Spring Break 2013 - And we're off

[reefman]

spiny lobster season is open until march 31st. iv'e heard the majority of commercial traps have already been pulled out for the season as the haul has been dreadfull; stone crabs as well. i'd reconsider lazy days for lunch, the food is super and the view of alligator light and the ocean is terrific,,,,,,,,,


reefman
key largo

 

[The Chairman]

It was fun to have dinner with you and Anakin last night! The Baby Grand Chocolate Mousse was awesome, but not near as awesome as your son!

 

[reefman]

robbies marina just past lazy days is another activity option; feed the tarpon and or take a boat ride and tour to lignumviate key. a report at the benwood this morning, viz 20-30, seas 2-3ft chop


reefman
key largo

---------- Post added March 13th, 2013 at 10:04 AM ----------

It was fun to have dinner with you and Anakin last night! The Baby Grand Chocolate Mousse was awesome, but not near as awesome as your son!

fish house encore is fantastic and the dark chocolate grand is awesome,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[deeper thoughts]

 

[mntlblok]

Though I did see a sign for Monkey Jungle north of the keys, how can that place not be fun?!?

Been there twice, many years apart. Last there a couple of years ago. Love the place. A little steep on the price of entry, but they had both an orangutan and a gorilla the last time. Very cool critters.

 

[JesperS]

spiny lobster season is open until march 31st. iv'e heard the majority of commercial traps have already been pulled out for the season as the haul has been dreadfull; stone crabs as well. i'd reconsider lazy days for lunch, the food is super and the view of alligator light and the ocean is terrific,,,,,,,,,


reefman
key largo

We drove by LD's today on the way to the museeum and Robbie's, but I simply had to have that pulled pork burger today. It's still a possibility tomorrow, but it'll likely go on the list for the next visit. How is the diving in Islamorada anyways?

It was fun to have dinner with you and Anakin last night! The Baby Grand Chocolate Mousse was awesome, but not near as awesome as your son!

He is awesome, isn't he? He is super nice, I really couldn't ask for a better kid. Glad you could come out!

robbies marina just past lazy days is another activity option; feed the tarpon and or take a boat ride and tour to lignumviate key. a report at the benwood this morning, viz 20-30, seas 2-3ft chop


reefman
key largo

---------- Post added March 13th, 2013 at 10:04 AM ----------



fish house encore is fantastic and the dark chocolate grand is awesome,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

We did go to Robbies! More on that shortly.

Yep, heard they had the best conditions of the week today. *sigh* This is just one of those trips On the flipside, we still had a great day!

Been there twice, many years apart. Last there a couple of years ago. Love the place. A little steep on the price of entry, but they had both an orangutan and a gorilla the last time. Very cool critters.

The more I think on it, the more likely we are to just head home. It's a four hour drive, we've got almost a 1000 miles since Friday, and we're pretty pooped and ready to go home

 

[JesperS]

Day 5: As stated earlier, from my the looks of the winds, I wasn't taking any chances on another horrible trip, so walked down and cancelled the dive. Instead, we did a synopsis of the When Weather gets sporty here in Key Largo.

Let kiddo sleep in a little, then we headed out for the Diving History Museum in Islamorada. This place really is impressive. I was particularly struck by the library and the amazing selection of helmets.

We had a great time, well worth the price of admissions



Boy: That helmet totally looks like a Halo helmet.
Father: No, the Halo helmet looks like this helmet. Son, I am disappoint.



Next, we headed on to Robbie's marina to feed the tarpon. Mostly, it ended up in a pelican gullet. The pelicans have gotten VERY agressive for the fish, I don't remember them acting like this. There was an employee at the end of a dock with a foam loop on a stick clearing the birds away, but naturally that portion of the dock became very crowded, and we didn't bother trying to squeeze in. They are impressive damn fish.



Next, we stopped at the Hurricane Memorial



NetDoc, how did you miss this!?! Handicap Heisenberg Parking Only!




After that, straight to Category Three for these stuffed burgers I read about. Pulled pork stuffed burger is on my mind! That one is called the Cat II. Kiddo had the Cat III, stuffed with bacon and cheese.

