Trip to Duck Key, FL Nov 1. - Nov 6

Trip to Duck Key, FL Nov 1. - Nov 6

Sunday:

I'm so excited to be doing a family trip!! Our last trip was when Greta was only 4 months old, our RV trip around the Great Lakes. We chose this location because of the medical conference I am attending. Thank goodness it is only 4 hrs each morning. Plenty of time to for the kids to slowly wake up, have breakfast and swim at one of the Hawks Kay pools or lagoon.

Once the plane took off from O'hare, Greta sees all the buildings in downtown Chicago and says, "I see St. Louis!!" It certainly made those in front of us laugh. Once our plane was above the clouds she turns to me and asks, "does the sun live up here?" Flying with a 3 yr old is certainly interesting. She tested all 6 of our seats, checked out the bathroom not once but twice and read through all her highlight magazines in the first 30 minutes. Now she is learning Uno. Our last couple minutes we played telephone and thumb wars. Everyone on the plane heard her secret..."daddy wears pink underwear!" I guess you might say that is dad's secret.

Once at the airport we had to remind Matt several times to slow down. He gets in an airport and his fast pace kicks in. Greta did great in the airport without her stroller. We gave her her Doc McStuffins pull behind suitcase and she was all set chasing daddy down the moving sidewalks.

Next was our quick grocery stop and a Wendy's drive through. Now we are headed down Hwy 1 south listening to Greta sing "miss Mary Mac". We are trying to sing with her but she insists on singing alone. :)

We finally got to our resort around 8:30pm. Unfortunately our place was much smaller than we had hoped for. Leave it to Matt.....Matt he got us a much bigger place for the same price! 30 minutes later and a whole lot of sweat and spilled yogurt on the wall of the old place we were moved to a 3 bedroom, 3 bath villa with ocean view. Awesome...thanks Matt!!!

Monday:

This morning my run was around the island. Duck Key is 2 miles long and was once was the home of a salt manufacturing company in the 1820's and 1830's. It was completely destroyed in the Labor Day Hurricane in 1935. In 1953 is was reconnected to the highway. The island is rocky and covered in mangroves.

My conference started with my speciality....orthopedics. It is so nice to sit and listen.

Meanwhile, the kids visited our resorts kiddy pool with pirate ship, the adult pool, and the saltwater lagoon. James & dad played a little Soccor and grandma soaked in all in.

Once my conference was over we did lunch in our villa and headed to the Marina for our snorkeling adventure. We took a boat 6 miles out into the Atlantic to a reef. All of us (including Greta, minus grandma) spent 60 min seeing amazing coral, fish, stingray. James saw a barracuda! I can't wait to get our under water photos developed!! Greta only lasted 3 min. She ended up napping on the boat. I unfortunately got a little sea sick. Greta was my therapy...watching her sleep, siping water, and sitting in the center of the boat seemed to help.

James & Noelle loved the experience. They both rated it one of the best experiences they have had in their lifetime. Initially they weren't so sure...I'm so glad we pushed them to do it. Our guide helped too...he was fun guy. He named the turtles and nurse sharks that hang out were we were snorkeling. Unfortunately we didn't see either.

After our snorkeling experience we showered up and went to the Keys Fishery for dinner. It had a very local atmosphere. It was like a fast food fish restaurant right on the water. After amazing fish we fed the tarpon and nurse sharks. Hundreds of them came right to the dock with their mouths open waiting for their food.

Our evening ended watching football on TV with James and Noelle sandwiching a sleepy grandma on the couch. Noelle finally says, " grandma, it is time for you to go to bed."

Tuesday:

