diver gadget,
Since you and your wife are going down on vacation. I would recommend Mexico. This will give you a chance to Travel, Ocean and Cave dive. I can tell you that coming from far away for cave diving is going to be tricky. It is very addictive and requires that you come back often. My girlfriend and I are up there once a month and that keeps us pretty current. We did take a 2 month vacation from cave diving and when going back up there the first day we spent 2 dives in open water practicing diving the gear and running reels. Neither one of us wants to start to go in if we are not 100% comfortable.
Unfortunately, north FL doesn't offer much to the bubble watcher or non diving buddy. If your wife is doing the class then that is much better. FYI At the end of the day, you are in a little town with a hand full of restaurants. We tend to drive about 30 mins to get some decent dinner at the end of our dive day...regardless wether we stay in high springs or Luraville.
I would recommend a cruise:
Our trip to Mexico was on a 5 day cruise. We started in Ft. Lauderdale, Grand Cayman tourist in the AM diving in the afternoon. and then to Mexico. We just went cave diving.
We contacted Nick at
http://www.akumaldircenter.com/
We were picked up at the dock and they had all of our gear filled and ready to go. After a 15 min ride we were at the site Aktun-Koh. 2 Amazing cave dives later. We got a ride back to the dock and loaded the boat. That left us with a little bit of time to do the tourist thing.
Total for the day including transportation, gear, fills, guide and gratuity..$50 each.
They also offer guided cavern dives for certified divers. They do not issue cavern cards however. If you would like some discover type training to see if you like it that is ideal. No pressures just diving.
Why no cavern cards?
A c card means that you completed the requirements to dive safely without an instructor. Some feel that to safely dive in an overhead enviroment requires more than streamlining gear, a couple of reels and 2 lights.
You are welcome to dive with them while under direct supervision as they are equiped with all the cave gear recommended for overhead diving.
As far as not having fun in GUE class:
I lived in Cave country for the past year and a half. The reasons I chose to take a couple of classes from them was from talking to the students and watching them train. I compared that to my cavern and intro class. I decided to take their cave 1 and it was a blast.
I also watched what the other instructors in the area were doing and decided not to take any training from a handful of them.
I would only recommend a GUE course to someone who is dedicated to diving as a sport(ie fitness, practice, active diver) and diving safety 100% on every dive.
The amount of energy, time and money invested into those courses is alot more than others. But like anything else in life "you get what you pay for" For me, I was happy with my investment on the second day of the five day class. I completely forgot they gave C cards at the end of the class. As I already had cave cards from before. It took me a month before I made it down with my pics for the C-card.
Divesherpa,
I read that you are there 4 times a week. At this time last year you could usually find me taking a nap in my red jeep after doing some late night dives. I had my annual pass and was there way too much. The diving was nice and always clear. Specially in the summer when the other springs were blown out.