Let the Adventure Begin .... Again

So the adventure has begun and it will prove to be what it is, going underway on a Coast Guard Cutter to South America. Hopefully exciting, eventful and surprising in a good way, regardless it will be interesting. Now an apology for my lack of writing; It has been a busy last few months and none the less worth writing. I took Aimee to the Keys for her Birthday, brought Jeff out to Florida for a week, Went on a Caribbean Cruise and spend the holidays at home with family. I don’t have a good excuse why I did not write other than shear laziness, I was fairly busy preparing for being gone for an extended period of time.

Aimee at The Earnest Hemingway House.

The Square in Key West.

 The first major event mentioned would be Aimee’s Birthday in the Keys. We took off on a Friday for a weekend of Key West, Boating, a few tours and relaxtion. The dogs were piled in the car and Hobie was as excited as he normally gets. Cheecha, Aimees Poodle even rode in the back. Once we got settle in, we went to Key West, picnic island and the Earnest Hemmingway House. I tried to convince Aimee to go to see the butterflies, but she insisted and it was her birthday. For the record she wished she had gone to see the butterflies instead. Picnic Island was amazing. Bob Took us out in Lee’s boat to see a coral reef, a local bar and the sandbar known as Picnic Island, where we spent most of the day. The coral reef was nice, lunch was good but Picnic Island was absolutely incredible. The water is about three feet deep leading to a small island flanked by open ocean on three sides. They have makeshift swings set up to relax and the place is crowded with boats and people. There were probably 30 boats out there and 10 portable tables with the toppings of a family BBQ. We explored the Island, relaxed on the boat, enjoyed some snack and rode a wave runner. A random guy that came by our boat offered to let me ride his wave runner, so I accepted. Aimee rode with me for a short time, but chose to relax in the boat instead. It may have had something to do with the speed and quick turns.

The Coral Reef.

Picnic Island

The Earnest Hemingway House was a very interesting tour. He did not originally build the house, but is the most famous person to live there. He led a very interesting life. A man of the sea, of his writing and many marriages. The house and grounds are spectacular and everything seems to have a history. I would not recommend getting married at the chapel there, but there is one available. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that visits Key West. The weekend went by very quickly and then we had a long drive home. Regardless of the brief vacation is was very nice to get away with fair Aimara, the envy of the moon.

It was my pleasure bringing Jeff out to Florida for a vacation. For those that do not know, Jeff is a friend of mine since grade school and one of the strongest most amazing people I know. He does not have much of a chance to travel, but still finds a way to enjoy life. When I was in California, I would see him regularly, but since being stationed so far away, it puts a insurmountable challenge in those regular visits. Instead I decided to fly him out to Florida, take some leave and give him a much needed vacation. Throughout the trip we had a wonderful time. We had the opportunity to go to South Beach in Miami, Orlando and the sky coaster, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Hollywood where I live in Florida. A few video games, rest and eating and to fill in the less active hours. We had some wonderful dinners with Lee, Lourdice, Aimee and Pat.

Jeff and I before the Sky Coaster

At Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure.

The main thing he wanted to see was the Harry Potter Ride at Islands of Adventure. First we had to check out a small them park in Orlando that had a Sky Coaster. The sky coaster is three towers with two cable between them. A giant swing, in which you are dropped from three hundred feet. I thought it was thrilling, Jeff still has not forgiven me, but I know he will one day. When we finally made it to the Harry Potter Ride, it was impressive to say the least. We ended up going on it three times. Hogwarts Village was even more impressive; it made us truly feel like we were in the movie or books. Other than the rule that I could not do magic in the village and call all the beautiful women over to Jeff, it was spectacular. From the Entrance, all you could see was the Hogwarts Express (The Train), the buildings in the turn of the century winter season style architecture and the Castle in the Background. After walking through the village and making our way to the Castle, we were wisped away by Harry and the gang. We unfortunately had to run from wraiths and dragons, but we were able to get away. In addition to harry potter, we swung with Spider Man, were terrified by Dr. Doom, felt the rush of the Hulk and explored a lost temple. All in all, it was a very exciting day.

Jeff at Dog Beach in Hollywood.

The hotel accommodations were wonderful for both quality and location. I was able to make reservations at the Shades of Green Military Resort so the lodging was affordable. The following day was spend at Universal Studio where Jeff and I blasted some aliens, Rescued ET, and saved all the Fairly Tales. We also met Schreck, Fiona, The Men in Black, Shaggy, Scooby and Dr. Brown. Jeff has so much fun, he slept the entire four hour drive home. He did not want to go home by the end of the week, but I felt fortunate to have given him the opportunity to come out and have a good time. I was proud that he had behaved so well and given me the ability to make it a wonderful trip. I plan to do something again next year, Maybe swimming with the dolphins and the Keys.

