Keys vacation - the start

Our week of vacation started out a little bit unexpectedly, and I don't think I'm speaking just for myself. Scott and some friends have taken part in a very competitive bonspiel (curling tournament) hosted at our club every year, and haven't had a lot of success in the past. The way this one, like most bonspiels, works is that you are guaranteed to play 3 games, generally 1 on Friday, and two on Saturday, and what happens after that depends on how many and which games you win. Historically, Scott's team has been done after the three games at least once, meaning they didn't even get to play on Sunday. So... the plan was that we would jump in the car and head to Milwaukee some time mid-Sunday morning, to give us time to get Zach settled with my parents before our very-early morning flight on Monday.

Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans. The Nunberg rink (team), consisting of Scott, Adam, Reuben, and Aaron as skip, won their first three games. The result: their 9 AM game on Sunday was against the Fenson rink. Since most of you aren't curling fans, let me point out that the name Fenson is significant in curling - he was the skip of the 2006 US Olympic team in Torino. And in this particular bonspiel, he was playing with 2 of the 3 other guys from that team, who won US Nationals yesterday. Needless to say, Scott thought we'd be on the road pretty quickly after they lost that game, so I just let my parents know we'd be later than I originally thought.

I'm more than a little embarrassed to say that my response when Scott called to tell me they won was "are you kidding???" rather than "wow - congratulations, that's amazing!" I guess I was a little too wrapped up in organizing our departure to really digest the fact that Scott and his friends had just upset a curling team that competed at the Olympic level. Pretty cool, huh?

And that's not even the end of the story! The Nunberg rink went on to not only defeat their opponents in the championship game, opponents who also just last weekend competed in US Nationals, they did so after playing only 4 ends instead of a full game. Why, you ask? Well, they got a 7-ender in the 4th end, so their opponents conceded. Again, for those of you who are not curling enthusiasts, that means they got 7 points in one end - out of a possible total of 8. If you watched any of the Olympic curling, you know teams are very happy to get 2 points in an end. 7 is practically unheard of, even when you're not at the Olympic level, and it's basically impossible to come back from being down by that much.

So a belated but big congrats to the 2010 winners of the St. Paul Curling Club Men's International Bonspiel!!!!

As far as our trip; Zach, Koskie, and I piled in the car and headed for Milwaukee without Scott. It was definitely less fun to make the trips there and back in separate cars, but oh well. Zach was very excited to get to his grandparents, I can't count the number of times I heard "when will we get there?" and "but mama, I want to play with grandma and grandpa!"

Early Monday morning we flew down to Fort Lauderdale, jumped into our rental car and headed south. We were staying in Key Largo, hoping that the despite the forecast, the weather would cooperate and we could take advantage of the many outdoor activities of the keys - snorkeling, kayaking, laying by the pool! Little did we know that all of Florida has been unusually cold for months... you may have been impacted by the tomato shortage lately as a result.

Our first afternoon/evening was gorgeous - sunny and high seventies - definitely nothing to complain about. We spent some time orienting ourselves, walking around to admire the huge boats in the marina by our hotel, catching the previously mentioned sunset (photo is Scott in a tree at the sanctuary), and enjoying a pizza with bacon, pepperoni, pineapple and bananas - downright tropical!

Tuesday was an absolutely gorgeous morning - check out the view from our balcony. After we appreciated the marina view over breakfast, we went to nearby John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the spot to go to for great snorkeling views of the reefs, as well as kayaking among the mangroves. It was a bit windy, so we opted to let the day warm up before attempting either snorkeling or a ride on a glass-bottomed boat, and started exploring the mangroves in our double-kayak. It had been a while since I'd done any type of rowing, and I'd forgotten how much you end up using your "core" muscles; it didn't take long for me to get tired! So poor Scott had to do most of the work, while I tried not to be an absolute deadweight. We had to fight the wind and current at times, when we weren't protected deep in the mangroves, but it was great to just be outside in the sunshine, enjoying the unusual scenery and the exercise.

By the time we got back to dry land, the wind had picked up so much the boats weren't even going out any more - so much for our idea of a glass-bottomed boat ride (we had long-since abandoned the idea of snorkeling... brr!). We got some lunch and headed back to the hotel to lounge by the pool in the sun for a while, to keep an eye on the weather and decide on our next adventure.

As you can see below - our time by the pool didn't last long before the intense but short storm blew through. Then we went back to the park and did a little hiking and exploring before finding our way to a seafood buffet on Islamorada Key. Neither of us are huge seafood fans, but when in Rome... and we thought a buffet would be a good way to try lots of different things. Besides the odor, it wasn't bad! :)