They were just as good as you would imagine. Highly recommend. However, I did this thinking that our night dive was NOT likely. As we sit down and eat, I get a message from Elena that the dive is on, conditions are the best of the last week, and the boat is full so be there early!

Schnikies, I hope this pulled pork burger doesn't come back to haunt me at the wrong time!

Back to the hotel for what should be a long nap, but can't get to sleep and spend a bunch of time preppnig to go diving Kiddo spent nearly the entire time watching youtube videos.

Finally, it's time, and we hit the road for the loooooooooooong 3 minute trip to the other side of the canal Ocean Divers is the company that we are going out with.

We were there too early, so we hang out a while, and when Elena shows up, we start loading our gear into the boat. While it wasn't full (some people had dropped out) we still had I would guess a dozen divers or so. Sun was still out when we head out, and we reach Molasses around dusk, near the winch. Conditions are, pardon the pun, night and day from our first dive. Mostly 2 footers I would say, totally manageable, and NO SURGE. We get ready (light, backup, and backup backup )

We splash and head down.

Getting Elena as a guide was such a great investment. It was probably my most relaxing dive so far, I could just enjoy myself, keeping a close eye on my kid, and not worry about getting lost Elena was great at finding critters, and kept the PERFECT leisurely pace for us. It was just a great dive all in all, so glad we got back out there to knock off the bad juju of the first dive.

Ride back was nice and the crew did a fantastic job all in all, great deckmates, great boat. It's getting really hard to decide on any dive ops down here. Seriously, every single op we've gone out with, I'd be happy to go out with again (pending preference of what size boat I want to go out with): Quiescence, Rainbow Reef, Scuba Do, Ocean Divers, all great ops, and we haven't even gotten to try Conch Republic, Silent World, and who knows who else.

After we cleaned our gear in the rinse bins and stowed in the car, we joined Elena upstairs for a meal @ Sharkeys (or The Galley, forget which is which). Remembered what I ate and loved there last time, the fish tacos, so ordered that again. It's got a good kick, and it's really good. Bid Elena farewell with promises to see each other again, whether they come up for a shark tooth dive or we come back down for clear water diving And a coral restoration day sounds like a blast!

Back to the hotel, hang everything up on the boss hotel rolling luggage thingy, and take a nice shower, and crash to write this report.

Tomorrow is up on the air. Earlier today I changed our PM dive to an AM dive, rather than cancelling it. I don't think we have the oomph for one more boat ride, so I will likely cancel it in the morning, let kiddo sleep a little while I pack up, and we'll get on the road instead, maybe around lunch time so we can stop at Mrs Macs.

Our trip has been beset by little problems, but I really feel like we've just made a big old pitcher of lemonade out of it. We've got nearly 1000 miles on the Jetta since we left home on Friday, and I can't wait to get home to my dogs.

Thanks again Elena, hope you had as much fun as we did!

 

[CajunDiva]

Congrats on being such a super dad...great looking (happy) kid

 

[JesperS]

Congrats on being such a super dad...great looking (happy) kid

Well, as happy as a teenager can get anyways Thanks CajunDiva.

Day 6: I had pretty much resolved that unless the air was dead calm in the morning, I would cancel the dive, and got up early and did just that, and settled up with Rainbow Reef. I didn't want to get our gear all salty and soaking wet again before we packed it in the car, we were tired, and it was windy.

While I think the right call would have been for them to actually cancel the one trip we did go out on, due to the conditions, they were 100% stellar otherwise. I changed reservations and cancelled last minute several times, and we only did one trip out of three originally planned with them, and they were nothing but accommodating.

to Rainbow Reef!

So I let kiddo sleep in a bit, and got the vast majority of our stuff down to the car and packed a bit more efficiently and ready for the ride home. Woke him up and we finished up and were out of there by early afternoon.

Stopped back by Key Largo Fisheries, as this was NetDoc and MsElaneous's recommendation for Key Lime Pie. On this recommendation alone, we bought several pies, and they did a great job of packing them up in a size efficient foam cooler with plenty of freeze packs to keep the pies until we got home, got some fishdip too.



