I'm still here. Life's been keeping me pretty busy and I always feel bad when I neglect my blog. Nothing too exciting lately though. Still in school, still working (doing four 10 hour days now, which is nice!).
Will write soon and provide updates on a few of our recent trips and outings.
P.S. Have I ever said how much I love Flickr .
A few weeks ago, Matt, Clark and I visited, Kanapaha Bontanical Gardens.
We pass the gardens
nearly everyday, but hadn't yet made it there. Kanapaha is dog friendly too (always a plus for us). We've always been a big fan of garden visits, having visited Sunken Gardens, in St. Petersburg a few times, and Leu Gardens in Orlando, when Matt lived there. We walked along the paths and admired the lily pads (which are pictured here) and admired the yummy smells of the spice garden. Nothing like the fresh smell of Kentucky mint (which is the main ingredient of one of my favorite drinks!).
Clark also became a star and had his picture taken for the dog wall. This very patient volunteer (who used to be a vet) was very sweet to him and thankfully
Clark behaved. (this picture is not the famous one)
We also stopped at a very beautiful and interesting tree. Trees don't normally grow bottles, so we had to read the description and then when we got home I continued to read more. Bottle trees originated as a way to keep evil spirits away. Now many people who know me, would know that I love this type of story. I'm a firm believer in Karma and such, so a bottle tree to me is perfect. But Matt (and he's right) thought our neighbors might think I'm a bit strange if I try and make one in our yard.
I don't really have any logic or reason for this post...but oh, well. This is my blog, so I make the rules.
I've been working on a project for school. We have an upcoming F2F meeting this Saturday and our group will be making a 50 minute presentation on metadata. Super exciting stuff...
Not sure how, but when browsing through Flickr, trying to find photos to include on the presentation. I came across this photograph, I just thought it was too funny pass up. I'm almost thirty (shh) and I still love happy meals.
I've been to lots of trainings for my new job. My last training took me to Destin for a week long designation training, in August. Since it was between semesters, Matt made the trip with me. This was great, since I wouldn't have seen as much if Matt stayed home.
Growing up in St. Pete Beach, I've been around the Gulf of Mexico beaches my entire life. I've always liked those more than the different beaches of the Atlantic, which is closer to us here in Gainesville. Don't get me wrong, beaches in general are beautiful places and I've said a million times here how much I love the beach (anything near water actually).
The training was great and informative. I met a lot of nice and interesting people. And I know what I learned will help me in my new job (well, I've been there since June, am I still new?). At night, Matt and I had time to explore Destin, which admittedly had I been on my own, I wouldn't have ventured out as much.
Since we got to Destin super early (they are actually in Central Time Zone, we didn't know this before hand) we had plenty of time to enjoy a relaxing lunch at Dewey Destin's. This was a pretty authentic beach restaurant, with mostly outside seating. Since it was raining cats and dogs when we got there (actually most of the time we were in Destin), we sat under the covered seating. It was a nice throw back to a traditional beach place, that we always like.
We went to McGuire's Irish Pub for dinner. Being an Irish girl, I love my Irish places. Visitors can tape, staple, glue (I'm not sure what exactly) dollar bills to everything. So you look up at the ceiling and see nothing but dollar bills with signatures or quotes. Kitchy, but very cute.
Destin is also the new home to a Commander's Palace restaurant. Commander's Palace is
famous and favorite restaurant of New Orleans. We've been to the Commander's in New Orleans (Matt grew up going and we still go when we visit) and to the one in Las Vegas, which has since closed. The food is always amazing, very intricate and imaginative. Matt was able to get his real seafood fix, especially his turtle soup. (Since meeting Matt many years ago, I've become such a food lover, and I know I really have him to thank!) Commanders is in the new HarborWalk Village (picture to the left) - an amazing condo (Emerald Grande) and shopping complex that is hard to describe - one of those have to see it to believe it kinda places (the picture to the right is during sunset before we had dinner).
