Chapman

This weekend was SOOOOO fun! For the 4th we decided to down to the Florida Keys to celebrate. So on Friday morning we gathered up all our beach gear and headed on down. Brooke and Steve came in our car and Jeff, Bryan, Dyllan, and Stephen all carpooled in another car.
The Keys are about 300 miles from us so it was about a five hour drive. When we got to the bridge that takes you to the first Key, we saw that traffic was completely backed up across the entire bridge– we think there was an accident and since it is a one lane bridge, it was at a complete halt until it could all be cleaned up. Well, we waited for about 5 minutes and then Trevor had enough of that. He turned around and motioned Dylan to follow they then drove to the other side of the road on the oncoming traffic side of the bridge. Everyone on the other side of the road just looked at us in awe– the people towards the front of the accident had been there for over an hour and a half just sitting in the scortching Florida sun and then– BAM here come these two cars taking action. People cheered us on– it was awesome.

We were REALLY stressed that a cop would see us and give us a huge fine but we were able to avoid all cops and merge into the right side of traffic just literally seconds before traffic started coming down on the lane we were in– what a rush!!!

Anyway, the keys were SOOOOO beautiful!!! The water is crystal clear and just gorgeous!! We got to Key Largo and saw this AWESOME island that we wanted to camp on for the night. The sun was beginning to go down so we quickly unloaded all the stuff, blew up our raft and then Trevor, Steve, and Jeff started hauling everything to the island while Brooke and I went to get firewood and food for the night. By the time we got back it was pitch black so we started flashing our lights at the water’s edge so the guys could see us. We didn’t see them for quite a while and Brooke was getting really worried but then all of a sudden out of the darkness came a “Land HO!!!!” And there was Trevor and Jeff like 15 feet in front of us– it was so dark we couldn’t even see them. We then loaded the wood and food into the boat, hopped in, and they swam us across the shark infested black water to the island– Jeff was behind the boat wearing fins acting as the boat’s motor and Trevor was in front paddeling us in the right direction.– IT WAS SO COOL! I was really afriad that Jeff was going to get eaten by a shark, but thankfully we arrived on the island all in one piece (and it only took about 25 minutes to get there! It was awesome!) We unloaded the boat and Steve had already set up camp– he had hung the skychairs and had made a firepit. The boys the whole way over were telling us about “The Island” and its secrets. We wanted to know SOOOO bad what the “Secrets” of the island were but they said if they told us we wouldn’t sleep there that night so against all our pleading they remained silent. In the morning I discovered the “secret” of the island– that it was an unhinhabited State Park called Indian Key and it was called that because the indians had come onto it 100 years ago and slaughtered all the inhabitents and boats would come here to see the cemetery and all the burned structures. FREAKY! Also, the island was crawling with hermit crabs– it was AWESOME! We went out on the dock to snorkle in the crystal blue amazing water but just before we were going to jump in Trevor was like, “LOOK AT THAT!” And we looked right beneath us at a 7 foot shark and then another 5 foot shark!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!! We think they were reef sharks but we are not sure. And then about a minute later a huge sting ray swam by, too. There is SOOOOOO much aquatic life here in the Keys! A cop came and told us weren’t allowed on the dock so we went to another part of the island to snorkle around and then we cleaned up camp and swam everything back to the main Key. We must have been such a site– too hilarious! Jace had been pretty bad that night so none of us got much sleep so we drove down to the furthest Key– Key West– and got a hotel. We all took naps, cleaned up, and then went to explore Key West. We went to Outback, went to the most southern point of the U.S., and went to the beaches then went home for some much needed sleep. Trevor, Jace, Steve, Brooke, and I all shared one bed and Jeff camped out on the floor. We actually originally put Jace in the bathtub with a blanket but he woke up screaming at 3AM and joined us all to make things even more squashed. In the morning we went to breakfast and then snorkeled the day away going from beach to beach and got Key Lime Pie. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Keys!!! Trevor and I are going to go again by ourselves with a boat and just snorkel the heck out of the reefs for a couple days. The reef there is the best in all of the United States and is just AMAZING! Oh and we picked a ton of coconuts and brought a bunch back. I LOVE THE KEYS! I will update with pics soon but it is SUCH a bummer because the battery died the VERY FIRST DAY!!!!!!!! LAME!!!!