My travel went smoothly– an easy drive to BWI airport, an on-time and smooth flight, and a delightful drive to the Keys. I had lunch at one of my favorite spots in Key Largo, and it was wonderful. I sat facing the bay and watched little jellyfish dance at the edge while a local musician played keyboard and sang.
My next stop was the one that no diver can pass up– Divers Direct. It’s a huge store devoted to selling scuba diving and beach stuff. I got out of there only spending $62 this time! After that, things started to get tough because I had gotten up at 9 PM Friday night and left my house at midnight. I was starting to get tired, and we couldn’t check in until 5:30. I made a quick visit to Ocean Divers and then drove a little to find a beach where I could take a nap. I started with Anne’s Beach, but the tide was in, so there was no beach. I went back to Founder’s Park, which is close to where we are staying. There was an admission fee, but by then, I REALLY needed to sleep. I took a half hour snooze under some palm trees, and then our coordinator texted me to say she was at the house.
The rest is a whirlwind. Aileen, the main coordinator of the program, came running out with arms open wide. Next was Ashtyn, another coordinator, who also hugged me. Aileen said I was Ashtyn’s favorite from the get-go because of the shark costume in my video 🙂 I met the rest of the teachers, and we all hugged and agreed that this feels like we’re on a reality TV show, like “The Real World”. We toured the house, which is beautiful, and then sat down to have a meeting. We got very thick folders and a very hefty schedule. I attached part of it to this so you can see how busy we’ll be.
We only had a few moments before we were shuffled over to the science team’s house for some pizza. There were so many people and so much noise that it was a bit overwhelming to this girl who was then awake (except for the half hour nap) for almost 24 hours. When we got back, Andrea and I went grocery shopping because we are going to need to take lunch on the boat every day, and we didn’t know when there would be time. Breakfasts and dinners are going to be quick too. When I finally went to bed, I had been awake for 25 1/2 hours. I woke up before my alarm today and figured I might as well blog since nobody else is up.
We will be doing our check-out dive today, and I really hope it’s an actual full length dive and not a quick drop-us-in-the-water-and-make-us-do-skills-and-then-get-out deal. Well, I’m off to eat breakfast and begin my day. Honestly, after seeing the schedule, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to blog here. I’ll do what I can.
In Pursuit of Paradise 