Photoshop magic

I have been playing with photoshop all morning working on processing. It's such a huge part of photography and can really transform your work into art. I am borderline stalking Matt Nicolosi, an amazing photographer who is really generous with sharing his techniques. (http://www.mattnicolosiblog.com/ - check him out and I guarantee you will become a stalker too! Talented and nice? Come on!!)
My goal today was to take an average landscape photo (which I am NOT good at, BTW) and make it more interesting. Here is what happened!

Here is the original shot, just your average wish-I-was-there-with-a-margherita beach shot, I didn't do anything to it but punch up the blue and sharpen for web:

Now I did a little work on it, because it just wasn't interesting to me...

This image is far from perfect - it is blown in some areas and as it was a first attempt, there are a million things I would change. Not to mention, the comp on this shot isn't so great... BUT, I think it's much, much cooler now.

Isn't photoshop amazing?

I'm off to straighten that horizon, bugging the heck out of me. I need a 12 step program, I swear.