Day 2 – Snorkeling and Birds

On Tuesday, we got up around 6:30 I could get ready, have breakfast, and be out the door by 7:50 AM to head over to the snorkeling place.   I was a little worried as it was raining early in the morning, but the rain stopped by 8:00 AM.    

Jim drove me to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and dropped me off at the snorkeling center.  He headed back to the hotel, as he doesn’t snorkel and I went on the trip by myself.  I checked in, picked up my snorkel (which you keep), mask, and fins and then waited to board the boat.  Side note, next time I’m spending the extra money and getting the dry snorkel instead of the semi-dry snorkel, so I don’t have to deal with sea water.  The boat trip out to the snorkel site was good, smooth.  They stopped at the place with the underwater Christ Redemer Statue, but the visibility was bad, so we had to go to a different location.  The location they chose was ok, but you could tell the reef wasn’t completely healthy.  Plus, after snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the snorkeling the Galapagos, the Floridia Keys were a bit lacking.    Don’t get me wrong, it was still a nice trip, just didn’t compare.  The funniest thing was the little girl, probably around 10 who asked the snorkeling guide if she was going to be eaten by a shark.  Valid concern.  He told her no, the reef sharks, if there are any out usually avoid people.   Overall, the trip was about 2.5 hours with an hour of snorkel time.  

Jim picked me up from the park after the trip and we grabbed some Arby’s for lunch.  I then took a quick shower to wash off the salt from the ocean before we headed out again.  Our first stop was to see Betsty the giant lobster. The we went to the bird conservation site where they rehabilitate sick and injured birds.  The birds at the conservatory are ones that could not be released to the wild because they are too injured to lead normal lives.   It was a nice little diversion.   From there we came back to the hotel and spent some time in and around the pool.  Plus, I had a slushy drink.   

We had dinner over at the “fancy” restaurant on the resort property, El Sol.  There they served me a deconstructed Ceaser Salad, while Jim got the lobster mac n’ cheese.  The food was good, a bit pricy but it is to be expected for a resort restaurant.   That concluded our day.

On Wednesday we head down to Key West for the day.