January of 2012 was a busy month for Tina and I. We were itching to get to South Florida and start a new life together. We managed to pull it off – we got a decent condo, packed our belongings, and Tina transfered within her company – and just like that we now live in Palm Beach.

One of the perks of being here is that both her parents and mine have recently bought homes in Florida. My parents landed in Key Largo and hers in Daytona Beach (due to a complicated series of events – check out http://www.graceunderway.com). We’ve made multiple trips down to Key Largo to hang with my ‘rents and we recently returned from Daytona Beach. I’d like to share some stories and photos of both adventures, so here we go!

 Key Largo, Florida

On our most recent trip we had the pleasure of taking out my parent’s boat, “Reef Seeker”, and doing some snorkeling and fishing in the Atlantic. For the second time, I got to check out the Christ of the Abyss statue off Key Largo. The reef was full of life with schools of Parrot Fish, Sargent Majors, and Grunts everywhere. This was Tina’s first legitimate open-ocean snorkeling experience and I think she thoroughly enjoyed it. She was terrified of the concept of swimming with sharks until it actually happened…we were in the water for no more than two minutes before she spotted a shark on the reef and shouted out to me “is that bad?”

I just smiled and tried to catch up to the shark.

Later in the day, we dropped Tina and my mom off at the house (they’d had enough) and went back to the ocean for some Mahi fishing. We could see big fish swimming all over the place but we couldn’t get them to take our bait. Nonetheless, it was a great ride and I think Roger enjoyed his first big-game fishing experience aboard the “Reef Seeker”.

Daytona Beach, Florida

As I mentioned above, Tina’s parents also bought a house a few hours from us. We recently made the Northbound trip to Daytona Beach to visit with them. We arrived in the afternoon and reunited on Grace, a 46′ retired Lobster boat that her parents own. Last fall they piloted the boat from Virginia Beach to Daytona Beach in an epic adventure of their own. We spent the evening and the next day exploring Daytona and checking out their new house that’s only four blocks from the marina.

Notable happenings in Daytona:

•  Apparently, Tina is the only able fisherman among us. After hours of fishing from the docks at the marina, she made the only catch with a ~14″ catfish.
• Tina is now driving “Dora the Ford Explorer” around Palm Beach County. WATCH OUT if you’re in the area.
• Silvana makes the best breakfast burritos I’ve ever had. Definitely.
• When you see a man pull down his pants in public, in the street, in Daytona, at night … he most likely is homeless and needs to go #1.

I know…it’s amazing, but I didn’t snap a single picture of Smelly Melly. Daytona was great (other than the peeing-hobo incident described above – I would have been OK without that) and we can’t wait to visit later in the summer when the whole family is in town.

Stay tuned for lots more adventure photos. It’s only going to get better! Chao!