I had initially submitted an abstract for the IBM Technical Leader Exchange conference in Orlando. The good news was that my abstract was accepted as Innovative Showcase. It was a great exercise for me in conciseness and relevance of my contribution to current IT trends.
I decided to do some vacations in Florida after the conference. My first stop was in Miami South Beach for diving. It was a great experience—mostly because it was not necessary to wear a Long John. For all non-divers: A Long John is a diving wet suite that is covering the whole body. It’s always a pain in neck to slip in! I did diving for two days. The first trip was going to a reef in Miami and the Neptune Memorial Reef, which is the largest man made reef ever conceived. The strange thing is that it provides an extraordinary living resting place for the departed.
On the second day I was going to Key Largo for diving. The many reefs that lay within the John Pennekamp Marine Sanctuary are some of the most popular dive destinations in the world. It’s great for snorkelers and divers alike as the reef touches the surface in places and slopes down to a depth of about fifty-five feet nearby.
Here, I was able to see the Christ of the Abyss statue, which is a 8 1/2 foot, 4,000 pound bronze sculpture of Jesus Christ that stands in 25 feet of water. I can tell you—it was one of the most cryptical dives I ever had. To see this statue of Jesus Christ at a moment’s notice in the deep blue see was absolutely cool!
After two days of diving I went to Cocoa Beach to visit the Kennedy Space Center to view a rocket launch of an Altas V rocket that transported a navigation satellite into space. If you’re interested in space exploration then you have to visit it the KSC, too. It’s a very inspiring place to see all the technology they used to sent a man to the moon or they are still using for the International Space Station. You can find all photos from this vacation on the corresponding Flickr set.
