Happy Mothers Day!

Thought I'd give an update on our latest activities. Over the past few days we have traveled back to Key West, where we went on the conch (pronounced "konk") train tour, which gives you a history of Key West. Had a fabulous tour guide with a great sense of humour. An interesting tour and it was a bit overcast and rainy which actually worked out well. It was a nice reprieve from the muggy hit temps proceeding it! We also visited the butterfly and nature conservatory, talk about Zen! Stopped at a local wine bar, met a great guy named Richard who lives in Ram Rod Key....yes you read that correctly, ha ha. As soon as he introduced himself I couldn't help but laugh....he said oh ya..I get it all the time "Dick" from Ram Rod Key..he's heard it all, ha ha! Super guy, gave us tons of tips on local restaurants, etc. Next day headed to Islamorada, my favourite town so far, visited another art gallery, tons of them out here...local market, grabbed some black grouper that had just been caught. Superb!

Friday was our incredible snorkeling excursion. Headed out around noon on a catamaran for Cheeka Rocks (Key). Our expectations were low as they advised that the visibility wasn't great and could actually get worse. Luckily when we arrived the visibility was good and we were delighted to see many different varieties of fish, beautiful plant life and corals. After about 35 minutes they took us off to another area of the same reef. This made our trip. As soon as we jumped off the boat Rog and I veered off to the left a bit, while the group went to the right. First thing we see...oh just a 6-8 foot nurse shark about 15 feet down!!! This was a first for us!!! I had imagined seeing a shark and being completely freaked out..however we were surprisingly calm and completely intrigued. It was a beautiful creature, slowly moving along the bottom...not interested in us whatsoever. They are bottom feeders and resemble a huge catfish. So that took our breath away...next was a gorgeous sea turtle...we think it was a green sea turtle which are the most common type in this area. Following the turtle we encountered a large variety of some of the largest sized fish we've ever encountered snorkeling. There were humongous parrot fish, beautifully colourful, grouper, snook, snapper, and my least favourite...the infamous barracuda, coming face to face with a very large schools of them, which completely unnerved me. I stuck my head out of the water and swam away! Silly I know...not rational. The captain told us they liked this area in particular and not to worry as they couldn't be bothered with us. Oh we also spotted an eel. Absolutely fantastic experience!

Yesterday was lounge on the beach and read day. Although we did take a nature walk for a couple of hours in the morning.

Today we had breakfast in Grassy Key. Met a great couple, Kevin and Elaine from Ohio. Lovely people...We chatted with them for what seemed like an hour! Then we visited the turtle hospital in Marathon. It was an hour and a half tour. They are the only turtle hospital for all of the Keys and have ambulances to go wherever they are needed to rescue turtles. We learned a lot and were able to see many rescued turtles. Mostly green, but hawksbill and loggerhead as well. Most will be released, a few are permanent residents. The work they do there is incredible. Very much admire them. I took some shots of before and afters, amazing to see how they are able to rehabilitate these beautiful creatures!

Happy Mothers Day to all you wonderful moms!!!