6 airports, 5 days

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind tour of airports for me. Monday morning we met with contractors at the house before I flew out of Tampa and landed at my usual airport in DC (Reagan National). I was able to have dinner with Glynnis at my favorite vegetarian chinese restaurant and when we ordered 4 plates of food the waitress' eyes got big and in broken English asked "Ah, you know das lot of food... you sure abou' dat?" We told her we were really hungry and she just laughed. We proceeded to eat until we felt sick, but man was it good!

On Tuesday I went to a big meeting on Capitol Hill for my work, which was for once, actually in the Capitol Building. They're in the process of restoring the paintings and ceilings right now and it's pretty incredible to see what was originally painted a few hundred years ago but has been hiding beneath bad paint jobs for who knows how long (something I have a new appreciation for given our "new" house). After a great meeting (whew) I high-tailed it out to DC's other airport, Dulles (that I dread), and took a direct flight to San Francisco.

On Wednesday I had a meeting on our fundraising efforts (hooray - we're finally having success!) then slipped out to find the local aquarium. After an adventure on the public transit I finally found the aquarium in Golden Gate Park. The walk and scenery was lovely, until I got to the aquarium and saw a small sign that said "Welcome to Free Wednesdays!" and behind it stood a line of people the length of a football field and 4-5 people wide. Uh, no, no I don't think so. So, I turned right around and headed back for the hotel, but found some good Indian food on the way back.

Thursday morning we had another big meeting with our funder and then I tried for the aquarium again. This time I had quite a bit more success and was pleasantly surprised to find that Steinhart Aquarium has one of the best coral reef displays I've seen. Yes, I admit, I am pretty lucky that going to see public aquariums is part of my job and I've seen quite a spectrum. The display did a pretty incredible job of mimicking the shape and feel of a real coral reef and I was even treated to a show of a curator installing some new cultured corals. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a few panels that taught visitors about the importance of carefully choosing aquarium fish and corals as pets and why it's important to make sure they were collected and handled properly. You can see all the pictures on our Picasa site.

After the aquarium I headed out for drinks with my boss, her husband, and our funder. We went to a bar in San Francisco called Bourbon and Branch. It's a modern day speakeasy - a bar run just like one during prohibition - including a password, unadvertised location, vintage drinks and a huge menu of handmade cocktails, and everyone and everything inside dressed from the '20s. And it was AWESOME (check out the link above to read a little more about the bar). So awesome in fact, I'm hoping we can have our housewarming party near Halloween and make it a Roaring-20's style to honor the age of Miss Magnolia (she was built in 1926). It seems I am developing a taste for vintage and old things now that we own an old house and I just can't get enough of it - I also love that vintage/secondhand stuff is also the ultimate form of recycling!

But I digress... so we had a lovely dinner after that at a restaurant with impeccable service where I almost ordered the "sweetbreads." Yeah, go ahead and laugh, I deserve it. Me, the Floridian and vegetarian, never having seen that term on a menu before assumed it must be something like Hawaiian bread until my boss almost died laughing when she had to tell me that it was actually mostly the unmentionable and unseen parts of an animal, not a delightful bread as I had assumed!!! So, the whole table laughed until we cried, then the waiter came and he laughed too, but he had the chef make me something special and fabulous because most of everything had some sort of animal in it. It was a great dinner, but a late night once I finally made it back to the hotel to pack and hit the sack.

Friday morning I rode the metro back to SFO and connected through Charlotte on my way back to Sarasota. Yes, that's right, if you were keeping track you understand where my title came from - that was 6 airports in 5 days. Thank heavens I brought along a Harry Potter book and my iPod!

Miss Magnolia

Until recently, the house just didn't feel like our house, but instead, like another rental place we have to schlep our stuff to. We've done quite a bit of that over the years (6 places in 8 years!) so it felt like the same old routine... until last Saturday.

We intended to paint last weekend, but after checking with the company correcting a few of the piers under the house, we realized we should wait until afterwards in case some of the old cracks open back up. So, we went to plan B which involved trying to restore the skeleton key locks on the original doors and ripping out carpet. Fortunately, Dustin and Katie were kind enough to bike over to help us with the undertaking. In the past, we've lived in a few places that the carpet was hideous and stained and I longed to rip it out... but as a renter that would never happen. But, with this house it was the first thing I wanted to do, so we did it! We peeled back the carpet to find linoleum, then concrete, then wood in the downstairs master closet, and lumpy plywood sub-flooring in the attic (what will be my office). The carpet in the attic was in such big swaths we actually had to chuck it out the window because it was too difficult to get down the stairs! We discovered a few things about demolition work: 1. it's fun, 2. surprisingly rewarding, 3. feels a little like a treasure hunt.

