The big 3-0

This year I decided to take a day off work so Wade and I could head to Busch Gardens for the day. I figured if I was turning 30 I should act like a kid and ride roller coasters until I couldn't see straight (thankfully, I'm not a puker). I've been going to Busch Gardens since before I can even remember, but it seems there's always something new when we go. For my birthday Wade got us season passes; since we're so close now we can go whenever we like!

We had high hopes for the day: we slept in a little, ate cupcakes for breakfast, then made the hour drive up to Tampa. Normally, when we've gone to BG in the past, it's either tolerably busy or blissfully empty. We were thinking this would be one of the more empty times at the park, a Monday, after the holidays, etc.... no, instead we were greeted with a flyer at the entrance that warned of an "unusually high volume" day. One look at the parking lot told us as much. It took us a half hour to even get into the park, and once we were in we could barely get around. So we booked it for the nearest (and also my favorite) ride to see that the line was so long they had physically moved the usually entrance to accommodate the 1.5 hour wait... uh, right.

Dejected does not quite explain how I was feeling at that point (besides the fact we both had to pee since every bathroom had a line out the door). For those who do not know, I really don't like people very much, or more specifically, I hate crowds of people. I detest and loathe strangers bumping into me and walking slowly, and crowds so thick you can't move (is it a mystery why big cities don't agree with me?!). After talking to an BG employee, we discovered we came on one of the most crowded days of the year - I was sharing my birthday "fun" with over 30,000 people (in the past, 10-20,000 people were the norm on days we've been there). So, I was starting to feel like I was ready to go home and curl up in a ball. So much for our brilliant plan.

We ended up walking around the park to see all the animals hoping that some of the ride lines would die down. The tigers and orangutans are in new enclosures, so that was fun to see. And we also finally got to see the resident hippo out for a prancing swim in her tank enclosure. Very neat. After some lunch, we walked around some more, checked out a few other rides (all the same hideous wait), saw the Lion King style musical show "Katonga", and finally gave up. Thankfully, due to some good thinking on Wade's part, we had gotten the year passes, so it was the saving grace being able to tell ourselves, "No worries, we'll come back later and ride all the rides". Below is us posing with a cool tiger sculpture bush, but you can see more pictures of the animals on our Picasa site.


Since the day was a bust, we left early and headed over to Best Buy pick up my new little travel-size camera that I picked out for my birthday, then went to Megan & Jimmy's house for dinner. It was wonderful to see them, have some drinks and pizza, play with Trey, and laugh at how our well laid plan did not account for 30,000 other people having the same plan. Oh well.

My birthday saviors (minus Trey who already went to bed):

Meg riding one of Trey's Christmas presents that I fell in love with! Yes, that is a rideable stuffed lion!

Twas the week after Christmas...

We had a nice Christmas at home this year. We did presents with the Cooper Zoo in the morning, had my mom and step-dad over for lunch, then headed to my aunt & uncle's for Christmas dinner and a late night of drinks and games.

The day after Christmas we were able to have lunch with Robin, Chad, and Kaitlyn at THE place to go for all things fried and ice cream in Bradenton, The Shake Pit. The Christmas-time lunch is turning into a bit of a yearly tradition for us since it seems to be the best time to get together when we're all back in town.
The Saturday after we headed to the farm again to pick up our veggies and bummed around for the rest of the day. We thought about canoeing, but after checking the weather decided it would not be fun to be paddling into waves and 20knot winds!

Sunday we had my family and friends from work (Michelle & Kellyn) over to grill out on teh back deck for my birthday. Wade did a great job of pulling things together and everyone helped by bringing something to share. We filled the picnic table for dinner, stuffed ourselves with fantastic cupcakes, then sat around the fire pit enjoying the evening. The pitcher of margaritas was a nice bonus. : ) It was a great evening. (As we all dig into birthday cupcakes, below from L to R: Just out of the picture is Larry, then Aunt Cindy, Kellyn, Michelle, cousin Ericka, me, Wade, Lauren, cousin Curtis, with Mom taking the picture)

Mambo Taxis

I arrived in Dallas, TX a week before Christmas. The first two days were for work - my project review team reviewed my 3 year program plan (to make the marine aquarium trade sustainable in the US) which was unanimously approved. On one hand I was hoping to get some constructive criticism and major revelations from my team, but on the other it was nice to know that my past four months of kicking my own butt have paid off. Now we just have to find the money to make some of the pieces happen... in the mean time, I'll be running around like a crazy lady.

It was cold when I first got to Dallas and the fog that greeted me at the airport stayed for a few days. I also apparently just missed the snow (drat!). The first night I had to walk to the local Kinko's to get copies made for my meeting, and silly me - I didn't bring a hat or gloves, and it was 40 degrees out! Thankfully my trusty lightweight Patagonia trench coat kept me toasty enough but I couldn't feel my cheeks or ears. (After spending over a decade in South Florida, anything below 60 is considered arctic in my book)

Thursday night after my meeting, my friend from college, Sarah, picked me up and we met another friend from college, Susie, for dinner. They've been telling me for years about the great drinks and queso in Texas, so I asked them to prove it. They did not dissappoint. We had some great mexican food, laughed at wedding planning stories (they are both getting married in 2009), and drank Mambo Taxis. Imagine a frozen margarita swirled with sangria and you'll get the idea of what a potent Mambo Taxi is. :) That night I stayed at Sarah's then got up to head to the Dallas World Aquarium on Friday.

