Honeymoon Island

When I found out that Nick had the weekend off, I wanted to do something special so I searched online for places in Florida. Honeymoon Island (top left image) looked pretty but nearby was Caladesi Island, which was voted the 2nd best beach in the nation (top right image). When I read that we could kayak from Honeymoon Island to Caladesi Island, I was sold.

Sunday morning we drove down to Dunnedin, FL to Honeymoon Island. The reason why these beaches are so pretty is because they are both State parks. We didn't waste any time and as soon as we got there we rented the kayaks and headed out to sea.

I was a little worried because it looked really far away. Everyone assured us it would take only 20 minutes to get there although it could take us longer because of all the private boats in the water. Having had a bad experience kayaking once before, I was hoping they were right.

Once we were about half way, we saw a weird break in the water- waves were crashing in the middle of the ocean. I was scared because we were headed directly towards it and I was afraid to tip over. You can't see it very well in the picture but you can see the mini waves crashing.

It turned out to be an off the coast sand bar. It was so shallow I was afraid we'd get stuck in the sand. We could barely paddle without hitting the sand floor.

Nick and I were such a good team, we made it through and all in about 25 minutes.

Caladesi Island is like a Corona commercial-crystal clear water and nothing else! Nick and I "parked" our kayak and went for a walk. We found some great shells for Mary (Nick's mom). It so hard to just pick a few shells because there are so many different ones and unlike the "regular" beach, the shells here are intact.

I just wanted to relax and enjoy it before our kayak time was up. The beach is so shallow that you have to float to be submerged.

I was "walking" with my hands to get to deeper water when I felt something weird in the sand. I picked it up and it was a live sand dollar. We'd never seen one live. Once I got over the "yuck" feeling, I stared at it and it was very pretty.

We also saw either a small squid or a "needle fish" (I think that's what Nick called it). It was clear and the back of it looked like a squid. He was as clear as the water so it was really hard to tell exactly what it looked like. Can you find it in the picture?

When we got back to our car, we saw a turtle eating grass. There was another one nearby that was "walking" pretty fast for a turtle.

Nick and I had so much fun and we will be going back pretty soon!

Our Body: The Universe Within

On Saturday, Nick and I went to the Orlando Science Center to view the "Our Body: The Universe Within" exhibit.

This is an exhibit of real human bodies preserved in a way that's unreal for the public to see what parts of our body actually look like. The exhibit walks you through the different systems in our body: skeletal, nervous, muscular, reproductive, cardiovascular, respiratory, etc.

The bodies are dissected and displayed in glass cases and in some cases in "active" positions.

While the exhibit is educational and eye opening, it is quite disturbing at times. I will not go into details but I will say that I have decided not to eat meat again. I used to be a vegetarian for a while years ago. I was traumatized when I dissected a pig in my high school anatomy & physiology class. This exhibit brought flashbacks to me and it made me see the resemblance between the human body and the animals we eat....so until I can get that image off my mind I will refrain from eating meat. Nick shared similar feelings although he's finding it hard to stop eating meat altogether.

Besides that...I do recommend the exhibit although not for those with weak stomachs! :-)

Day 6- Final Day in Puerto Rico

I forgot to mention on the previous post for Day 4 that Ashleigh kept craving coconuts all day long. She wanted a cocktail coconut before she left PR. We had my whole family thinking and looking for a place that would sell us some coconuts.

Every place we found would sell the coconut water but not the actual coconut. We finally found a place the night before our last day that did not sell COLD coconuts but I convinced them to sell me the coconuts so I could take them home, chill 'em and pour the cocktail in them. After all the place was called "Coconuts" so we had to get coconuts.

We had a couple of Medallas (Puerto Rican beer) while we waited for the man to prep the coconuts.

So, on our last day in Puerto Rico Ashleigh and Tim wanted to get a little extra sun. A couple of days before they sat out on the lawn in the morning to catch some rays.

This time they borrowed my 3 year old cousin's kiddie pool to cool off!

I'm sure they both have a picture of them in a kiddie pool when they were 3. I'd like to see a side by side of that!

Day 4 of PR- Mar Chiquita

On Day 4 of Puerto Rico (Sunday) we went to a "little" and secluded beach called "Mar Chiquita" (Chiquita means little in Spanish).

This was my first time at this beach. Not a lot of people visit this beach because it's small, very rocky and deep but it is beautiful. We had a chance to go in before the afternoon showers came.

Mar Chiquita is like an inlet lagoon with a small passage that allows the ocean water to come into the lagoon. The rocks that close off the lagoon feel like walking on a different planet. Nick felt like an explorer.

There are a lot of sea urchins in the deep craters. The water was so clear you could see all of them. There aren't any sea urchins in the "lagoon" part but it is rocky so we had to be careful not to slip on one of them.

Day 5 of Puerto Rico- Bacardi Distillery

On Day 5 of our trip (Monday) we decided to take it easy and head over to the Bacardi Distillery for a tour and sampling of course. For those who are not familiar with Bacardi Rums...Mr. Bacardi started Bacardi rums in Cuba in the 19th century. Some time after the distillery was moved to Puerto Rico. Bacardi is only one of the rums produced in PR. Other brands are Don Q and Palo Viejo; lesser known brands are Ron Rico and Ron del Barrilito (produced in my hometown, Bayamon).
The Bacardi tour does not take you through the actual distillery but it does show you the history of the Bacardi family, brand, and company. Upon completion of the tour, each person can sample two drinks. We had the opportunity to try the newly released Bacardi Grand Melon with passion fruit juice and it was absolutely delicious. Our second choice was the famous, Mojito mix.

At the gift shop, we went crazy and bought tons of airplane approved sized bottles of Grand Melon.

Most importantly we learned to never ask for rum and coke, ask for Bacardi & Coke!

I almost forgot to show the drunken palm tree.