Danielle Blog

Flowers for Friday – from Florida

So, those were all of the flower photos I took today while at my conference in Key Largo, FL. I took time out from hanging around the beach and pool in order to get those shots (wipes brow with the thought of the effort it took to stop laying around).

I specifically made sure I got this “sun” picture for Amber.

This next one is the conference building where we had our meetings.

Pretty nice, eh? Of course, like most conference rooms, we actually sit in an enclosed walled-off room. But at least during breakfast, we got to look out at the ocean.

Every time I walk out of the room, I sigh and just thank my lucky stars that I am fortunate enough to get to attend a conference here. It is just absolutely fantastic and gorgeous. The weather has been about 82 all week with a breeze that is just enough to keep you from getting over-heated.

The conference is set up so that we start early (7:30) and end late (7 pm), but we have a big chunk of time in the middle of the day that is free. The first day, I spent it on the beach and in the pool. The second day, we went snorkeling. And today it was back to the pool/beach.

As for the snorkeling, there are coral reefs a few miles off shore that basically extend up and down the entire Florida keys. The one we went to was really a good depth for me. I saw a lot of really beautiful fish – one eel – and one shark. The sharks always weird me out a little bit. Although I know they are nurse sharks and totally harmless, it still makes me nervours. I took a bunch of photos with an underwater disposable camera. Of course, they never turn out as beautifully as it is in person, but it is enough to spark my memory of the trip.

I actually decided that I’m going to go out snorkeling with a different group tomorrow. This trip will go to 2 sites and will get back later in the day – which means that I’ll be a tiny bit late for the afternoon session. But I think that will be okay, considering the number of people who are missing/present at any one time. I just heard tonight from a guy who went out with them today that he thought it was really awesome. So, I’m cautiously looking forward to it.

And I had a couple of things happen tonight that really made my evening. The people from my lab that are here at the conference didn’t want to eat at 7 pm when we got out for the night and wanted to drink instead. Well, seeing as how I don’t drink, and am really tuned to having meals at regular times, I decided to go out to supper on my own. I started to go to the hotel restaurant and then decided, at the last minute, to walk to the restaurant we’d been to the night before. I’d gotten one type of fish there last night and decided that I wanted to get a different type of fish tonight. They seated me at a table and I got to watch a lovely sunset while eating my salad. And the 2 things of note are that 1) I saw a dolphin that was just off of the dock breaching itself about 6 times. It was really incredible. I’ve only ever seen dolphins and whales breach at aquariums/Sea World. It was amazing to see it in person, in the wild. and 2) Because I was a returning customer (it came up in the course of chatting to the waiter), I got to have a complimentary slice of key lime pie. Which was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.!
The tuna that I had blackened was amazing too. Just incredible.

And here I am, winding down my evening by looking at my photos and blogging. What a great way to end the day.

I have one more full day here (Saturday) and then we fly back to the cold hinterland on Sunday.

- more later -