I Return
Back from Florida! And four days behind on my flist, so...I'll catch up today.
We flew in Friday morning and met bradmessner's lovably eccentric aunt, who very generously housed and fed us, and her two massive bloodhounds Hope and Seeker. We met her somewhat more eccentric boyfriend Raymond in MGM Studios and spent a the rest of the day there. Saturday we trucked off to Daytona Beach--did I say trucked? I meant sped off in our rented red Mustang convertible. Oh yes, we did take photos of ourselves beside it. Also a hilarious video clip of Brad jumping over the side all cool-like and speeding away. Also photos of cute guys on the beach, but that was Cat's doing and not mine. So Daytona in the morning; in the afternoon we went snorkeling at a natural spring.
A pause for a word on snorkeling. I've never done it, and the idea--while sounding cool--has been increasingly worrisome to me leading up to this trip, thanks to my paralyzing fear of big fish. I would fall to pieces on a whale watch; the idea of large creatures coming up under me is pretty horrifying. Nessie terrifies me. So the closer I got to this, the more I thought, Oh Amanda. You'll be on the surface of the water and actual large fish will be around and below you. They might actually touch you. You must not get hysterical.
It took me like fifteen minutes to get my mask on and another fifteen to learn how to stand in fins. The water was 72F, which sounds balmier than it was. Luckily the equipment and the frigid cold distracted me from the fish so that by the time I actually got started, I was too relieved to be freaked out by the groady monster algae suckers. You can see all the way to the bottom, which was no more than maybe twelve feet, so that helped. By day two I was diving and I swam with a school of bass. I'm sure they thought I was chasing them, but it was a friendly gesture. So now I own snorkel gear and am back in Pennsylvania where all the water is brown. Le sigh.
Okay, snorkeling Saturday. We got cleaned up and went to spend probably two hours in Olive Garden with a friend, Sue, and her son, and got the waiters to sing for bradmessner's birthday. :) Then the five of us went to Downtown Disney and strolled like zombies until midnight. Sunday we got up and snorkeled again, then came back, changed, picked up the chili cheese dogs that we had been craving all weekend, went to the dive shop, and headed off to the airport. Saying goodbye to the Mustang was the only sad part of the whole long vacation.
It was alternately exhausting and relaxing; for a quick trip it went really, really well. Any longer might have been too long, any shorter would have been unbearable. I burned pretty dark, but expect it to fade in a day or two.
In the meantime: my brother's birthday party went great, the seven cakes that I baked and decorated went over well, I got 3 BPAL samples in the mail hooray!, and Lost annoyed me because I couldn't see it very well over the TV static. I'll give more commentary next week.
We flew in Friday morning and met bradmessner's lovably eccentric aunt, who very generously housed and fed us, and her two massive bloodhounds Hope and Seeker. We met her somewhat more eccentric boyfriend Raymond in MGM Studios and spent a the rest of the day there. Saturday we trucked off to Daytona Beach--did I say trucked? I meant sped off in our rented red Mustang convertible. Oh yes, we did take photos of ourselves beside it. Also a hilarious video clip of Brad jumping over the side all cool-like and speeding away. Also photos of cute guys on the beach, but that was Cat's doing and not mine. So Daytona in the morning; in the afternoon we went snorkeling at a natural spring.
A pause for a word on snorkeling. I've never done it, and the idea--while sounding cool--has been increasingly worrisome to me leading up to this trip, thanks to my paralyzing fear of big fish. I would fall to pieces on a whale watch; the idea of large creatures coming up under me is pretty horrifying. Nessie terrifies me. So the closer I got to this, the more I thought, Oh Amanda. You'll be on the surface of the water and actual large fish will be around and below you. They might actually touch you. You must not get hysterical.
It took me like fifteen minutes to get my mask on and another fifteen to learn how to stand in fins. The water was 72F, which sounds balmier than it was. Luckily the equipment and the frigid cold distracted me from the fish so that by the time I actually got started, I was too relieved to be freaked out by the groady monster algae suckers. You can see all the way to the bottom, which was no more than maybe twelve feet, so that helped. By day two I was diving and I swam with a school of bass. I'm sure they thought I was chasing them, but it was a friendly gesture. So now I own snorkel gear and am back in Pennsylvania where all the water is brown. Le sigh.
Okay, snorkeling Saturday. We got cleaned up and went to spend probably two hours in Olive Garden with a friend, Sue, and her son, and got the waiters to sing for bradmessner's birthday. :) Then the five of us went to Downtown Disney and strolled like zombies until midnight. Sunday we got up and snorkeled again, then came back, changed, picked up the chili cheese dogs that we had been craving all weekend, went to the dive shop, and headed off to the airport. Saying goodbye to the Mustang was the only sad part of the whole long vacation.
It was alternately exhausting and relaxing; for a quick trip it went really, really well. Any longer might have been too long, any shorter would have been unbearable. I burned pretty dark, but expect it to fade in a day or two.
In the meantime: my brother's birthday party went great, the seven cakes that I baked and decorated went over well, I got 3 BPAL samples in the mail hooray!, and Lost annoyed me because I couldn't see it very well over the TV static. I'll give more commentary next week.