One Last Getaway!
One thing Dan and I value incredibly and have since the beginning of our marriage, is taking time away together. It is something we plan for and always can’t wait for. In planning to expand our family in 4-5 months, we decided that now would be a GREAT time to take a Babymoon.
We were going to stay state-side, but as we added up the costs of what it would be to stay in a hotel, drive, and pay for every meal, we wondered how it would compare to a trip down to the Florida Keys. Sounds absolutely crazy because that type of a vacation seems way more expensive, but let us tell you, it is not! We found an amazing deal on a cheap condo, insanely cheap car rental, and decent flights. Then we can also cook our own meals, as cheap and easy as we want. It was by far a good choice, even though…IT RAINED 4 OUT OF THE 6 DAYS!
That was a bit of a bummer as we came down to Florida in hopes of soaking in the sun as we traveled to different state parks/beaches, but after our first day of rain, we decided that that was not why we came down to Florida. We came to work on our marriage, grow closer together, and just enjoy the area. We read a piece in the book Jesus Calling where it talked about finding joy in the “easy” and simple things in life, when they are right in front of you. Sometimes through the storms and overcast skies, you have to look harder for that joy (yes, the book used the terms overcast and storms). As cheesy and ridiculous as this may sound, we had to find different ways of finding joy in the simple, when the weather wasn’t what we expected. We experienced the remnants of a hurricane that never turned into one, in Mexico. At one point it was a tropical depression, but again, it didn’t turn into anything huge, just LOTS and LOTS of rain.
One of the crazy happenings was when we got the rental car place, they ran out of the car that we had paid for (an intermediate, like a Toyota Corolla). We told the guy when we walked out to the lot (b/c you could choose what you wanted in a certain row) that there weren’t any, so the manager apparently told his worker to offer them a minivan or a Ford Mustang. The worker told the guy that it’s just the 2 of them so they will choose the Ford Mustang, but that’s all they had! So of course, we chose the ‘Stang! Definitely a pleasant surprise as we had gotten a GREAT deal already on the car rental, but then to be upgraded to a Mustang? It was a blast!
Dan caught a little guy off the dock by our condo
The 2nd night, the weather was still great, and got a great sunset pic!
Heading out to dinner at the Islamorada Fishing Co.
View while eating there
Even though it was raining, we still went to one of our most favorite places in the world – Bahia Honda State Park
Dan trying to get a large crab to emerge from the rocks
I am so afraid of heights, like walking on this bridge – I was hanging on for dear life!
On Tuesday we went to another beach and decided to just sit in the rain – why not, right? Our view overlooked the ocean – one can never get sick of that!
Some of the crazy skies
Another favorite place – we frequented this place OFTEN!
It rained incredibly hard when this storm came through!
On Sunday (one of the nice days) we went kayaking out in the bay – the water was SO clear!
We caught a lizard fish – those things have NASTY teeth!
Jellyfish
On Monday, even though it was very cloudy and rainy, we decided to go on a snorkeling trip anyways and we are so glad we did! We had such a great time, as we both LOVE snorkeling – we never get sick of it!
We saw AMAZING underwater life – fish we had never seen before, colors that pictures just don’t do justice to. We saw a fish that was literally all the neon colors meshed into one fish – spectacular! What a creative God we serve!
You can’t really see it, but the fish below my “M” is a yellow and blue!
Large barracuda under our boat
On yet another rainy day (our last full day), we decided to keep embracing the rain, so we decided to go kayaking. Didn’t expect it to rain as hard as it did, as it got crazy windy and rainy, but we just laughed and laughed! It was SO much fun! You can see the little dimples in the water – those are hard raindrops.
Ironically we even caught fish!
Hard to tell, but it is absolutely POURING while we took this picture!
It rained so hard that it flooded the path/street and the white boat behind the kayak Dan is pulling, is just floating away
One of our favorite things about the Keys is the KEY LIME PIE (the real stuff, of course!)
One thing that has grown is our little BABY! Oh my goodness! Our baby is growing astronomically I feel – and we only went out to eat twice, so it’s not because I ate more!
Another rainy day event was going to the History of Diving Museum
Because we love snorkeling so much, we decided on our last night to put on our gear and go in the condo’s pool for awhile, since we were not able to go as often as we had hoped. Yup, we are 2 over 30 year olds, acting like children, but we had SO much fun! You may laugh, but you know you want to do it!
What a drive down the Overseas Highway looks like (there is one main road that goes through the Keys).
Before the rain came, a beautiful sunset there was!
Where we stayed
View from our balcony – no it was not a hurricane, but it sure looked like one at times! No water view this time, but the price sure was right!
Our last night there, even though it was raining, God gave us a GORGEOUS sunset! What a blessing!
We feel so blessed to have been able to take this trip. Such great conversations, such growth, and such anticipation for what God has for our future and this little one! Even though we experienced a rainstorm (that locals say never happens like this one), we did not let it put a damper on the fun we had TOGETHER.
