Santa brought us a wonderful Christmas present this year–a christmas cruise!!! This was the first time Casey had ever been on one so needless to say she was super stoked. It was a family affair including about 13 of my relatives eager to put Casey to the test. But don’t worry… she passed with flying colors. Our boat was the Liberty of the Seas, and is apparently the third largest in the world. I believe it. We had an amazing week filled with food and sunburns, but our favorite part would definitely be scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico.

Casey is a little bias as she works for PADI, an international scuba company, but this was her first international dive and she loved it.

I have done dives in the Florida Keys, the Great Barrier Reef, and the fabulous Wilmington, NC, but this dive was by far the best company ;-). Seriously though, it was unlike any dive we had ever done because it was a drift dive–by far my favorite way to dive now.

Basically, the boat dropped us off and we descended to about 80 ft and let the current carry us away until we ran low on air. We then resurfaced, the boat picked us up, and we repeated the procedure being sure we didn’t go quite so deep. We got to see an array of marine wildlife, including some massive barracudas, lobsters, lion fish, sting rays, and goliath groupers (just to name a few) all while diving through caves and swimming alongside the Santa Rosa Wall. This is definitely the lazy diver’s dream. You can get your buoyancy right by using your breathing to control your depth and then all you have to do is cross your legs and enjoy the ride. I would encourage anyone with a slight interest in getting out of your comfort zone to give scuba diving a try. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being weightless. Unless you happen to go to space. Maybe next Christmas?

by Dan