Birthday Weekend and Scuba certification

I'm Scuba certified!

I don't have any cool pictures to show you from the actual dive.  My underwater camera is only good to 30 feet.  I thought that was plenty when I bought it, because I was planning to use it for snorkeling, and I was confident that I would never free dive to 30 feet while snorkeling.

For our final dive, we just had a few more things to pass off.  We had to simulate an emergency ascent from 20 feet (You pretend you're out of air and ascend to the top while exhaling the whole way, so that your lungs don't explode.)  We also had to take off our mask and put it back on at 20 feet.

Then he let us have about 25 minutes to dive doing whatever we want.  He said that was our final exam.  He was watching us and he told us the biggest thing he's watching is to make sure that we're aware of our buddy and things like how much air our buddy has left.

Robyn and I explored all of the fun things that are down in the depths at the Crater.  There is a wagon wheel at about 35 feet.  There's a ring you can swim through around 40 feet.

Our certification allows us to go to 60 feet, but when our instructor signaled that our time was up, Robyn and I had only worked our way down to 48 feet.  So that's the deepest I've ever been.

But it was soooo cool!  I'm so excited to do some real dives!  We told our instructor that we're going to the Caribbean next summer, but we want to do some local dives with him first.  He said he's doing a trip to Sand Hollow reservoir in a few months.  Maybe by then I'll have a camera that can go diving.

Anyway, since Robyn's birthday was last week, we decided to have a little romantic getaway at the Homestead Resort (where the Crater is located) to celebrate.  Basically, we'll use anything as an excuse to take a trip.

So here are a few of the highlights of our short little getaway.

It was pretty darn cold, but I got Robyn to bundle up and go exploring with me in the snow.  (That's how much she loves me.)  Isn't she so cute all bundled up?

These were the lights on the front porch of our suite.  It thought the icicles were epic.  Part of me wanted to break them off and pretend they were swords.  But the part that wanted to leave them and let them grow prevailed.

There is a little Mexican place in Midway that I love.  We tried to go there for dinner, but I guess in small towns restaurants just close when their owners need a vacation.

Everything was totally frozen except for this little duck pond.  I'm pretty sure it had to be heated because there was no ice in it at all and there was steam rising from it.  It was like a little duck spa.

Hidden under the snow lurked an evil that never sleeps.  That's right, there was a golf course.

These little ice tepees had little fountains on top of them spraying a fine mist so that over time it formed this coolness.  

This is what Robyn does on vacation.  It was super fun to get cozy next to the fire after being outside in the cold.

It was a pretty fabulous weekend.  Robyn's birthday and Scuba certification worked together well to give us a solid excuse to have a getaway.  It will be a long time before we take another trip.  It's nearly a full 2 weeks before we fly to California for Christmas.