Scuba Diving

Safari Hunt 2016

We just had our Safari Hunt! This is a time of year that we look forward to with our dive group because, well, it’s a lot of fun! Our SCUBAPRO Rep was on site with some fun new equipment that I got to try out. Yes, I’m bragging. One of the pieces is still more like a prototype really than anything. In fact, he asked my opinion on what I thought and said he was going to take my comments back to SCUBAPRO. Whether he does or not, that’ll be determined, but still I got to try it out.

I made 2 dives with this BC and Dive Computer. One was with Tbug before the Safari Hunt, the other was to hide animals for the Safari Hunt. Dan gave me 3 animals, and then the rest of the time I was to dive around and create diversions. I spent time hanging out in different areas of the cove playing with the dive computer underwater. Hey it was a good diversion.

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Life’s funnies… or we’ll call them that anyway…

I’ve mentioned once or twice that life is funny. And I’m sure you can think of funny instances in your life too… But here is what happened to me in the last 24 hours (and then a week ago same night… aka last Wednesday night).

During the summer we go to a Children’s Camp that is close to home and allow these students/kids to try SCUBA diving in the swimming pool. This swimming pool is maybe 6 feet at the deepest point although I don’t think so. I can stand on my tip toe and have my head above water at the deepest point. So what I’m getting at is it is a very controlled environment. Then we have divers in the pool and on the outside watching the kids plus there are counselors for the camp as well. So extremely controlled environment to try this for these kiddos.

Usually on our way to camp we stop and eat dinner. Last night was no different. We took the Chief’s bus and then Dan met us there in his car. There was a parking spot between the two vehicles and a semi truck driver backed his semi into that spot. It’s not semi parking, but he used it that way.

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Memorial Weekend 2016

I’ll apologize now. This will be photo heavy but I’m just going to do Memorial Weekend in one post and get it done. So Be Warned! 🙂

Our Memorial Weekend really started Thursday night. Tbug had a softball game… yes, she’s playing softball now. So we went over to her game and then she just came home with us because we planned on going to the lake. I have no idea if they won or lost or even kept score… But I can tell you that Tbug went around all the bases and made it home as if they were scoring a point. She even slid in to home instead of doing a summersault like she did earlier in the season. I guess you can take the girl out of cheer but you can’t take cheer out of the girl.

After the game we went to Jared and Karen’s house to borrow Karen’s truck (again, she needs that jalopy) and their camper. There was a tire that was starting to go bad so the guys decided to change it. We made it about 5-10 miles from their house and the tire blew. So I called Jared and asked him to come rescue us. I might also mention this was close to 10 or 11 at night.

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Hotel Cozumel & Resort, Cozumel México

Oh my goodness, this hotel was so awesome! Deb and Grady definitely didn’t steer us wrong! This is a view of the lobby. Seriously, the lobby!

As we were checking in, they brought us this drink. I’m not really sure what it was, although I do know that it was virgin (aka no alcohol). It had a pineapple taste and it was good and interesting! At check in they took a copy of a credit card and a copy of our passport or our drivers license. And then we were off to our room. Hubby left me to get the luggage to the room while he and Grady went off to get weights for our shore dive that afternoon, but we had a bell hop to help with that. I was so lost though so Deb took me under her wing, thankfully!

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Cozumel México: Cozumel Marine World – The Nuria

When it came down to the actual dives, we let Deb and Grady help us out. They chose the dives as well as who to dive with. They always use Cozumel Marine World, and why would I question that? Seriously! Grady said that he’s now made 50 some dive trips just to Cozumel… Think about that. So Deb requested the Nuria for our boat with Clemente as our Dive Master. Again, who am I to question! They did us good too!

Now with Deb and Grady, Cozumel Marine World knows their routine. When Grady tells his people boat time is 8am, that means your butter better be there and you better be on the boat. When Grady told them he wanted the boat there at 9 that first morning, they didn’t believe him I guess because they were at the doc 30 minutes early.

So about the boat. Deb requested the Nuria. This is the mid size boat that probably holds 16 max comfortably. Deb said the small boat is about 8 people and the larger boat is about 20 people.

Grady also said that any group he takes can be on the boat in 5 minutes whether there are 5 people or 25 people. The gear goes in the middle, people get on, and once the boat is off, then you situate your gear as you please.

