weekend in florida! day4 - crystal river

Monday, May 21, 2007

Our last half-day in florida.. time for some snorkeling. But, not any normal snorkeling. It's time to swim with manatees! These endangered creatures seek warmth in the springs of Crystal River, especially during the winter season when the ocean is too cold for them.

Woke up at an unearthly hour to drive 1h 40min from Orlando to Crystal River.

The sun was beginning to rise as we gathered our gear and boarded the boat.





After a while, we spotted one!


and it was time for us to pop into the water.

that's him/her!

swimming with the graceful manatees was awesome. we even saw a baby manatee hanging on to his mummy. i couldnt swim very well though and i accidentally kicked a manatee while treading water and it was swimming below me. oops. felt damn bad about it.

we next went to another area where there was supposed to be a spring (?) and dived. the water was much much clearer here, but er, there was only weed =(. Too bad it was summer and there were less manatees. would have been perfect to swim and play with them here instead.

saw this lady canoeing with a book in her lap... damn shiok.


on the way back, we also saw this.. a freaking crocodile in the same waters we were swimming in. =( i'm glad we didn't see it on the way there. or at least, the guides didn't point it out to us.


I love post-swim lunches. Taco bell for its fantastic chalupas.. we couldn't stop eating it throughout this trip.


oranges

At the airport, i couldn't resist shopping at the convenient 'Walt Disney World' and 'Universal Studio' shops. where i bought a tigger pendant, and joy's disneyworld uno cards.


and that was it. back to cleveland.

weekend in florida! day3 - miami

Sunday, May 20, 2007

After our tiring day at disneyworld, it's time to chill at the miami beaches. 4 hour drive south of Orlando, kinda like driving from KL to JB.

Stitch the navigator

As we set out, the skies became grayer.. and as you have it, it started POURING.


Crazy weather. If you look carefully you can see that the area is totally flooded and the water is knee deep.


We popped down to Calle Ocho (8th street) of Little Havana for lunch. This is where you could find Cuban stuff.. and of course we had to try some Cuban food in this restaurant La Carreta.




food was really good.

Miami beach is supposed to be damn lively and happening. The previous batch of pple who went there said they saw bikini babes on bikes (motorbikes hor, not bicycle) and we were dying to see that hurhur. But yes, you saw the word 'supposed'. There was no one in sight and it was still pouring when we reached. =(

So, we decided to move further north along the coast to Fort Lauderdale Beach. We were really lucky cos it was SUNNY THERE! Weird lah, but we were happy, for obvious reasons.






After I took a good nap + tan (for kev and me, raju didn't exactly need a tan) and took photos with a *lifeguard* (they really carry those red float things ala baywatch, and I had fun approaching him heehee) we decided to try our luck for miami beach again.



these buildings really reminded me of Singapore. So did the tropical plants.



This time, it really wasn't raining anymore. Yay.
Some shops in the area..


there were so many people crowding outside Guess, i suspect there must be some celebrity shopping inside!! too bad we were still driving around, if not i would have joined in the fun!




and and and, there was a beach wedding!! so beautiful!





some girls were doing some dirty dancing on the beach.. slurps



us! semi-clevelanders.




and it was time to go back to orlando.