spring break 2010 - part uno

I can't believe it's been over 3 weeks since we've returned from paradise. We were blessed to spend a week with our dear friends, Daniel and Carolyn Levi, in their home state of Florida.

Daniel's family has a very generous friend who let us, along with some of the rest of Daniel's family, stay at his home in Key Largo for the week. The spacious beach house is appropriately named "the Bounty House".



Apparently, the thing to do in the Keys is have a cool mailbox. These are just a few of the unique ones Carolyn and I spotted on a morning walk...



Here is the beautiful view from the Bounty house ....and the view from the dock....



We got spoiled our first night in the Keys with the most gorgeous sunset of the entire trip and what we voted "the best" Key lime pie in the Keys :]

One of my favorite things about our trips was getting to meet Daniel and Carolyn's families. Here are their precious niece and nephews that we got to share our time at the Bounty House with:

Gracie.......................................................................................Levi (the ham)......................



and Michael!



A large portion of the guys' time in the Keys revolved around fishing. Here are Daniel and Aaron hard at work scouting the fishing maps....let's just say that some were more successful at fishing than others. (Just kidding big boys - it was not for lack of heart!)



We had a fun opportunity to go fishing on the boat of one of Daniel's dad's friends from church (that's a mouthful!) The owner of the boat, Captain Doug, is a former marine biologist and was a wealth of knowledge. Sadly, Carolyn and I got seasick and were pretty miserable most of the trip. Captain Doug tried to distract us by singing songs and playing trivia to get our minds off of our misery...he even tried to make us feel better(?) by letting a bloody remora (who like to stick to things) suck onto his stomach. He slapped it on his stomach probably 10 times so that we could get the perfect picture which most definitely helped our seasickness. Looking at this picture brings back my nauseousness, but I thought it was too funny not to share....this guy was the real deal.

Here are the happy campers back on land with Captain Doug's boat to the right...



My favorite part of our boating trip was our stop on our way home to a local farmer's market -"Robert Is Here". And no, I didn't make that up! If I lived nearby, I would most definitely be getting my produce here...and maybe a fresh fruit milkshake or two! Check out the size of those avocados!



Stay tuned for part dos of our trip, "welcome to Miami", coming (semi) soon!