We checked out other places too, Stinks Fish Camp for one. The TomTom didn't give us great directions, but it did make us drive through Seaside, Florida - which is the panhandle town where much of the Truman Show was filmed. We also visited Hog's Breath, one of our favorite Key West joints that has their second location in Destin. The picture to the right is us at Hog's Breath.
Since they are relatively close to each other, Destin has been a get-away for New Orleanians. This is
especially noticeable since the Camellia Grill, Pat O'Brien's, and Commanders all have new homes (or are about to open) in Destin.
The beaches in Destin are gorgeous, the people are nice, and the food is great. Perhaps the most interesting thing through was how built up Destin is. In my ignorance I didn't think it would be like that. Neon signs beckoning visitors line the main roads, a water amusement park welcomes people of all ages, and you have your choice of several "go-kart" options (admittedly, we did visit one and enjoyed the three story wooden track).
Another fun trip and another great visit to a Florida town.
I really love my blog and feel bad for not writing more, but school and work have kept me pretty busy. That is not an excuse, but rather the truth. There is always enough time in the day, but sometimes it gets hard to manage it all.
So here's a quick post about our Fourth of July.
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Matt and I visited Charleston a few years ago and loved it. So when Matt saw that the Dave Matthews Band was playing in Charleston and when we figured we might never be closer to Charleston, we jumped at the chance to go. Not to mention, they were playing on the Fourth of July at an outdoor minor league baseball field, too many neat things for us to pass up. (the picture is of us by the battery)
So we made the five hour drive up the night before and got up early
the next day to explore. We walked around the College of Charleston (see picture to the right) and ate lunch at Jestine's (we were actually in line before they opened, Matt's good idea, since after we were done eating the line was already around the block). We had a delicious variation on the BLT (fried green tomato, instead).
We found a place that was playing live music and stopped in. While we were there we struck up a conversation with the people sitting next to us. Turns out they were heading to the concert too. They quickly saw Matt was a UF fan (with the hat and all), and although they were serious University of Tennessee fans (they live in Knoxville) we became friends and wound up sitting on the baseball field with them at the concert.
So it has been a busy few months. I'm going to try and be better at writing, at least for myself, this blog has been a great cataloging of our lives here in Gainesville. We've really done a good job of seeing a lot of our town and the surrounding parts of Florida.
* Well, quick report - I got a new job so with out of town training and just generally keeping busier than normal, I've neglected my poor blog. But I'm here still and have actually taken some time to write a post.
In between leaving my old job and starting my new job, I took two weeks off. This was great since I was able to get some things down. Some being the operative word there. I was able to read, crochet, work a little on school stuff, but mainly I just relaxed. If you ever get the opportunity to do this, I highly suggest it. Before when we moved from Tampa to Gainesville many moons back, I started a job on a Monday after moving on a Saturday (try to avoid that if you can). I'm just full of advice tonight, huh!
During one of those ten days off, Matt and I visited Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island.
This was a wonderful quick trip. We intended to find a place to jet ski, but unfortunately, horrible insurance ruined that (no where would rent jet skis cause of the liabilities). We did end up finding a great place where we spent the afternoon talking with the locals.
We also managed to visit Fort Clinch State Park and the Pippi Longstocking House (picture to the right) and walked, for a few minutes (it was a million degrees - even when you are Floridian, you can barely stand the heat) on the beach. The Atlantic Ocean is different than the Gulf, I have to say, I've always thought that and was reminded again. If you've never been, the Atlantic is much colder!
We wound up staying at the Addison, an absolutely beautiful B&B downtown Amelia Island. We also managed to meet Gator fans way up there. We stopped in the old time Post Office (picture above to the left) to ask for directions, and managed to meet a fellow fan, who hugged us on the spot when he spotted Matt's UF hat. Gotta love that!
And we caught the sunset, not an easy trick when you are on the East coast of Florida, but we succeeded. Like always, Matt and I can't be away from water long, so this helped us get our fix.
Sorry to be away so long, another post coming about our trip to Charleston for the Fourth of July (I know, not a Florida place, but we gotta get out of the state once in a while!!).