Our morning was similar to yesterday. I attended my conference and the kids played at the kiddy pool with pirate ship and kicked the Soccor ball around. After having lunch in the villa we all hoped in the car and headed for Key West. Our 90 min ride consisted of games of what would you do if you won the lottery and two truths and and a lie. The trip to Key West was very picturesque, especially the 7 mile bridge...the overseas highway that connects the middle keys to the lower keys. Once to the keys we found ourselves a Haagen Daas ice cream and headed to the Key West Aquarium. The kids enjoyed the touching the aqua life and volunteering to feed the Sharks. It was blazing hot so we headed to an outdoor restaurant for cool drinks, people watching, and games of trivia. After our pre dinner beverages we worked up an appetite so we stayed for dinner. I had an amazing grilled mahi-Mahi, shrimp, and mango salad. Greta loved chasing the pigeons around the dinner tables. She kept saying, '" here chicky, chicky". As the sun was setting we made our way to Mallory Square to watch the entertainment and view the street venders. We watched a guy dive over a woman on a bicycle through a small hula hoop held on her back. The venders were interesting as well. Greta was interested in the woman dressed like a mermaid sitting on a stool with sea shells all around here. Matt preferred to keep walking once he saw a man nearly cut off his hand when chopping coconuts. Our final stop was in a local shop to gifts. Our drive back we called up Auntie Lisa to share our day. We handed the phone to Greta to see what she share. Leave it to a 3 yr old...the most memorable part of her day...the watermelon stroller we purchased at K-Mart. Once back to the villa I wanted to check out our ocean view from the pools in the evening hours. The tiki torches, large fire alongside the pools, and Atlantic Ocean breeze made me feel like I was in heaven. The family didn't join me...they preferred an rerun esipode of "shark tank" on TV. Maybe they will join me tomorrow night.

Weds:
We started our day with a family walk of the Hawks Kay amenities: spa, gift shop, all the pools, lagoon, restaurants. As you may know with kids....attention spans only last 15-20 min max. So we split up. James, Noelle, and dad were the loan swimmers in the less visited resort pool while grandma was the photographer for Greta and myself while interacting with dolphins on the dockside. We met for lunch at the Villa and then packed up for today's adventure.

James, Noelle, Matt, and I met our guide, Kayak Dave at Sumbero beach at Boot Key Island. Boot key is in the city of marathon within the middle keys. The tour we chose to kayak was through the Mangroves. Mangroves are salt tolerant trees that are adapted to survive in harsh costal conditions. We were paired with 4 others from London. Two were dentists and one was a rocket scientist. We loved their accent. Our guide was quite entertaining. James thought he looked just like Johnny Bravo.
He has quite the life....AM gym rat and afternoon kayaking adventures in the mangroves or Everglades. And if he doesn't schedule an adventure he golfs or kayaks across the Atlantic with Diana Nyad, the only woman to have swam from Cuba to the Flordia Keys.

Our start of the trip was blazing hot...however once we entered the channels through the mangroves were were in awe!!! If asking James and Noelle how it went, don't ask if it was too long or too hot...ask how it was when first entering the Mangroves. :)

In our 2.5 hrs out we saw a manatee, a snake, a crab, jellyfish. Plus we found a geocaching station. As our trip was ending I knew James and Noelle had enough as they demonstrated "the tired sillys" and the need to kayak as as fast as humanly possible.

Meanwhile, Greta and grandma enjoyed their pool time at the kiddy pool and pirate ship.

This evening we opted for dinner at Bayside grill at our resort. I loved the ocean breeze. Our challenge at dinner tonight was no cell phones. We ate amazing food while playing "what is your future" type game. A silly game that I used to play as a kid. I could play it for hours... Our evening ended before our Dive in movie at poolside......lightning brought us back to our villa. Greta was in heaven riding in the open aired shuttle listening to "The fight song" playing on the radio.

After personal massages with grandma's hemp lotion, curtesy of James and Noelle, the adults and Greta crashed. I'm not sure when James & Noelle crashed.

Thursday:

This morning while I spent hours in lectures, James and Noelle swam laps with dad, and Greta played at the villa with grandma. Greta then swam at the kiddy pool until lunchtime. After our sandwiches in the villa we headed South on the overseas highway to find ice cream. We found a hole in the wall with decent ice cream but not so nice customers. Apparently we were taking over too much space in the store. Oh well...we moved on and made our way to Sunset Grill in Marathon. The restaurant had it all...a pool, Oceanside views of the sunset, sand for lounging in or playing bean bag toss, projection screen over the pool for movies, and plenty of awesome seafood, burgers, and tropical cocktails. I believe we spent 3+ hours there. Greta shocked us all with her swimming and diving and grandma blew us away with her wicked game of bean bag toss. Tonight's dinner conversation centered on games of "would you rather" and "what or who would you take with you if deserted on a desert island." I'm bummed to know my husband chose his brother over me.

Now that we are back at our villa we are chillin watching reruns of "the Bang theory".

Friday:
Our final morning was spent packing up and a final swim at the less utilized pool. James, Greta, and I were the only ones in the pool. It was one of my favorite pools....I loved how it was hidden behind palm trees.

Our trip was a blast! I think we all agreed that we would love to come back this resort, Hawks Kay again. Next time dad would kite board, James & Noelle want to fish and I
want to buy a fresh coconut.