It's finals week and you know what that means.....

Study Study Study

And then Beer.

We decided to celebrate finishing our first semester with a series of events. The first was sliding down the water slide at Margaritaville with Kip's guests Rick and Stacy. This slide is so small as compared to....well, anything in the US....but its ours and its fun. And we can drink beer on it. Even Robin jumped in, despite not having her bathing suit on!

Me

Robin - her speed was hampered by the clothes

Kip

Rick

Paul

Kip taking on the slide

That evening we went to Rackhams Bar & Grill, where you can watch the staff feed the tarpon and later in the evening (after a few shots maybe?) jump off the same railing into the water.

Nice sunset

Our first shot of the night (big hint: everyone still wearing their clothes)

The first jumpers of the evening

Kip evaluating his odds of living through a front flip (he did)

Stacy and I having a Jager infusion before our jump. She was terrified of the tarpon. I wasn't too worried until she swam off with the others and Kip left me to climb out a different way and I found myself in ink-black water hearing the Jaws theme in my head. You betcha I was terrified then.

Post jump shot (notice the lack of clothing - Stacy and I went in our dresses)

At Rackhams we met Eric, a friend of our classmate who owns a boat here and does parasailing tours. He invited us out the next day for a aerial tour of the GC. We met him and Chad (our classmate's husband who works with Eric) at Calico Jacks, and they took us up two at a time for a bird's-eye view. It was ridiculously high (about 400 feet) and honestly I almost lost my mind when they started bringing us back down because it seemed we were falling a lot faster than we should have been. Kip brought his beer up with him, its like his security blanket. We saw the diving wall, and Kip saw a few turtles. The view was simply spectacular.

Kip and I waiting for our turn

Kip getting hooked up

Letting out our sail

Our view as we took off

Off we gooooooo

Kip with a nervous smile and his "blanket"

View from above

The water is so blue!

400 feet in the air!

You can see the water depth change at the sea wall

The boat seems so far away...

SuperVet off to save the day!

It is such a weird feeling sitting in that harness. It feels like if you slip forward or backward to much and you'll fall right out!

Coming in for our landing

After we paid Eric and Chad in beer (a couple of buckets and a nice tip), we stayed at Calicos for some drinks and snorkeling. Kip found a turtle and tried to make friends, but it wasn't too keen on hanging out with him.

We topped out the evening with a nice sushi dinner, a perfect end to a great semester.

Kip's friend Rick took these amazing pictures with his fancy-schmancy camera:

The pier at Kip's place

Widescreen view of Seven Mile Beach

Us at Sunset House having cocktails. Rick used some slow timer thing and it came out awesome!

Seven Mile Beach