I'm still here. My poor blog, for the two people out there that read it, is still up and running, albeit a little skimpy. You know how life gets, where there just isn't enough time in the day for anything.
New blog posts coming this weekend, lots of interesting adventures to share.
I hope everyone is well!!
My sister, Michelle and her husband Ron and my nephews drove from (straight through) Texas to Florida a few weekends ago (how, I don't know). They stopped in Gainesville Saturday night before heading to Treasure Island for the rest of their vacation. Matt and I spent some time with them that Sunday, taking them to the Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park, the Butterfly Garden at the University, and lunch at Leonardo's Millhopper. (The picture is us at the Devil's Millhopper).
There isn't anything cooler than spending time with your sister. Thankfully fate worked out that I was able to head down to Treasure Island and spend some more time with them and our other sister Jackie and her kids. It was just a regular family reunion, as we took our dad to the St.Petersburg Pier and enjoyed lunch together (imagine nine people at a fast food restaurant, with four of them under 13 - talk about crazy).
Our dad made us his famous spaghetti and meatballs and I headed back to Treasure Island to spend time with our mom enjoy the beach a little more. Gotta love getting time off!!
I do have some valid excuses (which I can't share just yet) for not writing more on my poor blog. But my absence, has told me that I do have readers!! I received an email, from a nice lady named Keri, who lives in Brooker, Florida. She actually reads my blog and likes my Florida day trips/adventure tales - so thank you, Kari for serving as an inspiration (and semi kick in the pants) for me to write again.
Anyway, since last writing - Matt and I have been to New Orleans, Jacksonville and White Springs, Florida
(stay tuned for next post). We've also checked out a few good restaurants and some not so much. So on top of my valid excuses, we have been pretty busy.
We visited the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens - while we were in Jacksonville - which was a great day trip to a big city, which sometimes for some reason I need. Jacksonville is actually huge! Jacksonville (according to wikipedia is "the largest city in land area in the contiguous United States").
Matt and I enjoyed lunch at a great BBQ joint called Mojo's (since Matt's the seasoned food-guy, I'll let him do the talking). I love smoked turkey and french fries and this place served both to near perfection!
We also took some time for one of our favorite actives, just plain exploring and drove around some of Jacksonville's neighborhoods, mainly stopping in the trendy (leave it to us somehow)
neighborhood of San Marco. We almost stopped to see Iron Man playing at the theater but decided against it.
We also stopped and walked around Jacksonville University's
campus (which was one of our main reasons for visiting Jacksonville, since one of our favorite past times is visiting college/university campuses). JU is beautiful, complete with plenty of trees and walking paths. I couldn't help but be impressed, the University is home to only about 3,000 students, but has a really big campus.
So all in all, our Jacksonville day trip was fun. And we actually did a lot, visited a museum, a University, a trendy neighborhood and old movie theater and even had some ice cream. And since it's only about an hour and half from us, I'm sure we'll visit again soon!
Now I like technology as much as the next person. I own a Nintendo DS, an iPod Touch and have favorite websites to visit to get my gaming fix. But I also love arcades. There's nothing like the flashing lights, bad pizza, or trying to win the cheap teddy bear (gotta get more tickets) or beating your personal best high score (personally, I'm the Queen at Galaga and Ms. Pac Man). I can remember growing up visiting these places. The Madeiria Beach Fun Center , St. Pete Beach Amusement Center and the Treasure Island Fun Center (see a theme here) were often a weekly fixture in my childhood. And now it's official, all of these (original) places are closed.
The St. Pete Times ran a great "special report" about the closing of St. Pete Beach Amusement Center (which ironically enough, was only a block from my first apartment). This is the last arcade on the beach and now it's closed. I vaguely remember reading that the Treasure Island Fun Center relocated, but that happened too. I also fondly remember every time I visited the Pizza Hut (which is also now gone) playing Ms. Pac Man (this continued until my twenties - I know, I know, I'm a kid).
Well, I remember my dad always saying this, "everything changes, they get rid of the old and replace it with the new" and that's obviously very true. I'm very sad about the loss of my childhood haunts, but I guess that's all part of growing up.
