Key Largo, Florida

Now we’re just leaving John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Yesterday we went snorkeling. My favorite kind of fish is big and is called a barracuda. They look cool and they have big teeth. It would bite me, so I didn’t grab its tail.






It’s just fun because it’s really shallow and you can stay in the water for a long time and swim with the fish. I didn’t get cold. We went on a boat that was pretty big. I really liked the parrot fish because they have a lot of bright colors like yellow and green and blue. I felt like I was a fish when I was diving down. I held my breath and then I shot out the water from my snorkel. It’s called clearing my snorkel. Also there was a fish called a trumpet fish. The trumpet fish blended in with the coral to hide.

There’s an animal called fire coral that looks like a plant. It’s called fire coral because if you touch it, it gives you a rash that really burns. I never saw just one fish by itself. I saw lots of fish together called a school. I was the last one out of the ocean, and the boat driver said the last one out of the ocean had to buy all the people beer. So he said I had to! But he was just kidding.
When we were first going to the reef, it looked like this rainbow color because it got so shallow. I saw really bright blue water. Now we’re driving on the Florida Keys to Key West. It’s really cloudy and it’s 76 degrees now. There are huge iguanas here about 2 ft long. Robby was walking along the grass and he got scared of a huge iguana. Will touched its tail!

March 17
Now we’re still in Florida, but we’re driving to a different campsite. Now we’re going to the Florida Keys! There’s really good snorkeling, but without the big tanks. So we’re going to go snorkeling at a park under water in this really cool state park.





We’ve been doing some school. We went golfing and I bought baseball gloves for golfing. Golfing is fun. It’s my favorite summer sport, and hockey is still my favorite winter sport. We went to a water park there. It’s kind of cold because it’s not heated. We went to “Relay for Life.” They do it in Alaska too, but it’s different here because there are cheerleaders here who go up on a stage and dance. Relay for Life is for fighting cancer. They went overnight, and we could hear them from our campsite because the music was so loud.

Also, we met Luc and Lea. They are two kids who are 7 and 5 years old. Their Mom and Dad are Judy and Pascal, and they live in Miami. We went swimming in their pool, and also we saw them at South Beach. It’s a beach where there are really pretty girls. There are like millions of people there. We saw girls without any bras on. People were swimming, sun bathing, boogie boarding, and surfing. I built a sand castle with Luc and Lea.















There’s another person we visited named Mr. Tio. He used to be Dad’s boss. His two grandkids came over and their names are Gabe and Allie. I went swimming, and Allie played water taxi with me. Mrs. Tio made dinner for us, and then we watched a movie and a whole bunch of fun things.

I like Florida so far because it’s nice with all the beaches.

March 11, 2009
Today we are at the same campground as before. We went out in the water in our red kayak and saw a whole bunch of dolphins right by us! It made me feel freaky, and Will was making lots of splashes to make them come closer. I thought the dolphins were going to flip our boat. Its head is shaped like a dog head kind of, and its skin is like a really shiny metal. Sometimes it looks like they’re sharks because their fins go through the water. We also go swimming, but not with the dolphins.



Also, I slept in our kayak and it was really fun. I was really comfortable. Now I’m in the red kayak blogging, while my Mom types and I talk. Yesterday, we went fishing in our friend’s canoe. His name is Mr. Ray. We saw two manatess, and caught a whole bunch of yellow tail fish. They’re only 5 inches long. We cleaned them, and had them for lunch today. You don’t cut up the rib cage because then you get too many bones in the fish meat. Mr. Ray has a think called a scaler. You rub that on the fish and it takes off the scales. So we ate them with the skin.



Tonight there’s going to be a space shuttle launch from Kennedy Space Center. We’re going to a beach to watch it after dark. There’s going to be 7 lucky astronauts on there. We’ve been doing a lot of school. I’ve been having fun too. When you go outside for almost 10 minutes, you get sweaty because it’s hot now!