Next, we headed to Mrs. Mac's, the new location, so I could try for Lionfish one more time. Once again, denied. They said the last time they had it was three days earlier. :demented: Had the fish sandwich, which is my go-to item there, and I have to say, it did NOT stack up to the sandwich I'm used to at the old location. Uninspired. And I don't know why they gave me regular fries, which were no good, instead of the chip ones. Ah well, only disappointing meal of the trip. Brought a coupon for a free key lime freeze thing, which I've always meant to try. It was ok, not really my thing.

After that, we gassed up, and hit the road for home. Made fairly good time home, stopped at my folks for a quick dinner and to give them one of the pies, and you guys were right, it's pretty damned fantastic!

In summary, we put 1220ish miles on the car from Friday-Thursday. I put in $144 worth of diesel, and arrived back home with a 1/2 tank full (I love my friggen car). We covered a pretty sizable portion of this great state of ours:



We didn't get nearly as many dives in as I had originally planned. Turns out we dove....5 tanks total. If all had gone as planned, it would have been double that or more. But we had a fantastic time, and that's what really counts. Got to spend some super quality time with my kid, we ate some outrageously good food, met some fantastic people, proved that my car (which is older than my son) can handle a serious road trip packed to the gills without issue, had a couple of good learnable moments, got some new gear.....and I didn't throw up! Lots of good stuff!

To top it off, we still have tons of OW springs that I want to go to, and we'll make weekends out of some trips, and some, we will definitely be returning to (Ginnie and Rainbow spring immediately to mind).

Thanks for reading!

 

[mselenaous]

They were just as good as you would imagine. Highly recommend. However, I did this thinking that our night dive was NOT likely. As we sit down and eat, I get a message from Elena that the dive is on, conditions are the best of the last week, and the boat is full so be there early!

Schnikies, I hope this pulled pork burger doesn't come back to haunt me at the wrong time!

Back to the hotel for what should be a long nap, but can't get to sleep and spend a bunch of time preppnig to go diving Kiddo spent nearly the entire time watching youtube videos.

Finally, it's time, and we hit the road for the loooooooooooong 3 minute trip to the other side of the canal Ocean Divers is the company that we are going out with.

We were there too early, so we hang out a while, and when Elena shows up, we start loading our gear into the boat. While it wasn't full (some people had dropped out) we still had I would guess a dozen divers or so. Sun was still out when we head out, and we reach Molasses around dusk, near the winch. Conditions are, pardon the pun, night and day from our first dive. Mostly 2 footers I would say, totally manageable, and NO SURGE. We get ready (light, backup, and backup backup )

We splash and head down.

Getting Elena as a guide was such a great investment. It was probably my most relaxing dive so far, I could just enjoy myself, keeping a close eye on my kid, and not worry about getting lost Elena was great at finding critters, and kept the PERFECT leisurely pace for us. It was just a great dive all in all, so glad we got back out there to knock off the bad juju of the first dive.

Ride back was nice and the crew did a fantastic job all in all, great deckmates, great boat. It's getting really hard to decide on any dive ops down here. Seriously, every single op we've gone out with, I'd be happy to go out with again (pending preference of what size boat I want to go out with): Quiescence, Rainbow Reef, Scuba Do, Ocean Divers, all great ops, and we haven't even gotten to try Conch Republic, Silent World, and who knows who else.

After we cleaned our gear in the rinse bins and stowed in the car, we joined Elena upstairs for a meal @ Sharkeys (or The Galley, forget which is which). Remembered what I ate and loved there last time, the fish tacos, so ordered that again. It's got a good kick, and it's really good. Bid Elena farewell with promises to see each other again, whether they come up for a shark tooth dive or we come back down for clear water diving And a coral restoration day sounds like a blast!

...

Our trip has been beset by little problems, but I really feel like we've just made a big old pitcher of lemonade out of it. Thanks again Elena, hope you had as much fun as we did!

Jesper & Anakin, it was a blast meeting you for dinner. And even better yet, that the conditions were so easy for a great night dive. Thank you for the kind words. We will dive together again very soon!