Flash visit to the keys - an Rx for Burn-out
In a more-or-less per whim, my husband Steve and I decided to take a nice vacation . . . which almost immediately was reduced to only three days!
Still, just three days left us enormously refreshed and relaxed.
First, we flew into Miami. We were using airline miles and unfortunately Miami worked best. However, the airport sucks, and the rental cars are astronomical. If you can find some way to rent somewhere away from the airport, do so -- the three-day rental cost as much as an airfare.
We rented from a place that came up on 'CarRentals.com', 247miamicars.com Rent A Car at Miami Airport. The car was rather abused for having only 44k miles on it. Frankly, we didn't care as the intermediate size was $100 less than the major brands' sub compact! You take the Rental Car Center shuttle to Center, where the rep picked us up in the car we were to keep - load the luggage once! Also, the car had the SunPass sticker, included in the price, so that was a bonus. When we returned, the rep drove us to the hotel and dropped us - I liked that.
Just prior to leaving, United changed my flight to a 6:46 one, so we changed our plans a bit. We decided to drive down to Key West, stay & dive two days, come up to Key Largo, stay & dive one day, and then drive up to the hotel at the airport.
For lodging in Key West, we stayed at the Key West Naval Air Station lodging at Trumbell Point. If you have any kind of military affiliation (DoD civilian included), you can stay in lodging. There are several places; some have been recently renovated and some are in the process. The room in the Trumbell Point lodging was small and older but for $55 a night, 1/4 mi from downtown, you can't beat it. There are several lodging places, if you want to walk to downtown, make sure you are on Trumbell Point. You need just a rental agreement and a mil ID to get through the gate.
Friday
The original plan was to get up early and explore Key West, but did not happen as desired. I was recovering from food poisoning (Thanks, Montezuma!) and Steve was jetlagged from Kuwait. I let him sleep in until 9:30 so we could do a leisurely brunch and check-in with Dive Key West, Inc. We did do the obligatory stop at Mile 0 for pics. Pics left as URLs do to page-jam sizing.
Shout out to WOOKIE for the recommendation to dive with "Dive Key West" - :grouphug:
This was a super operation, nice shop, very nice and super knowledgeable staff, and for Bob, :worship: for bringing my wetsuit to the boat when I stupidly left it at the shop. :doh:
For this weekend, Dive KW was doing the Vandy in the morning and reef dives in the afternoon. We opted for the reef for our first day. Dive KW has great organization, as they set the name-labeled tanks and weights outside to make sure everyone's gear was accounted for. We could also set up our gear on the tanks and they would carry all in their truck to the boat.
The boat was at the Key West Harbor Yacht Club, quite a nice arrangement with plenty of parking. The crew got everything / everyone on board, did roll call, and also called out each person's starting tank pressure. They did this before the second dive, too. We had some snorkelers with us, as we were informed up front when we booked. We headed out to the reefs. Note - they have DIN valves available only on their Nitrox tanks, so plan accordingly.
The Keys are still under their Spring winds - running late this year, the constant breeze kept the waves up and the vis down. It was very surgey, and the poor snorklers were really tested. I will have to list the sites later, as I don't have my log book with me at this time. The vis was okay, about 40 fuzzy feet, since the coral just went through a spawn. They have the biggest parrotfish I've ever seen, and the lobsters are ginormous!
The max depth was 23fsw, the temp was ~84F, and I wore my 7mm. Steve was in his 5mm.
The second dive wasn't as surgey, but still sucked for photos. Or, I should say, I sucked at photagraphy in that situation. Best of all, I spewed only once!
I am now a huge fan of scopolamine. I freaked out the crew, because the first thing I did after feeding the fish was eat a banana. I hate dry heaves. Also, instead of Sergeant Majors coming round, those pretty silver and yellow striped things were feeding. Yellow finned snapper? 
Anyway, I felt great after the dive and was ready to explore.
The max depth was around 30, temp still ~84F.
