Florida Keys

 We've been all over the world--Malaysia, Australia, Costa Rica, Fiji, etc. and we still enjoy diving the Florida Keys once or twice a year.

We stay at Kelley's, a combination bed and breakfast style motel and dive resort. Kelly's is on the bay side and shares a pool with Amoray, which is next door. The rooms are just funky enough to make you feel like you're in the Keys; each room is a little different, with refrigerator, television, and phone. There's a centrally located washer and dryer, with hammocks and a hot tub by the dock. The dive center is located in the main office and the two 46' dive boats and a locked cage for wet gear are a few steps away from the rooms.

The diving routine at Kelly's is super easy. Each morning we roll out of bed and wander over to the breakfast area for pancakes, cereal, toast, or bagels. After breakfast we gather our gear together and walk to the dock about 8:00 A.M. After setting our gear up, the divemasters carry the tank, B.C. and regulator onto the boat, which is comfortably large with an easy ladder for exiting the water. The entire operation is run very efficiently, almost too efficiently; they want divers to walk to the dive platform with fins on, even from the front of the boat, which can be hazardous. Dive time is limited to an hour from the time the first diver is in the water, OK for most new divers that go through air fast, but not for more experienced divers. We have seen problems crop up that can be blamed mainly on time pressures and getting back to the dock on time. But Kelly's is so convenient, with room, breakfast and dive boat all within a few steps of each other, that we keep going back.

For a change of pace, and to leave the regimented feeling behind, we also dive with Diver's City, just south of Kelly's on the other side of the highway. We still bed and breakfast at Kelly's, then head a couple minutes down the road to board the dive boat. Divers City's boat is smaller than Kelly's so it's a little rougher when the waves are rocking. Divers City does the usual sites, but also sites most other operations don't do, like deeper drift dives off French or Molasses, and Nitrox dives on the Duane and the Bibb shipwrecks. No time pressures here!

The Pennecamp reefs are beat, between the multitudes of divers and storms, but the fish life is amazing! Since the park is a no-take zone, the fish are not shy and it's easy to get close to them. Green morays, groupers, lobsters, a semi-tame nurse shark, an occsional jewfish, and lots of friendly tropicals abound.

Easy to get to, friendly fish, no passport necessary, Key Largo is a fun place to dive and relax.