Just back from FL family vacation and...

My kids had their first snorkeling experience!! My son is 8 and my daughter is 6. We went over to Shell Key, off the coast of St. Pete Beach for a day... and we had a blast collecting shells and snorkelling. We saw a couple schools of fish, lots of little crabs, and 2 little fish that we think are called sand divers. My son did great snorkeling. My daughter did ok for about the 1st hour or so, but the mask didn't fit her face really well, and it kept filling with water, so we took it off of her and let her wear a life vest and bob around. We did have to keep hold of the kids at all times, as the current was ripping pretty bad. The water was beautiful though; crystal clear, and turqoise! My husband found a complete exoskeleton of a large horseshoe crab, and a complete exoskeleton of a little sand crab.

sounds like a nice vacation,getting the kids involved in the water sure do miss that area,grew up on clearwater beach,6hrs to the beach now.

About 12 years ago, my wife and I took the kids to Fla. The older two were already certified to dive but the baby just snorkeled on the surface. It's kind of one of those family stories but, as we were returning to the boat after one dive, we looked up and there was a huge school of barracudas... between us and our 7 year old daughter. We'd seen a lot on the dive so we just ascended through them but she was oblivious to what was below her. I can still see that image in my mind. It was a great time for all. We dove all down the Atlantic coast to Key West over about a week's time.

EDIT: Wait... she's 22 now! Guess it was longer than I remembered! :11: