Last Friday my significant other and I took the day off. I prepared well for my kids, and I did not feel guilty about not being there.

We left early and sped to Key Largo. We were on a boat prepared to snorkel by noon. The weather was mild, windy, and somewhat gray. The water was clear. It took me awhile to feel comfortable breathing out a tube, but once I got the hang of it I saw some beautiful fish. Saw an underground statue of Christ on the next stop. The water was choppy, so I didn't go in on stop three. We were cold. Cruising back into harbor, the sun came out. Tired, we scarfed down beef jerkey, wheat thins with hummus, and bright orange baby carrots.

Satisfied, we drove to Key West. We probably should have stayed in, but we wanted to see trashy Key West at night. A Hungarian racist taxi driver took us to the North end of Duvall street. Waiting for our cheeseburgers at....well, a restaurant named Cheeseburger, I grabbed Joanna by the hand and we danced alone to a cover band just getting started. We tried to get drunk later at a place called Sloppy Joe's, but the 40 year-olds hooking on the dance floor kept us sober. We were soundly asleep back at the Radisson by 12.

It was windy, gray, and cold the next morning. We talked to a friendly concierge, and drove the south end of the key before breakfast. We stopped at the southernmost point in the United States. Didn't bother to take a picture.

Duvall Street runs from the south of Key West to the north. We walked into a trippy art studio and rested in a hammock shopt. We had breakfast at 1 on the south end at a place called the Square 1 Cafe. I had french toast stuffed with berries and cream cheese. Side of home fries and bacon. Joanna had an egg-white omelette with toast. The service sucked, but it didn't matter too much.

Meandering through residential streets we headed north. I'm not sure what we did for the next hour but it was fun. We saw a pack of Tarpin feeding in the harbor. We ended up at a place that I cannot recall the name of. We sat for two hours drinking beers and eating a Napoleon while people watching.

We drove away from the sunset at about 5. We snatched the last table for two at Bentley's in Islamorada (not sure of the pronunciation even though we asked our waiter). Then we drove home.

In other news, teaching is totally okay!