SCUBA part 3

I thought it'd be fun for Ian's birthday if we drove down to Key West to get in a dive there. I had originally planned on Dry Tortugas National Park, but waited too long to schedule to the ferry trip. So SCUBA dive it was. Nancy was kind enough to tag along on the ride with us, which made for a nice dinner once we were done.

Here is a nice photo of a bunch of fish - I thin they were blue tangs.

For whatever reason, Ian loved to hang out upside down in the water!

We got in two dives, maybe ten minutes apart from each other, but the second dive was much nicer - mostly because the terrain was much larger and easier to navigate on this dive.

We saw a big barracuda who came out of hiding to check us out, and a fairly large grouper, though the dive master said there is a giant grouper on that part of the reef (which we didn't see).

As a last parting random photo, I thought this brain coral was pretty cool.

Cheers,

Marc

SCUBA part 2

One of the dives we did was a night dive. Here we are in the water right as the sun was setting. I think that made things much easier, since our eyes had plenty of time to adjust to the darkness. We saw a couple of baby squids who shot ink at us as they tried to disappear.

We did about 2 dives every day, each dive on a different reef. We would follow that up with a snorkel at another site before heading back in to base camp. We dove on the Benwood wreck, which ended up being our deepest dive at 45-47 feet.

We got to see some really cool reefs and a ton of fish.

We even did a fish count for Project AWARE - after seeing a bunch of a certain species of fish on other reefs, Ian and I only saw a couple on this other dive.

All in all, we had a great week. The diving around Key Largo was amazing!

Cheers,

Marc

Catching up

So I didn't get the other SCUBA photos up yet, I might get around to that in the next couple of weeks. Catherine had her surgery, so I've been a bit busier around the house, especially considering the recent move, than I had planned. C'est la vie.

I've been wanting to get my camera out and get some photos of Ian and Leah, and I finally did that today.

Leah bough a masquerade mask when she was in Miami, so I took a photo of her with her mask.

Ian was kind enough to break away from a phone chat with his buddies to let me get his picture taken.

Hope all is well,

Marc

SCUBA part 1

Ian and I just got back from our Boy Scout Sea Base SCUBA adventure. I think it is fair to say that we had a blast!

I will post more photos and maybe a video or two in the next couple of days, but I thought I'd get these out pretty quick.

This first photo is from after our first dive, we did a bit of snorkeling. It is tough to see, but Ian is diving down to get a closer look at a couple of big barracudas - probably 3 feet long or so. We saw some bigger ones on other dives, but there were probably 8 bruisers cruising around at this site.

This one is from our second or third dive. Ian is right behind out dive master.

And here is Ian checking up on me.

Hope all is well,

Marc

Kayaking in Miami

We are all enjoying a trip to Miami. We had a big family gathering this past Sunday after going to church. One of Catherine's cousins offered to take me and the kids kayaking - which we took him up on his offer (thanks Alex!)

He met us at Oleta River State Park in North Miami. Ian took one of his kayaks, and Leah and I shared a rented double.

We took a quick spin through the mangroves before making our way out towards the Intracoastal Waterway.

We hit up one of the islands, where Leah and Ian decided they wanted to get into the water. The water was nice and warm, lots of little fishes. We saw some (very) small barracudas, needlenose, and amber jack fishes.

We spent probably close to an hour just chilling in the water, having a fun time.

Next up - Ian and I have a SCUBA trip with the Boy Scouts at Sea Base, and Leah has her Royal School of Church Music camp. It will be a bit before I get to post any of our photos/videos from Sea Base, but look for those in the next couple of weeks. Hope all is well,

Marc

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Ian had a whitewater rafting trip planned to the New River Gorge, so I took Leah with us.

They both had a blast!

The above photo is a screen shot from a video our tour group took of us. Ian is front left, Leah is back left, I am back right.  It was the very last rapids of the trip.  It was a great way to spend Father's Day - aside from the 4-5 hour drive home, even then, totally worth it!

Cheers,

Marc

It has been awhile!

It feels like forever since I've posted anything!

Ian and I recently completed our open water SCUBA certification for a trip we have planned this summer - definitely looking forward to that.

Leah agreed to come on a whitewater rafting trip here in a couple of weeks - and again, I am really looking forward to that!

We are getting ready to move to Maryland in a couple of weeks, which got me to thinking about how long it has been since I've taken any photographs of the kids.

Both Ian and Leah wanted to get a photo with Luna. We had to fish her out from under the bed...she really didn't want her photo taken.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Marc