The Florida Keys (that's where you wanna go to get away from it all)

We just spent a delightful, much-needed week vacationing in the Florida Keys. It was spontaneous and perhaps a bit impulsive, but boy are we glad that the rat race finally pushed us over the edge. The Keys offer a million things to do, but we avoided most of them and did exactly what we have wanted to do for months now: nothing. Okay, we weren't completely inactive. We did spend a few days on various beaches and got in our fair share of swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing. We also passed a good deal of time in the awesome pool at the Inn at Key West. We relaxed religiously and only stopped to eat (entirely too much and probably too frequently) at local fish shacks and diners. We put Tennyson to bed early and spent our evenings on our balcony, enjoying the 75 degree evenings with each other, good books (Suz: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; Jer: All the King's Men), and lots of licorice. In the end, we are rested up and ready for another round of life. We're also well on our way to accomplishing our two New Year's resolutions for 2008: do less and eat whatever we want.

We spent our first day in Ft. Lauderdale. Our hotel (the Sea Club Resort) was right on the beach, so we spent the day playing in the sand and swimming in the Atlantic. Tenny woke us up the next day in plenty of time to catch a beautiful sunrise.

We then spent a few days in Key West (the southern-most city in the U.S.), where we pretty much lived in our swimming suits. We spent a full day at Bahia Honda State Park, a beautiful beach with crystal clear water and sugar-like sand.

While in Key West we stayed at the Inn at Key West. Their swimming pool area is truly amazing. The pool and hot tub are perfect, and the entire area is surrounded by beautiful tropical folliage. It is so peaceful that we forgot there was life beyond the palm fronds. We spent days detoxing in this pool and soaking in the sun. It was exactly what we needed!

Tennyson especially enjoyed the pool boy who periodically brought around cool drinks!
We started out one day on the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. This was one of our favorite beaches, as it had great snorkeling and we were able to get up close and personal with dozens of varieties of tropical fish. We took turns following Tennyson around the beach and chasing fish around the ocean.

That came to an abrupt end when I (Jeremy Jay) was attacked (maliciously) by a Portuguese Man O' War, a jelly fish-like sea creature (monster) that I guarantee you never want to meet. I had snapped this photo of a Man O' War on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale a few days earlier, thinking what a pretty little fellow he was:
I assure you I no longer look at this picture in the same way. The moment my attacker's tentacles touched me (my left shoulder, arm pit, and hands), I was writhing in pain, screaming and freaking out trying to get away. I got out of the water and noticed my skin was already turning red and swelling up, and I had little purple dots where he had touched me. I'm talking severe pain. The only person anywhere nearby who looked authoritative on such things was a lady in a concessions stand who was too busy dealing out hot dogs to be bothered, but did give me some vinegar to put on it. That didn't help, and by the time I could walk to our rental car, I knew something was wrong. Beyond the swelling and severe stinging on my skin, I was now experiencing unbearable bone and muscle pain, my arms and face were going numb, and my limbs and eyes were twitching uncontrollably. Suzy violated several traffic laws to rush me to the emergency room at the Key West Hospital, where, after much waiting and begging, I was finally pumped full of morphine and a bunch of other drugs to counteract the venom (unfortunately, our previous post about doctors holds true; thank heavens for one good nurse, though). That experience convinced us to spend more time in our pool.

We spent our last days in Key Largo, a lovely, peaceful spot. Key Largo is the scuba diving capital of the U.S., but we weren't quite ready to get back in the water yet, so we took our hotel's (Marina del Mar) advice and took a glass-bottom boat cruise (on the Key Largo Princess) out to Molasses Reef, in Pennekamp State Park, to observe the amazing underwater world (and the world's first underwater park), and then catch a gorgeous sunset over the Keys.




All of this made for a great adventure and a wonderfully relaxing week. It was especially nice to spend so much time together as a family. Sweet rejuvination.