Our Life According to Ashley: Key Largo/West

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Key Largo/West

Mom called me one morning and said "MA wants to go to the beach and wants to go somewhere she hasn't been…. So do you want to go with us to Key West?" Twist my arm…. I love them so much. We took a long weekend and flew in to Miami then drove to Key Largo. We had so much fun being together but the Keys were NOTHING like what we thought. Pretty much no natural beaches and you have to pay to go to them and they all smelled like swamp. Our hotel had a man made beach and mom and I kayaked with manatees (mom and I kayaking was hilarious, neither of us knew what we were doing and she would say "do I paddle on the left or right" and I would yell right with all confidence but had no idea which side we needed to paddle on:). We laid outside and ate seafood and went to bed by 7:) So absolutely no complaints but just not what we had imagined. We did realize we are Gulf of Mexico type girls

This was the drive to Largo from Miami, it was the Florida swamp on one side and the ocean on the other

A few weeks before we left mom called and said "ASHLEY I booked us to swim with dolphins!!! You know this is on my bucket list" and I said "yay" but was absolutely terrified. Don't get me wrong I LOVE dolphins… but swimming with them, especially after watching Black Fish this year… NO. But I love my mom more than fear so I was going to do it. I waited and told her right before we left that I was really scared… But we did it and I survived. We were in the bay so the water was really dark and I couldn't' see the dolphins until they popped up right in front of me or behind me or pushing
my feet or in my face… One of our dolphins was Bob who was the alpha male and he was not listening to his trainers so instantly my brain started playing Jaws theme music and I knew he was going to pull me under. This is what my face looks like in most all the pictures