The Keys News

hey everyone!
well here it is. the long awaited Keys trip blog. I'll try to make it short and sweet:

Friday July 31st: Robbie tried to find our flight while at work just to see if it was on time. He couldnt locate it or thought he had the wrong flight number. I said no it should be there but I wasnt sure of the flightnumber either. So we didnt think anymore about it. I get home from work and hear my mom yelling on the phone. She was on hold with some one and I asked her what was wrong. She said she got an email saying she could check us in, went to go do it and couldnt find the flight number. The flight got canceled 12hrs before departure! WTF! And American Airlines basically told her she was SOL. Um I dont think so. They told her it wasnt their fault that the plane has machincal issues and they arent getting another one to replace it. So we can leave on Saturday but at 3:00pm instead of 6:30am. Which means that now two days will be wasted. Leaving at 3:00 would but us hopefully in Key West by 10pm and hopefully we can still pick up our car. However the grocery stores down there close at 10 so that means sunday will be spend getting groceries and maybe getting the car incase ken and donna would have to pick us up if we dont get the car that night. GREAT! The offered Dullus instead but that would be 30mins later. What intellegece was that! So at 11pm friday night Dave (a friend of Robbies) txted him telling Robbie to tell me about the Passenger Bill of Rights. HEHE!! And here we go! So I get on the phone to American Airlines and start up. They tell me now that the reason for the flight to be canceled was weather. Wow they can predicate the weather 12hrs a head of time. LIARS! I told her shes lieing and to try again. All the while I was online looking for flights. I found a Contiential flight that leaves BWI at 630am to Ohio to Tampa to Key West. Lets do that. She tells me she cant bc they arent partners with American. Ok so whos problem is that. Not mine. She tells me she can refund the tickets and I can purchase the Contiential ones. Yea No. Not happening bc those tickets are 1300.00 for the three of us bc we would be last minute flyers. Try again. So I told her about the Bill. She then stumped and had to go get her supervisor. HEEHEHE. Then she tried to get out of doing saying she couldnt find the flight. Then after another 30mins of argueing with her the flight magically appeared. It is now 12:45am. She goes and calls Contiential and comes back on the phone with me saying its going to take awhile and she would have to call me back. Yea nice try. I finally agreed after getting her name, title, extension number, work ID, and told her she had 1hr. Or else I would be calling back. So while Robbie and Mom slept, I read New Moon and waited for the phone call. 1:45am the phone rings. Amazingly that it did and that I got our flights booked! I woke up Robbie and Mom and told them we have a 6:30am flight and we needed to leave at 4am for the airport. They both being asleep and not quit awake were shocked. We get to the airport, check in, dont pay for a check bagged. Granted we were sitting together for the flights. Robbi and I did from Ohio to Tampa. We got to the keys around 3pm which was the time our American flight would have left from BWI. Great. Got the car, groceries and headed to the house!

The rest of the week was a piece of cake! Robbie went snorkling for the first time the next day and got a little sea sick. Some rough water the first day. But he was fine the rest of the week. We spend a day down in Key West. We went to the Southern most point, light house, Duvall Street, and on a sunset booz cruise! Robbie got to see the 7mile bridge also. We had a few times of quick showers. One shower did cancel our trip to the Gulf of Mexico (they call it the back country). We were trying to go for two days, but we did get to go at least one day. It was really cool. To get there you have to maintain a certain speed on a boat so that you plane out bc if you dont, you can get stuck bc its so shallow and you dont ever look down into the water if youre driving. So you basically need to cost over the water. It was really neat! I got to show Robbie what it looked like to see 17 feet down in water! He did see a shark at one point which scared him! :) I went surface diving a few times. Mom caught lobsters! We saw losts of fish and two that we havent ever seen before. We got to see a big Jud Fish which must weighs more the 75pds! That was really weird. He looks like he belonged in Jurasic Park. We also attended Lobster Fest 2009 downtown. Duvall street is the oldest street in Key West and also has most of the bars. Next year I plan to do the Duvall Bar Street Crawl! :) It was hard laying out on a boat and holding my beer at the same time. So needless to say I got a lovely tan. Robbie had a good time and him and mom got along great. I did ended up getting an ear infection once we got home. I guess you arent spost to dive 17feet then get on a plane. Robbie doesnt think the first flight (which was unfort American Airlines) was presurized correctly. So I have been battling an ear infection in both ears for week!

Coming home with that airline wasnt fun either. After asking how we could bring lobster and shrimp home, the stupid airline said we could bring it on the flight and we could pack it in dry ice. So when we checked in, the ticket agent asked if we were checking anything else like the cooler I had with the other two bags we already checked. We had no problem getting through Security. They actually laughed when they looked inside and said have a great flight. We go to get on the plane, mom was going to carry on the cooler with her camera bag. As we go to walk out the gate agent asked what was in the cooler. We told him seafood. He then asked what was keeping it cold. Ummm Dry ice idiot. He says we cant take it on the plane, that it was a hazerdous material! WTF! I said your stupid ass people on the phone told us we could pack it and bring it on like this! He said nope unless you fill out paper work and pay $40.00 for it! Mom tells me and Robbie to get on the plane and she would be on. So as we sit and watch others board my mom hasnt gotten on yet. The last person getts on and they are getting ready to "seal" the plane. I start panicking bc she has our boarding passes from Miami to BWI for one and two I know shes really upset. She does make the plane and tells me that they had brought down the ticket agent to see if she asked us what was in the cooler. Mom said that the agent saw the cooler but never asked about it only if we were checking it and that it went through TSA fine! They told her no their problem. Great! So we get to BWI and we pick up our bags to find out that my moms duffel bag is ruined. The wheel is broken off and around the where its spost to be was riped opend. When she went to go cocmplain to the airline in the airport they told her that it wasnt their responsiblity about the bag and being damaged. That the passengers understand that if the bag is damaged that its not the airlines faught. YEA RIGHT! So now mom is fighting with them about those two things and the whole lieing in the beginging about the flight. DO NOT FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES!

So all in all minus the flight BS, we had a great time. We did get rain and it did make it alittle difficult to see underswater some days. But other days it was crystal clear blue water! We went to one place that Ken goes diving its 22feet deep and when we looked out on it from the boat you could see all the way down! Now that is real water! You could even see people when they dived in to it. It was awsome! Next I would love to take Robbie on a cruise! I think he would enjoy it. So now its back to the grind of work and stuff. I am back to job interviewing and house hunting with Robbie.

Well have to get ready to head to Bmore. Pictues are up on facebook on my site and will be up on snapfish soon. :)

Hugs!