Saving the night, you will find out later.

After this trip being the adventurous guy I am, I decided I needed a vacation from my vacation. Aimee had invited me on a cruise to the Bahamas for her brother’s birthday. The tickets were already purchased and I was looking forward to some rest and relaxation. Aimee’s brother was unable to make the cruise due to an injury, but the rest of the family still came. Long Story short her family now knows me as El Gringo Loco and Aimee and I had a wonderful time. The cruise started on Friday with warm sunny weather and brought us to Paradise Island. We met some wonderful people both on and off the cruise. We almost missed the boat, but I will get to that later.

Atlantis Resort and Casino.

The nice thing about a cruise is that it is worry free as long as you don’t mind spending ten dollars on a well drink. There is the duty free store, as much as you want to eat, and alcohol is abundant. I don’t have to tell anyone that has been on a cruise that half the people onboard probably drink more in three days, than they have in the last year. I teamed up to save karaoke, dance all night and saw some amazing aquariums.

How I saved Karaoke … well there were at the bow the ship at a bar that had karaoke, but no Journey. The group on stage was hacking the song they chose. Now this was not a song you can just hack, it deserved respect. No I don’t remember the song. So Chris and I joined them, stole the show, rocked the house and saved karaoke. That is all the details I remember, but the important ones. If you ever here an alternative to my version of the story, it is not true. Unfortunately Chris and I were not able to save karaoke on the last night of the cruise. The guys sang love ballads to their ladies all night, to make up for having to much fun.

When we arrived at Paradise Islands, Aimee and I opted to do the Atlantis Tour. I had been told the aquariums were amazing, and they are. This is one of the most beautiful resorts I have ever seen and the cheesiest tour I have ever been on. The grounds, hotel and aquarium all come together in a majestic montage of manmade architecture emulating the theoretical archeological finding of Atlantis with how they looked in ancient times. It is as spacious as you could imagine without a dull wall in sight. They have four incredible glass sculptures all by the same artist that are worth one million each. Hundreds of pieces of glass in shades that bend the light to make them stand out even in the low light. Now the tour guide had to emphasize the value and get the whole group excitedly saying it back to her. This I was okay with. We then walked down to the first view of the underwater aspect of the aquarium. Mana rays and smaller fish fill the water along with the sunken artifacts of Atlantis. Sun Dials, Crystals and ancient tools.

The life in the aquarium is awe-inspiring. From the nine foot wide manna ray, the grouper, small schools of fish and moray eels. They all seem to swim around peacefully not taking notice of the numerous eyes upon them. There is a grace to them, even in the captive state. The mana rays are actually immature, mature ones in the wild reach 30 feet wide. It was good to hear they raise them here, then set them free when they mature. At some point you enter a dimly lit passage. It is the dig site to where they found the ruins of Atlantis. At this point my “I believe button” stopped working. There are crystals that provided power by bending light, suits of fabric that served as deep-sea diving suits, and submarines. The smooth walls with aquariums built in demonstrate the advance knowledge of the Atlantians because they are preserved to this day. The final part of our tour brought up across the way to the predator tank in which an underground tunnel allow the sharks to swim around us. After Aimee was able to calm me down after I found out that none of this was real, we took a look at the rest of the hotel.

After looking through the shops and getting a good lunch recommendation of local food, Aimee and I met some friends at Senior Frogs near the cruise terminal, we promptly found them being the life of the party. We danced a little, then followed directions to get some local authentic food and beer.

This part of the island was drastically different than Atlantis. There were several construction projects that seemed to have halted mid construction. There was a mix of nice neighborhoods and run down shanty’s like I had seen in the mountains of Puerto Rico. Aimee and I were riding in a bus riding back to the cruise ship that was a very long scenic tour. It just kept going. People kept getting off and eventually the bus tuned around and headed to where we had come from. It was at this moment that we realized that we had taken the wrong bus and had approximately one half hour to make it back to the cruise. We made it back to the bus stop with three minutes remaining and had to run the remaining one half mile to get back. Long story short, we made it.

The rest of the cruise was fun. We met back up with our friends, danced one more night, failed to save karaoke. We departed the trip in Miami and had wonderful brunch with the dogs and Pat.

Lastly I was able to go home for the Holidays. In this case, both Hobie and I came home and for the first time in several years; the family and dogs were together again. It was truly a beautiful thing. We were able to go to the cabin, ski in some fresh powder and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with both sides of the extended family. It is true when they say there is no place like home for the holidays. After all, your family are the ones that have stood by you your entire life and will always be there. I could have gone without the skiing and the cabin, but opportunity to once again enjoy with family was priceless. It was the first time in about ten years that the family has all been together on the slopes. I cannot truly put into words how it felt, but I believe that my family and I appreciated the opportunity to be a family once again.

