Reef-er Madness Jan 9

Today was the day to see what this place Vero Beach was all about. There is a bus service that will take to all over – for free! How about that?! But today we bypassed this great service and walked the mile or so to the beach. It was a fine looking beach but the wind had a chill in it. From up on a boardwalk we noticed that the turquoise water was interrupted by darker bands. When we asked about that at the lifeguard station he explained that this is an area of coral reefs – cool. Just then we saw a manatee swimming in the surf close to shore. One of the off duty lifeguards bolted in with his mask and fins trying to get a manatee ride but it eluded him. We couldn’t miss out on this first chance to snorkel so I ran all the way back to the marina, hopped in the dinghy and brought back our stuff. We spent the rest of the afternoon hovering around the coral looking at the life there. It was quite wavy and Christopher’s ever developing capacity to hold his breath at the right time prevented him from coming all the way out. He came out part way and got his face in the water for a look a couple of times. Not sure what he saw in those moments but he hasn’t stopped talking about seeing the bottom of the ocean just like in the book he received from his