In a more-or-less per whim, my husband Steve and I decided to take a nice vacation . . . which almost immediately was reduced to only three days!
Still, just three days left us enormously refreshed and relaxed.First, we flew into Miami. We were using airline miles and unfortunately Miami worked best. However, the airport sucks, and the rental cars are astronomical. If you can find some way to rent somewhere away from the airport, do so -- the three-day rental cost as much as an airfare.
We rented from a place that came up on 'CarRentals.com', 247miamicars.com Rent A Car at Miami Airport. The car was rather abused for having only 44k miles on it. Frankly, we didn't care as the intermediate size was $100 less than the major brands' sub compact! You take the Rental Car Center shuttle to Center, where the rep picked us up in the car we were to keep - load the luggage once! Also, the car had the SunPass sticker, included in the price, so that was a bonus. When we returned, the rep drove us to the hotel and dropped us - I liked that.
Just prior to leaving, United changed my flight to a 6:46 one, so we changed our plans a bit. We decided to drive down to Key West, stay & dive two days, come up to Key Largo, stay & dive one day, and then drive up to the hotel at the airport.
For lodging in Key West, we stayed at the Key West Naval Air Station lodging at Trumbell Point. If you have any kind of military affiliation (DoD civilian included), you can stay in lodging. There are several places; some have been recently renovated and some are in the process. The room in the Trumbell Point lodging was small and older but for $55 a night, 1/4 mi from downtown, you can't beat it. There are several lodging places, if you want to walk to downtown, make sure you are on Trumbell Point. You need just a rental agreement and a mil ID to get through the gate.
Friday
The original plan was to get up early and explore Key West, but did not happen as desired. I was recovering from food poisoning (Thanks, Montezuma!) and Steve was jetlagged from Kuwait. I let him sleep in until 9:30 so we could do a leisurely brunch and check-in with Dive Key West, Inc. We did do the obligatory stop at Mile 0 for pics. Pics left as URLs do to page-jam sizing.
Shout out to WOOKIE for the recommendation to dive with "Dive Key West" - :grouphug:
This was a super operation, nice shop, very nice and super knowledgeable staff, and for Bob, :worship: for bringing my wetsuit to the boat when I stupidly left it at the shop. :doh:
For this weekend, Dive KW was doing the Vandy in the morning and reef dives in the afternoon. We opted for the reef for our first day. Dive KW has great organization, as they set the name-labeled tanks and weights outside to make sure everyone's gear was accounted for. We could also set up our gear on the tanks and they would carry all in their truck to the boat.
The boat was at the Key West Harbor Yacht Club, quite a nice arrangement with plenty of parking. The crew got everything / everyone on board, did roll call, and also called out each person's starting tank pressure. They did this before the second dive, too. We had some snorkelers with us, as we were informed up front when we booked. We headed out to the reefs. Note - they have DIN valves available only on their Nitrox tanks, so plan accordingly.
The Keys are still under their Spring winds - running late this year, the constant breeze kept the waves up and the vis down. It was very surgey, and the poor snorklers were really tested. I will have to list the sites later, as I don't have my log book with me at this time. The vis was okay, about 40 fuzzy feet, since the coral just went through a spawn. They have the biggest parrotfish I've ever seen, and the lobsters are ginormous!
The max depth was 23fsw, the temp was ~84F, and I wore my 7mm. Steve was in his 5mm.
The second dive wasn't as surgey, but still sucked for photos. Or, I should say, I sucked at photagraphy in that situation. Best of all, I spewed only once!
I am now a huge fan of scopolamine. I freaked out the crew, because the first thing I did after feeding the fish was eat a banana. I hate dry heaves. Also, instead of Sergeant Majors coming round, those pretty silver and yellow striped things were feeding. Yellow finned snapper? Anyway, I felt great after the dive and was ready to explore.The max depth was around 30, temp still ~84F.
I was up early the next morning with an early flight, and I took the two dive bags; Steve is off for other trip and I got to clean all the dive gear. 
How's that keep happening? 
