If I were a millionaire I would retire now and become a dive bum somewhere, but I'm not
(I'm 25 and earn a good living, but long from retirement). I've dove Hawaii, Bermuda, Florida, and Ecuador and the Galapagos were I lived and went to college (met my wife there too for those of you that saw my pic in the OT pic forum. Galapagos was awesome obviously, and nice and barren when it comes to people and resorts. I studied at the Charles Darwin Foundation and we travelled to some of the islands by boat. I would ultimately love to hit the South Pacific, which blows away the diversity just about everywhere else.
What I can recommend for you Jillian is this. My mother lives in Fort Lauderdale and we visit there and dive the keys. One of the best locations is accesible off of a beach in Fort Lauderdale called Lauderdale-by-the-sea (the town name). Take Atlantic Blvd. straight to the ocean and snorkel or dive near the pier. It was an unbelievable surprise as we saw sea turtles, eels, nurse sharks, sting rays, cuttlefish, octopus, and almost all of the angelfish and butterfly species Florida has to offer, right off of the beach snorkelling! It was a great surprise to my brother and I, as we had just expected it to be a casual snorkel. The great thing about snorkelling is that you don't have a clock to check and you are limited instead by how "pruney" you get (and sunburn on the back!) Look it up if you are in the south Florida area. It's a good day trip for nondivers too.
