Holiday Lights

The day after Thanksgiving Devin and I got out all of the holiday decorations so we could put lights up. He got up on the roof while I untangled all of the lights. He complained that the roof was starting to get hot, something that you definitely don't have to worry about in the Midwest.

I'm thankful for SeaWorld!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I am very, very thankful for my wonderful family who has always supported me even when I do crazy things like quit my job and move to Florida, my amazing friends who are always there for me even though I am terrible at keeping in touch when long distance, and all of the other great things I have in my life like a loving boyfriend who does all of the Thanksgiving cooking for me. Devin and I wanted to volunteer at a soup kitchen since both of our families are far away but unfortunately they were already full on volunteers so we went to SeaWorld instead.

SeaWorld is amazing and is probably one of my new favorite places ever. We visited the dolphin nursery, pet dolphins, watched the Blue Horizons show, went to the Atlantis aquarium and then went on the ride, rode on the Kraken (which was probably the coolest ride I have ever been on...ever!), looked at the seals and sea lions, visited the penguins, went to another Show, walked past the arcade, and glimpsed the oyster divers, and ended the day with the Shamu show (my first time seeing a killer whale).

Despite the fact that it is just me and Devin for Thanksgiving he cooked (all from scratch), two pecan pies, a french silk pie, two walnut pie like things without a pie crust, vegetarian stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, and delicious squash rolls. I was extremely tired when we got home and I couldn't even stay awake long enough for dinner to finish cooking so we had a Thanksgiving breakfast the next morning.

New Moon

I saw Twilight's New Moon after work with Julie and her friend Liz. Only paid $5 because movies are too expensive and there was no way I was going to pay full price to see that. It was better than the first movie, but I still didn't like it. And I still believe the books are laced with crack. I have absolutely no other explanation for why I am so addicted to them. I think I have read them all at least 3 times now.

ArtWorks Eau Gallie Fine Art Festival

I ran errands this morning (very exciting) and went to the ArtWorks Eau Gallie Fine Art Festival before work. It wasn't quite as large as the one mom and I went to while she was visiting but it was a very nice fair. There was a guy who had 3D paintings, a stain glass artist who used shells, and one of my favorites was an aritst that used beach glass and other beach treasures to make hanging decorations. It was a "working artist" show so all of the artists were creating paintings, mosaics, etc which was interesting to watch.

Cape Canaveral National Seashore

Devin and I went to the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. On the way there we stopped at Manatee Park and Banana River Park to do some Letterboxing. The second park had a tiny playground with swings and a rock climbing wall so we spent a few minutes playing there.

The National Seashore was impressive. We walked for about an hour and you can look up and down the beach and there were no buildings, very little litter, and very few people. The sand was coarser there then at the beaches near where I live. There wasn't much washed up on the beach other than seaweed, there have been hardly any shells for a while now. I can't wait for the weather/ocean conditions to change so I can start collecting sea shells again.

We looked at turtle mound which is a huge heap of shells discarded by the Timucuan Indians which have accumulated over the last 600 years. There was a boardwalk that took you to the top of the mound and it had a really nice view of the ocean and the river. We also saw a house from Eldora Village which has been fixed up to its original late 19th century splendor. The museum there was closed but I wasn't really sad because it didn't look all that interesting to me. I think my favorite part was the weird orange fruit I found and the armadillo we saw on the drive there (armadillos are just weird looking, I love them). We stopped at home to feed Grant and then went out for a sit down dinner (very rare) at the World Beat Cafe which is in the space that Pizza Gallery & Grill used to be. All in all a pretty awesome day.

The Space Coast Fair

Devin and I had quite a full day today. We took Grant for a nice long walk early this morning and on our way home discovered a juvenile squirrel who was pulling himself around because his back legs were paralyzed. Devin dropped Grant off at home and I stayed with the squirrel and then we took him to the Florida Wildlife Center to see if they could help him.

Today was a rather blustery day so we headed to the beach with our kites. My lizard kite flew really well, however, Devin's dollar store kite was not quite up to the heavy winds. I tried to read my book on the beach but the wind was whipping sand at me so we gave up on that and ran some errands.

Once it got dark we headed to the fair. Devin has never been on a Ferris wheel (until now at least). We went on a couple rides, walked through the mirror monkey house, played games (water gun races, pop balloons with darts, try to win a goldfish, etc), and watched the saddest circus I have ever seen. The motorcycles in a big sphere cage were awesome but the rest was just sad. We also at huge amounts of cotton candy (of course!) and yummy corn on the cob. I think both Devin and I really liked the mirror maze best.