Rain, Rain Go Away...

Our first day in Key West started out WAY too early even though we slept until almost nine. Jason hit the shower first while I languished in bed under the guise that I was going to try to find the weather channel. After only a few minutes in the shower, Jason hollered for me. "See if you can figure out how to get this water hot," he said. I, naturally, assumed this was a ploy designed to eventually get me into the shower with him, but when I stuck my hand under the spray I found that it was actually quite cold. Jason had the handle cranked all the way to the "hot" side. I thought maybe the handle was reversed, but when I twisted it toward the "cold" side, it actually got colder. I was filled with righteous indignation as I took my barely luke warm shower. I griped and railed as I shivered. When I fiddled with the knob again to turn off the shower, I discovered that the cold water was caused by a scald guard. I twisted it just a bit further toward the "cold" side and was rewarded with blissfully hot water!
We met David and Paula and drove through the blinding rain to IHOP where we stuffed ourselves for brunch. It was still pouring when we left the restaurant, so we cruised around a little (and laughed at the tourists who had foolishly rented bikes or mopeds for the day...fools!), shopped (Dave bought swim trunks, Paula & I bought shoes), visited the southern most point in the continental United States (snapped some photos), walked on the beach (and took a long walk on an equally long pier), and prayed for the rain to stop. Finally, the rain eased to a mere sprinkle. We decided to go on a sunset snorkel cruise. We bought our tickets and by the time we had boarded the catamaran, the rain had completely stopped.
Although it was still cloudy, the boat ride to the coral reef was beautiful and relaxing. The snorkeling at our first stop was good and we saw lots of tropical fish and a few jellyfish as well. After about an hour of snorkeling, we boarded the boat and cruised to a second location. The snorkeling at the second site wasn't quite as good, but we were just all glad to be doing something vacation-y. As we motored back in to Key West, we got to watch a beautiful sunset.
We were all ravenous by the time we got ashore. Our last meal had been at ten in the morning and it was now 7:30 p.m. We decided to go to dinner as we were (damp, disheveled, and smelly...well, Dave was smelly) and headed over to Outback. Bellies full, we set the plan for the following day and turned in.