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Cozumel México: The last day and trip home {Monday}

Friday night Jared mentioned that we had the Jeeps and I should get up Saturday morning and go to the other side of the island to take sunrise pictures. I laughed at him and told him he was out of his mind, I’m not a morning person. Then Sunday night Doug mentioned I should get up with him Monday morning to take sunrise pictures. Again, I told him he was crazy.

Jump forward a few hours and 5am Monday morning and I was almost not quite wide awake. I had looked up sunrise for Monday which was just after 6am so I decided to stay awake since I was already up. I guess I dozed off because at 5:50am I jumped out of bed, threw on my shoes, and took off running down the hallway of the hotel. Doug had told me there was a “tower” where I could get good sunrise photos. I halfway thought about waking Doug up and dragging him with me, but I didn’t. Turns out he was awake and would have gone.

Even though I’m not a morning person, there is something so peaceful about the early morning hours. I watched a couple people drive by on mopeds and saw someone sitting in a doorway and couldn’t help but wonder what they were up to. It was so peaceful and quiet and just amazing. So then I started complaining that I didn’t take up the chance to use the Jeep on the other side of the island for pictures. Grady told me, don’t worry you’ll be back. No one makes this trip just once.

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Cozumel México: Our Last full day of dives {Sunday dives}

Hey, if you’re getting tired of reading about Cozumel, the end is near…. muahahahahaha. I don’t know, don’t ask……

Sunday morning when we went down to breakfast, for some reason I paid attention to the placemats which I hadn’t the rest of the week really. Then I started giggling. Of course, that makes all of our people question what I’m seeing or what I’m thinking… and that’s when I pointed out….. this phrase on my placemat….

At the shop we have a joke. The joke is instead of saying asshole, you say assolay… So reading the mat, this is what I saw…. Oh dear. Maybe it was… well maybe it was…. maybe there is no explanation.

Anyway after breakfast, same routine, grab our stuff and head for the dock to board the boat for the last time during the trip. It was very surreal! While we were standing at the dock, we noticed all the boats running this way and that. Grady heard that there really weren’t any prize fish caught the day before in the tournament so people were racing about trying to get that prize. I wonder if our friends ever got their boat up and running….

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Cozumel México: Casa Mission Restaurant

On our last night in Cozumel, Grady made reservations for Casa Mission, which is a sister restaurant to La Mission that Deb, Jared, Karen, Hubby, and I ate at Wednesday night. We went to the concierge and he got a van taxi so we could all ride together. I hate to say it, their driving is a bit scary to us, but it doesn’t seem like they have the accidents we do at home, which is weird to say the least. We drove around most of the building and there was artwork like this all sides we went past. Someone has serious talent.

It was a little bit of a walk into the restaurant and they had the yard beautifully landscaped. Wow!

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Cozumel México: Afternoon Diving at it’s Finest {Saturday Dives}

Because we had the Jeeps for 24 hours and we picked them up around 1pm on Friday, we decided to do afternoon dives on Saturday so we could venture out in the Jeeps Saturday morning if we wanted. The boat was to pick us up around 1pm on Saturday. When we got back to the hotel, we went and ate real quick and then headed to our rooms to change and get ready for the afternoon dives. As per usual, the boat was right on time (read that as early!). We loaded our stuff on the boat and we were outta there.

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Cozumel México: Jeeping around Cozumel

When we rented our Jeeps, we had them for 24 hours. We decided that we would do afternoon dives on Saturday since we still had the Jeeps first thing Saturday morning. Now there are 2 ways that Deb books these trips. One is through Funjet while the other is through the hotel. This was through Funjet so we had to take our own group photo. When hubby and I got down there Saturday morning someone thought it would be fun to do it upstairs with the vines. We tried one area and had the Concierge help with the photos, but we were too spread out. So we moved areas and moved in closer together. I had the lady at the front desk help and we went again. This was much better.

This was our jeep we rode around in. Everyone piled in their jeeps and we headed down to the square. Earlier in the week we found the Cozumel letters and thought that could be a fun area to take a group photo.

Deb accidentally got the locations mixed up. We waited at the Cozumel sign while they were at a different one a few blocks down. Eventually we all met up, especially since not many had working cell phones down there.

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