Hobie and Mosely at Pinecrest

In short, Life is good. I have a good job, a wonderful family, A beautiful Girl and friends that make all the experiences worth it. Whatever life will throw at me, I just remind myself that I make it a good day and have the choice to enjoy every moment.

All We Did was Run ...

Oftentimes the reason we do something is as important as the way we achieve it.  This is not always apparent, but sometimes becomes very clear.  I participated in the Keys 100, a one hundred mile race from mile marker 100 in Key Largo to mile marker 0 in Key West.  I was a member of a six-runner relay team to honor our fallen shipmates.  It was an experience to say the least, both touching and inspiring.  I dedicate this blog to the Duque Family, it was both an honor and a privilege to have been a part of the team.

The Team and Supporters taking a short break.

The memorable aspect was not the challenge of the race, but the purpose behind it.  In running for our fallen shipmates, we ran for something more.  The support of the ones that had lost their children or friends was our reason to push to the end.  I cannot put in words the feeling of crossing that finish line as a team below the broken starry sky and the supporting families to cheer us on.  We were hurting with every step, but the joy of completion was overwhelming.  It is still hard to believe that 15 Relay teams ran 1500 miles to show respect for those they had served with.

The Race began at 0600 on Saturday morning and I don’t believe that anyone on our team knew what we were about to do.  The startling line was composed of characters from your serious runner to the male ballerina swans.  I have run for most of my life, but the last time I ran twenty miles in a day was about ten years ago while running cross country in high school.  Of the six members of our team, two could be considered avid runners.  Everyone ran an initial five-mile leg of the trip.  This was not a particularly difficult leg considering we all had fresh legs.  Once we had rotated through, we all ran our second leg.  The fatigue has started to set in, but the apex of the challenge was still to come.  For me, it was my third leg. 

After a five and four mile leg, I ran eight miles over seven mile bridge.  The run started just fine, with a minor misdirection onto the wrong bridge.  Fortunately someone informed me that the other bridge is the one I wanted.  I am glad they did, considering the non-continuous walkway only went about a mile out before I would have had to swim the rest of the way.  At this point I met the line of endless orange cones going off as far as I could see.  They vanished at the central rise of the bridge and beyond the next island looked close.  I kept running thinking that at the rise, I would be near the end.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  The next island was not close and the cones still went as far as I the eye could see.  I could see the other island, but I was probably less than halfway done.  The sun was beating down, a small breeze would occasionally provide some relief and I just kept running.  I could finally make out the light poles running parallel to the bridge when I hit the wall and had to stop and stretch.  I started running again, and although every step was painful, I knew the end was near.  After an hour and ten minute run, the next runner relieved me.  My next two legs were still painful due to the fatigue, but tolerable and short in comparison.  When we crossed the finish line, I had run approximately 22 miles.

 A little celebration the next day.

 I suppose mile marker one is when the reverence settled in.  We were all meeting up to run the final mile and had reached Key West after running 99 miles.  I was looking up at the sky where a break in the clouds had revealed the starry night above.  The challenge of the race had been the heat, distance and fatigue we were all feeling.  I had been so focused on running that all I had seen most of the day was the path in front of me.  Even though I was tired and hurting like all of us were, we knew we would not fail.  It was a long last mile, but the Duque family met us a little off the finish line to guide us in and the camera crew from the Coast Guard was waiting.  The only thing I felt when crossing that line was satisfaction and joy.  We had succeeded as a team.

Seven Mile Bridge

I have never lost a friend in the line of duty, nor had to bury a child.  I did not know the Duque family or other effected families.   I cannot even fathom what it is like to go through what they have had to come to grips with.  All we did was run, but that small act meant the world to them.  On the rare occasion, we have the opportunity to immeasurable impact someone’s life in a positive way.  I can only hope that as individuals and as a group, we have the courage to do so.           

Florida Is ...

Sunset on the Intercoastal Waterway.

I have been in Florida for about six months now and finally getting a real sense of the place. I know that six months may be a long time to just get a sense of a place, but it is not a vacation, it is home for the near future. There is so much more to a place being your home and not just a place to visit. There are no mountains, no cliffs on the sea and no waterfalls that trickle down the terrain. It is a landscape in which the mangroves will block the view to the ocean at only eight feet tall and the buildings are the only tall structure for hundreds of miles. It is also a place that has intrinsic waterways running thought-out the landscape just few feet deep in which wild life and people has flourished for centuries. An endangered panther, buffalo, alligator and a multitude of other creatures can be seen on any given day. I have seen very little all things considered, but here is what I have seen so far.

I have taken a local trip on the Inter-coastal waterway with some family friends, seen the keys and Key West, visited Seminole Indian Reservation and taken a tour on the everglades. I have already written about the keys, so I will focus on the other three.

Marty and Donna at Fort Lauderdale.

The Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

First is the Water Taxi tour on the inter-coastal waterway. My family friend Martin and his girlfriend Donna joined me. They flew in from Southern California and were vacationing in the Keys. The Water Taxi runs up the inter-coastal waterway from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. It is not the fastest way to get around, but it does provide some very nice scenery along the way. Ranging from the bordering mangroves to the largest cruise ship in the world. We boarded in Hollywood and went up to Fort Lauderdale. On the way to Fort Lauderdale, the ferry goes by the harbor where the cruise ships depart from. Just above that is where the famous people such as Steven Spielberg, Oprah and Judge Judy keep their insanely expensive boats. That is followed by a row of insanely expensive houses. Needless to say, it really makes you feel like a little person. I don’t know about you, but paying 32 thousand a month in property tax is a little insane. They are absolutely beautiful houses and have some very interesting stories to their history. The most memorable would have to be the house built by the Sheik for his daughter that has never actually been lived in. Keep in mind this is a multi, multi million dollar house. Simply because she did not like the floor plan. I took them to the Las Olas Blvd to have a few drinks and a good view of the ocean. After the trip home on the Water Taxi and observing the Cruise Ships departing for sea, we had a nice dinner and watched a football game. It was a nice very local adventure, but the important part was seeing friends along the way.

The Royal Home, nobody lives there.

Allure of the Seas, largest cruise ship in the world.

The Seminole Indian Reservation and Billie Swamp Safari were my spontaneous little adventure. It was not very far away, but felt like a world away. I went to If you read the rain forest blog I described it as very wet and life teaming everywhere. This was a similar feeling. Spontaneous swamps are created when the storms come through. Waterlines run on every tree, showing where the water has reached. An inconsistent pattern of green and brown dynamically paint the landscape as if to tell you that nothing is predicable or expected. Than any given day, this area may be the feeding ground of an Alligator or an American Bison. It seems that both predator and prey are ready for anything that may happen.

The Wetlands.

A small oasis in the middle of forest.

One of the many species of plants that seem to grow right out of the water.

The blue sky and overbearing sun fall upon the land only broken by the semi thin canopy above and the intermittent patches of plants and trees. As the Airboat gracefully glides across the water, minus the sound of the fan of course, floating plants sink only to emerge a few minutes later and paint the water in to a deep verdure covering an unsettled void of water. Small islands large enough for a single animal dot the landscape as the occasional alligator can be seen lounging in the sun or gliding through water with only the eyes and nose visible. Taking it all in creates a respect for both the grace and unpredictable nature of the landscape and its inhabitants. In short it was different, but nothing short of spectacular. It was my first time on an airboat and to the everglades. I will have to make a few more trips when the seasons have changed.

An airboat returning to the dock.

Everywhere I have been, I have found the beauty in place and its unique combination of universal aspects. Florida is different, but equally as beautiful as the other places I have been. I do miss the rolling hills, tall mountain peaks and creeks running down the mountainside. It takes some time to adjust to the various cultures that populate the area and how their ethnic backgrounds have affected the overall attitude. Regardless, I am fortunate to be able to partake in this life. Work is going well, I may possibly be taking a trip home in the near future and life is good.

The boardwalk through the Seminole Museum nature area.

This alligator was about 14 feet long.

An Endangered Buffalo.

I shall keep you all updated on my endeavors out here, until then, enjoy every moment.

My Thoughts on the Year

Last year this time I was headed off to Puerto Rico to be as far away from home as I had ever been. I had just finished A-School and had an ideal two years ahead of me. Well, I can laugh and say that is not how it turned out. It was a very hectic and frustrating year; and even if I had the opportunity I would not change it. As strange as that sounds, I am a better man because of everything that has transpired. For everything that I have lost, I found a strength and the will to get through whatever I have to face. That is something no one can ever take from me.

I am now in Florida, still thousands of miles from the family, but on the mainland and just a flight a way (wink, wink). I am not going to tell you that this year will be ideal, because frankly I don’t know what is going to happen. What I can tell is what I have gained in the short time I have been here. I have my dog and the unconditional friend he provides me with. I have also gained some true friends that have showed me the impact of treating someone like family.

No one can ever replace the family that has been with you your entire life. That family for me has always been there. They have always been open to people joining us at our family gathering when they could not make it home or had no place go. I always saw the family do this, but I never truly understood the gratitude of the ones that were welcomed in. I can say that I understand that now. My adopted family out here has graciously invited me to and hosted the meals that I would normally spend with family. I cannot give ample thanks to Lee and Lourdes for their charity through out this holiday season.

After all was said and done, it turned out to be a good year. I have three blessing to start 2012 off with. In addition I have a mostly decorated home, a job, and a chance to make everyday a good day. To my friends and family, wherever you may be. I hope that your year is full of blessing, joy, laughter and maybe some lessons along the way.