Our Vegas Experience...

So, now we are in Las Vegas, Sin City! I've gotten a pretty good job as Sales Manager at the cities largest independent vehicle repair shop, and life is well. We have a nice house with a pool and we're doing pretty well for ourselves. After a few months of living together, we were married April 15th, 2007 on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas, while in Port Galveston, TX.

Early 2007, I was given an ultimatum, Diamond told me that she would be SCUBA diving with her father on our cruise/honeymoon, and if I didn't get certified, I'd spend that time instead with her grandparents (who also went on the cruise with us). SCUBA was something I was always interested in, but never really got around to doing. So, I did some research and found a great little dive shop in Las Vegas called ScubaViews. The owners Bill and Marilyn Duckro were just awesome. They really did everything they could to get me certified on my hectic schedule. After some pool work and a couple trips to Lake Mead (in the middle of winter, 56 degree water temps), I was HOOKED! Shortly thereafter, I started doing more and more research on diving, became a member of the Scubatoys and Scubaforums forum lists. I learned everything I could, and even went on a trip to California to dive the coast prior to our cruise - every experience I could get I was going to do...

So, we got married, and shortly thereafter (think 2 hours later) we were on our way to Jamaica. A couple dives there and I was really really hooked on diving. Two shore dives in the Caymans the next day, then two drift dives in Cozumel the last stop of the cruise and I just wanted more. Diamond had told me about her experience a few years back when she stayed at the Iberostar on Cozumel for a week. Obviously, she got a lot of diving in that week, and became quick friends with one of the divemasters. He told her how he was going from place to place and getting to tour around diving everywhere. She had quickly looked into doing something like that, but never did.

Back in Las Vegas after the honeymoon, I looked for every opportunity to dive, but didn't really know a whole lot of divers and Lake Mead was the only place real close to dive - most of its good spots are accessible only by boat, which can be pricey. We did do a couple dives there though and it was fun, though she is not a fan of lake diving. One day, I got an e-mail from some place that wanted a ton of money for diving instruction abroad. I looked into it, and it sparked my curiousity a little. I looked into other places, options and actually got serious about it. I found a place in Honduras called Utila Dive Center. After some correspondence with Andy Philips, Instructor, I got Diamond in the loop, and asked her what she thought. At first, she was a little shocked that I would go for something like that, but quickly agreed. This was fall of 2007. We signed up for Advanced Open Water through Scubaviews. In the mean time, we just planned on saving as much money as possible, then when we had enough, going to Utila, Honduras to finish our plans.

Diamonds parents thought it was a cool idea and offered to give us room and board if we moved back to San Antonio. Plans changed at this time. Given scheduling, we decided that late December we would move back to San Antonio. We sold all of our big things - furniture and a bunch of other junk we had. Everything we owned now fit into our cars and a few boxes we shipped ourselves. We didn't get a chance to finish our Advanced Open Water course in Vegas either. We made a few good friends in Vegas and we miss them dearly, but right now we are happy in San Antonio.