at what we thought was a plain old scout store.  Instead it turned out to be a Seabase.  Their Ships store as they called it was closed until Christmas but Me and Jeremy got to look around the place.  There was a 300 ft dock which had lots of boats that viewed the bridge to the next Key.  There were many nice buildings for scouts to stay in.  Many of them were on stilts.  They had two pools.  One really deep pool and the other of normal depth.  We didn’t get any patches from there but did get a nice map of the keys. 

Before we stopped at Sea Base, we stopped at a bird rehabilitation center.  There were many different types of birds here.  We walked along a boardwalk that went through a small forest.  My favorite birds were the great white heron and the great white egret.  The birds and pelicans ran amuck all over the place.  The trail ended with a nice view of the Gulf.  There were many strange looking spiders with claws sticking out of them.  On our way out we viewed some turkey vultures. 

Our next stop was a state park.  We decided to canoe around the lake full of mangroves.  When we went to get our paddles and PFDs, we saw 2 baby mini bears eating berries in a tree.  The whole lake wasn’t more than 3 ft deep.  There were nothing but mangroves growing around it since it was a saltwater lake and mangroves can live in salt water.  There were a few great white herons but that was all.  By the bathrooms, there was a beautiful view of the gulf.  You could walk right down into clear turquoise water.  We didn’t stop again before we got to our Resort hotel right on the gulf.  We stayed the rest of the night there except when we went to get ice cream.   I had butter pecan.  We ate dinner watching the sun set on the Gulf of Mexico.  We also crossed the 7 mile bridge.