Adventurous Leila

Welcome back to my very delayed blog post of our experience in the Florida Keys. We stayed in the Key Largo Elks Lodge, It was pretty nice. They have games like pool, shuffleboard, darts, and they had karaoke nights as well as a holiday party since we were there right before Christmas. The lodge is right on the water so they had kayaks you could borrow, a nice little sandy beach with lounge chairs, and a cute tiki bar and a private dock.

Our Second day there I had to get up super early to complete my open water diving course. I was pretty excited, but nervous at the same time. When we arrived, they made me take another test to review what we had learned and to confirm it was actually me that took the online test, I only got two wrong. After the test we went over to the pool next door, got into our suit and started setting up our BCDs, air tanks, and complete our buddy check. Next we went in the pool to practice, it felt like we were in there for days but it was only 4 hours. We took a short break for lunch then headed to the boat to complete two more dives in the ocean. Afterwards I was exhausted. I ate dinner and crashed for the night. The next day was a repeat, training in the pool for four hours then out in the ocean for another 2 dives. This time it was even better because I got to see a Nerf shark, a dolphin and two sea turtles! When we got off the boat we said our goodbyes and Pete the instructor congratulated me on officially becoming scuba certified! It was so much fun learning how to scuba dive, especially with my fun instructor, and it was so rewarding because I put in a lot of hours studying for it.

The next morning I woke up super excited to the RV all decked out in decorations for my 13th birthday! Since I really wanted waffles for breakfast, my mom bought a waffle maker and made me yummy waffles with homemade whipped cream, berries, sprinkles, chocolate, and of course candles to blow out. After breakfast I got ready for the day then hung out at the tiki bar. To my surprise, all the other campers started gathering around for a surprise birthday celebration. They sang me happy birthday, ate cake and even got me presents. It was so sweet of them to do that since I had just met everyone a few days prior. Unfortunately we had to end the celebration early because I was going to go swim with dolphins at the dolphin’s rescue.

When we first got to the dolphin rescue I got all checked in then went to the pools to watch the dolphins do tricks. After a bit they called us over for an educational briefing prior to going in the water. Once we were situated on the platform they lowered it to about waist deep, the water was super cold at first but I got used to it quickly. First, we stood at the edge of the platform and reached our hand out so we could pet it and get used to each other. I thought it was going to feel like sandpaper but they were actually so soft, like baby skin. We took turns swimming off the platform, putting your arms out and when the dolphin swims under you, you grab on to its flippers for a ride back. It was so cool being belly to belly with such a miraculous creature. To end our time with the dolphins, the instructor announced there was a special birthday and I knew she was talking about me. She asked me to once again come to the edge of the platform and wave my hands as if I was conducting an orchestra. The dolphins came up and spun in circles and sang along while everyone sang happy birthday. Lastly, the instructor told the dolphin to get me a present, so it dove to the bottom and brought me back some sea grass as a gift. It was such an amazing experience I will remember forever.

The Keys are definitely a magical place and our nine days there seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye, but luckily we would be going back in only a few short weeks.