The Sunshine State

Miami, September 2012

We had more reasons than one to celebrate with S’s weekly commute to L.A ending and to have him home with me all week in New Jersey and headed to Miami, Florida. I landed from a business trip in Switzerland and spent the night at the airport from 2 AM while Saranath joined me with coffee at 5 AM after just landing from L.A. Between the two of us, we had seen all three airports in the NYC area that morning. Needless to say, we were both completely zonked by the time we boarded the flight with jet lag and general disorientation.We had major plans for the day after we landed but took the unfortunate decision of taking a power nap before we began our adventures. When we rubbed our eyes and woke up wondering why it was dark outside, we realized it was time for dinner. Since we had pretty much done nothing else, we went straight back to sleep after enjoying the beautiful view from our balcony for a couple of minutes. And thus ended Day 1. Neither of us being highly excited by the nightlife, we had our eyes set on one major task for Day 2- scuba diving in Key Largo. I was a tad overconfident, what with being a water baby and all and S was understandably nervous. 

This is what I like about travelling, it challenges all your notions and makes you face fears that you thought were beyond you. I started showing obvious signs of struggle during our pool training session. After years of swimming, my whole body rebelled at the thought of being deep underwater and not having to rise to the surface every few minutes. I could not trust that the device in my mouth was giving me enough oxygen and unconsciously continued to hold my breath the deeper we went. My instructor decided to take a chance with me in the sea despite my discomfort and I really wanted to do this too! We jumped off and started going underwater, we were beginning to be surrounded by Jelly fish when I had my first panic attack. In the panic, my mouth piece came out of my mouth and I panicked some more and shot right to the surface which was the first clear no-no that our instructor told us. She sent me back to the boat chastised while S stayed underwater for 30 minutes. Since then, I have tried to overcome this fear many times and even the mere thought of being that deep underwater again makes me breathe deeply without realizing it. Heck, it taught me something new. I knew my limits and wasn't as much of a daredevil as I thought I was.

For Day 3, we were headed to the Everglades national park for the day. I was excited to finally explore the mangroves on an air boat and hopefully see a few alligators. I am not sure I can exactly pin point what it was but the experience did leave us both a bit underwhelmed. I think we expected something a lot more dramatic. There was a show after the boat ride which was far more entertaining. I mean, how hard is it not to be entertained when a man put his hand inside an alligator's jaws? And the highlight of this show for me was that you had the option of holding a baby alligator in your hands while posing for a picture. It was a great day but was a case of over promised and under delivered. 

For our last day, we wanted to try something new that we hadn't tried before and decided to rent a kayak. We were excited as we set off before we realized how much coordination and effort it took, it took us a good ten minutes of 'What the heck are you doing?' and 'I need you to put in more effort' before we realized what we were doing. It was a pretty interesting experience to be surrounded by the large sail boats while you are in the tiny kayak. We even got to moor on one of the tiny islands in the surrounding area. Very Robinson Crusoe, I tell you! 

All in all, our first holiday in the US just reinforced the thought that we were not done travelling in this large country!