Lots of hours working

This week it’s going to seem like I have an actual job. The managers at the Sea Scape Motel are on vacation so I’m working 60 hours over the next week or so. Saturday I’m working 9am to 9pm so it will almost feel like Epic except way less stressful and I’ll be on a beach resort.
I realize that I’m a wee bit behind in my blogging and I actually have some really good pictures to post from my Dad visiting and some day hikes I took so hopefully this will be getting updated soon. Stay tuned…

Camping trip cancelled

Devin took vacation this week and we were going to go canoeing and backpacking in Ocala this week however major thunderstorms came in (and flood warnings, and water spout warnings) so we decided that our camping trip may have to wait for another weekend. Since we were all ready to be out hiking we decided to do some day hikes instead. We went to Sebastian Inlet and checked out the surf which was HUGE. People who actually know how to surf were out there catching some monster waves. We walked to the end of the pier and watched the waves crashing against the rocks. Then we moved on to the Jungle Trail which was a nice short hike. It was raining a little and we didn’t see much so we ate our picnic lunch in the truck instead of setting the blanket up outside. I went to another nature trail today. After the trail we headed out mudding (never thought I would say that) with Ryan and Megan. Ryan got his truck stuck on the way out by trying to run through the side of the puddle which you would think would be shallower than the middle. But if you thought that, like Ryan you would be wrong, and your truck would be leaking water in the passenger side door. Ryan is still working on drying out his car.

Another wonderful day in Florida

I went out tubing with Devin and his best friend Ryan today. We met at Ryan’s dad’s house because he has a dock which goes over this gorgeous, shallow water that you can see all sorts of fish in and out on the river. They guys were silly enough to let me take the jet ski out by myself and of course I managed to get lost. Is there any place I can’t get lost? I was having fun trying to hit waves and going in circles and when I started thinking about heading back in I realized I had no idea what the dock looked like or even the faintest idea of where it was. I spent a good deal of time idling up and down the shore looking for it however I was way too far north. Devin paddled out on the kayak to come find and rescue me and get me back to the dock. I took pictures of the animals while the guys were out and I saw a needlefish, stingrays, a conch, some kind of bird, dolphins, and a manatee. Sitting on the river reminded me of sitting out on Grandma’s lake. Tubing was a lot of fun and Devin was nice and slowed down when it looked like I was holding on for dear life. He let me pull him on the tube and I was not nearly as nice and I managed to toss him off once. Yet another wonderful day in Florida.

Went boating out to an island

I finally got called back about a job so today I went to the Sea Scape Motel to do an interview with Chris, the owner. I already had been by once to fill out an application after they called me back from the resume I sent through Craigslist. The job is only 6 hours (for sure) a week but 6 hours is better than no hours. After the interview I met up with Justin who works at the Florida Wildlife Hospital. He has a Canon XTi which is the newer version of my camera so he said he would help me learn how to work my camera. We went out on his boat and he took me to an island where we saw great horned owls, osprey, and armadillo (my first time seeing armadillo in the wild)! He was amused when I told him that I had only seen armadillo in zoos. Then he kept boating around until we found some dolphins and we followed them for a little bit to watch them play. There was a baby in the pod that was positively adorable. We almost saw a manatee but we spooked him before I could actually see him. We went out for a motorcycle ride, he has a pretty black Honda, while waiting for his friends to get off work. Then we went out tubing which was a lot of fun.

Pizza Gallery commercial

Today I headed to Devin's restaurant, Pizza Gallery and Grill, to be in their new commercial. They wanted to do a shot of a couple having drinks and somehow I was volunteered for the part. We started off outside but the lighting was wrong so then we moved inside. They re-hung paintings so they would be low enough to be in the shot but had to touch up the wall paint which you could apparently see on the camera so we switched tables to try to get a different angle and then moved around at least half a dozen more times. Then I was supposed to sit and talk and smile while they filmed. I don’t think I’ve ever been so self conscious about sitting and talking before. Hopefully at least something comes out well that they can use. I got free dinner and I had a pineapple and teriyaki sauce pizza which was delicious. If they put the commercial on YouTube or something I’ll post the link.

Viera Wetlands

Devin and I went to the Viera Wetlands today. We did an auto tour where you drive around (except I kept jumping out of the truck to take pictures) and then went hiking. I got my first experience with love bugs. They get big swarms of them here and as far as I can tell they are kind of like the boxelder bugs back home. We saw an osprey, sand hill cranes, bunny (not as cute as Twitch of course), snowy egrets, a great blue heron, ibises, and on the walk there were cows and at the end we saw a baby alligator. And no, I did not take the alligator home to live in my bathtub. What a great way to spend the day. And it is HOT out. :) If you want tosee all the pictures I took you can see them on my Flickr page.

Babysitting

I spent the day babysitting again. Kaden was pretty good. He's still teething, poor baby.

I've never been to a food show before...

I went with Devin to Fort Lauderdale to attend a Gordon Food Service Food Show that he was going to for his restaurant. It was similar to a software conference but much yummier. I think the cheesecake was my favorite. My deviled eggs (recipe stolen from Dom) are much better than the ones I had at the show. Of course I forgot to take a picture even though I had my camera in my purse so you don’t get to see any of the nifty booths that were set up.
On the way home we stopped at Grassy Waters Preserve. We actually headed there because there was supposed to be a letterbox but I think we were in the wrong part of the preserve so we just enjoyed the scenery and lovely weather. The pond had fish and birds but the rest of the wetlands seemed a little on the dry side so there weren’t a lot of animals but there also weren’t a lot of mosquitos. I took a picture of Devin so now you can see who I've been spending

all my time with. We'll see if he objects to me posting his picture (impish grin)...