The aquarium was more of what I would consider an ecosystem approach than a traditional aquarium. There were two glass ceiling atrium-style enclosures that were 4 stories high - one section was a freshwater jungle type of setting while the other was a saltwater coastal area around the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. The freshwater section was filled with palms, bamboo, trees, free-flying birds, and monkeys in the trees. A waterfall fell 40 feet into a massive pool under the trees that held the largest freshwater fish from the Amazon, manatees, turtles, and ducks. Now, while not everything was ecologically correct, I do give the aquarium credit for trying to make the environment as realistic and stimulating as possible for the creatures in their care.

The 40 foot waterfall and accompanying jungle (note the 10 ft fish in the lake below):

The friendly bird that greeted me at the entrance (ok, actually he was poking around looking for lunch and I ticked him off with the photo shoot):

The flamingo lagoon:

And the sea dragon:

There was also a wing that was full of coral reef species, flamingos, more free-flying birds, a tank of coral reef predators, and other small reef fish. The displays in the freshwater and marine sections were spread out along pathways that made you feel like you were winding through the jungle or inside of caverns. Very cool.

Friday night my hosts Sarah and Evan made dinner. Susie, another friend of Sarah's, and her sister came over for dinner and we had a great time. Good food, good friends, good fun. Sarah, Susie, and I stayed up late reminiscimg about the good old days and how we were starting to feel old (haha). It was really wonderful to see them and to be able to catch up. Saturday morning Evan treated us to blueberry pancakes before Sarah took me to the airport.

It was a quickie tour of Dallas but it was so nice to finally get to mix a little pleasure with work for once (despite what my blog says about visiting aquariums, it really is for work!).

Thanks Sarah and Evan for being such great hosts!

Travelling Fool

As I type this I am winging my way to Dallas, TX on a bumpy Delta flight. (obviously this was posted after I landed!) The sky below us is covered in a layer of clouds so thick I swear I could walk across them. I am currently enjoying 3 baggies of peanuts for lunch and listening to my favorite Christmas album on my iPod (Christmas with the Rat Pack). I have another hour left in the flight and realized I should take the time to finally catch up on the blog. It was brought to my attention that I’ve been slacking on the blog, so I have to apologize, I’ve been a travelling fool lately. It seems I am making up for lost time - I didn’t travel once while working for the Park Service, and now can’t seem to go more than a few weeks without a trip. I have discovered that my Treo (like a Blackberry), iPod, and a sleep mask are the keys to my sanity while I travel. The first lets me stay in touch with everyone, the second lets me bring a piece of home with me (my music) and in combination with the third I can tune almost anything out and sleep on my flights (critical for me since I require an obscene amount of sleep).

The first week of December I was in DC again for a team meeting. We spent time discussing our National Policy plans and legislative game plan for 2009, I got to meet my lobbyist, and I got to know my coworkers a little better. We also got to visit the newly renovated Oceans Hall at the Smithsonian which was neat. My favorite part was that the 2nd floor walls in the atrium area showed videos of fish schooling, whales swimming, and waves crashing so when you walked in and looked up it felt as if you were underwater. Very cool. I took pictures, but they didn’t really do it justice.

I’ll be in Dallas this week for two reasons… I have spent the last 4 months building the 3 year plan for my program (there was nothing when I started) and will present it to a review team of fellow EDF experts. I feel like I’m going in for my oral exams for my Master’s again, but in reality it’s good free advice and feedback, so I am grateful that I was able to recruit the great committee I have. When planning this meeting I had to pick a central location for everyone from both coasts so Dallas seemed perfect since it would also give me the opportunity to visit two sorority sisters from college. I might also drop in on the new Dallas Aquarium too.

Well, other than my nutty travels, Wade and I have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit. We’ve been so busy that it’s been a little hard to get into it. We put up the tree and decorations in the house two weeks ago and put up our twinkle lights outside this past weekend. That helped. We’re not doing gifts this year for a variety of reasons that include modesty in the face of the economy, our looming tax bill, but mostly we just don’t really need anything this year, nor do we have room to put anything new! This Sunday we’re having my coworkers over to make cookies, watch Elf (my favorite new holiday classic), and listen to Christmas music until we can’t stand it anymore. (haha) Wade and I are looking forward to spending Christmas in our own bed this year (the first time in 10 years for me!) and having fun with our furry kids that morning. (The cats have already been having a dangerously absurd amounts of fun playing in and under the Christmas tree…we think a disaster is inevitable)

I almost forgot to mention the other reason I haven't blogged for so long. I spent the last week and a half reading through the Twilight series of books. Yes, laugh and get it over with, but they were just what I needed - a nice escape from the chaos of work. I never would have read them, but a coworker in DC loaned me the first book in the series when I was there. I started it on the flight home and couldn't put it down. When I finished, I immediately had to go out and get the next three books (all the library copies were on hold "indefinitely"!) Normally vampires and teen romance are definitely not my book topic of choice, but I was completely sucked in anyway.

I’ll follow up with a report from my Dallas trip early next week….