Thanks very much for the warm welcome. We did look at driving to Jupiter to do four dives over two days and will just get a hotel room for the night. I also like the Epcot idea and may do that also. We had already planned to do some kayaking or canoeing on the inland streams, but will definitely look into diving there too. Such great suggestions...thanks! This blog rocks!
As you asked for more info...My husband and I are in our late 40's and have done "resort courses" for years. We found ourselves on a family cruise on Royal Caribbean two years ago that offered scuba courses and we took them. A few months later, I landed a new job with a company that owned a dive resort on Curacao...Sunset Waters Beach Resort in case any of you have been there. We got the opportunity to dive there several times and finished up our open water courses with Lynn Bean. We loved it very much! The great people we have met on the dive boats and with dive operations are just topping on the cake. This year, sadly, the resort went bankrupt and closed down. Since that time, we have changed our vacation plans to include some diving if possible. We have been diving in Cozumel and Nassau mostly. The shark dive at Stuart Cove's was really great. Since we live in Chicago, we don't get to dive very much...only on vacations, but try to get out at least a couple of times each year just to keep our skills up.
This year, we vow to look at doing some local diving in quarries or Lake Michigan just for the experience and practice. We also found some diving in old mines in St. Louis.
We got started very late in life, but it is definitely something we will do forever. The good thing is that we've gotten our four kids started...all have done resort dives now and they all want to get certified! Makes my heart glad to know they will have all their lives to discover how fantastic it is.
Again, my thanks to this board for all the good suggestions! We will keep in touch and will visit the Chicago area boards for summer diving ideas and to meet more divers.