Current mood:

quixotic

Key West - Snorkeling and other Disasters - [Travel]
One of the meta things about my trip to Florida last week is how there were so many little crises that came up, got my attention, then were deflected. It was like the Universe was telling me somethin'!

Claytie Baby said he'd come over to feed, water, etc. my cats while I was gone. But unknown to me, my garage keypad had expired batteries. I doubt Clayton would've problem solved enough to know why the garage door didn't open after he input the code. But my brother Andrew really, really wanted his last birthday gift (I Like What I Know, an autobiography by Vincent Price) that had arrived Monday. So Andrew drove north the day I left, couldn't get in via the keypad, and knew from past experience to go to Walgreens and buy batteries.

I smothered myself with SPF 45 sunblock head to toe before our 3-hour catamarran ride (Let it be noted that I, fair, blonde Wendy never got a real sunburn the whole trip!) . Then asked Niecie to rub some in my back, whereupon she remarked on the fact it was L'Oreal. But wait! L'Oreal made the tanning milk I was using (SPF 15 only), so I realized I'd grabbed up the wrong bottle. I had to scrub off in the shower real quick and apply the true sunblock. I could've come back from that trip horribly blistered if not.

My glasses lens fell out! Luckily it happened as I was leaving the hotel room and I'd brought a backup pair of glasses. And then our hotelier had a little screwdriver I could use to fix my main glasses later.

On the snorkeling trip, the strap on my new swimsuit broke! But we broke the other one too and tied them both around my neck, which worked fine.

And then of course there was the panic with the snorkeling attempt. But I didn't drown or anything, and it was fun out on the caramarran and looking down into the water anyway. I took that as a $35 lesson in my comfort zone with snorkeling.


Niecie came back with several photos from my cheap underwater camera (Kodak makes throw-aways for this purpose). Here are a couple.

Niecie's self-portrait as a snorkeler on the Florida reef. She has some dramatic eyebrows -- visible even in this shot!


Schools of fish.