I took pictures because I want a record of before and after we worked on the house. But, I admit, I felt a little guilty - like catching her with her skirt tucked in her underwear or something - showing the world what she looks like with her floors torn up and rough. Which made me realize I do think of our house as kind of an old lady. She's an old bird with charm and character that is testing us and has seen a little neglect, but if we take care of her she'll take care of us like grandmas do. Now that made me think of the movie Driving Miss Daisy for some reason, so calling her "Miss Magnolia" just seemed to fit. I fully realize this will likely lead to nicknames like Maggie or Mags (heck, our pets have about 10 nicknames each), and I am perfectly ok with that. :)

We're getting started on repairing the neglect she's seen over the years and we can't wait to share her with anyone who wants to come visit. In an effort to convince myself that showing before pictures isn't disrespectful to the house, I'm going to call the before pictures her "caterpillar phase", and you can find them on our Picasa site. The remodeling will be her "cocoon phase", and when we're done I can't wait to share the "butterfly pictures". :) Although, we've discovered home ownership never means you're really done and there's always a project in the works (largely because we have to spread things out to fit our budget!).

Rainbow Springs State Park

We have fallen in love with Rainbow Springs State Park. Seriously. We're going back every summer and there is nothing anyone can do to stop us. The cool (72 degree) water was just what we needed during a blisteringly hot summer and the laid back atmosphere was exactly what we'll come back for every summer from now on.

The night we closed on our house we packed up the car to go camping. It has been a long few months learning to successfully dance the home ownership tango, and we were ready to just sit down for a bit. After a tip from our friend Kellyn that Rainbow Springs was a wonderful place to go camping and tubing we decided it sounded like just what we needed. We packed up the car and intended to take the canoe too, but the car had other plans and we couldn't get the rack on for the canoe. But, we didn't let that deter us from the plying the crystal clear waters of the Rainbow River.

Friday morning we set off on our 3 hour trip north... only to turn around and come home after and hour... because we forgot the TENT. Yep. Clearly we were not as anal about packing this time around as we usually are! Thankfully Wade realized our mistake after an hour and not when we pulled into the campsite. So we had lunch at home and set off again on our grand adventure. Rainbow Springs is in a more rural area of Florida - halfway between Ocala and Crystal River - so once we got off the highway, we were treated to beautiful views of gently rolling hills, moss-covered oaks, horse pastures, lakes, and little cracker houses. It was like getting off in a different world and we were struck by how many different types of natural beauty Florida is blessed with - the sawgrass prairies of the Everglades, tropical hardwood hammocks, shimmering coral reefs, crystal clear spring fed rivers, white sandy beaches, and the expansive fire-prone pinelands. It's incredible you can find so much in one state!

We finally arrived at the campground around dinner time. We made camp in the best site they had - it was surrounded by trees and we only had one neighbor site, so it felt like being in the woods, but we had the benefit of a shower and toilet within walking distance (hooray!). Once we'd unpacked, we made a beeline for the river to check it out and cool off. We waded around in the freezing water for a bit enjoying how refreshing it felt and took in the surroundings. The river was crystal clear and teemed with life - lots of people enjoying the river, but there were also fish, birds, and lots of plant life too. We quickly slipped into a state of bliss and relaxation which only deepened when we realized our new house would only be about 2.5 hours away from this whenever we wanted to come back. We headed back to camp and made a lovely dinner and proceeded to try and build a fire, with mixed results. Once we finally let the fire die out, every star in the sky was out and we groggily shuffled off to bed. We fell asleep to a grand orchestra of frogs, katy-dids, and owls.

The next morning we ate a lazy breakfast and made it down to the outfitter in time to rent the last two kayaks they had. We were also surprised to see a constant stream of people being shuttled to the river - the park is a popular place for tubing, and on the weekends it was very busy, but not horribly crowded (although it was rainy that day which we were told deters people). So, we piled our stuff inside the kayaks and pushed out into the grassy river to head up stream away from the stream of tubers. We paddled a few miles up river - one side of the river was natural and lush (inside the park) while the other bank was lined with river houses. We passed some boats, but thankfully it was an idle only zone, so it wasn't too bad. Eventually we reached the headsprings where the river began which was entirely inside of the Park. We jumped out for a snorkel and found ourselves surrounded by what Wade appropriately described as a "scene from a Busch Gardens display" - below the clear water huge spotted gar lurked under the mossy oak branches, nosy bluegill followed us around like pushy rock groupies, river grass stretched up like an underwater forest, largemouth bass watched us warily, while sunfish and turtles poked around on the bottom. It was pretty incredible - it rivaled snorkeling on a coral reef. Once we couldn't stop shivering, we hopped back in our boats and paddled to the headspring to look around before tying off under a tree to eat lunch while a thunderstorm passed. Once the coast was clear, we enjoyed floating back down river snorkeling most of it, and paddling some until we made it back to the campground. Along the way we saw a huge school of big largemouth bass, large blueish-silver fish I can't seem to ID, turtles, ducks, herons, and the biggest creepiest bullheads (like catfish). We spent most of the day on the water and even got to see a mama moorhen with her little black cotton ball babies. We finally made it back to the dock and dropped our gear at the office. We were sunburned, tired, but totally relaxed, so we went to buy some supplies at the general store (marshmallows and ice cream bars - essentials of course) before making dinner. With rain clouds still hanging in the air, we didn't want to light the fire or start dinner, so we headed back to the river for another swim. By then the crowds had cleared out and we mostly had the place to ourselves and enjoyed floating on some rafts while we watched fog rise off the cool river to meet the humid warm air. It was, dare I say, magical? It was beautiful and perfect and we soaked up every moment of it watching canoers and ducks play hide and seek in the fog. Finally, we were freezing and there was a gap in the storm so we made a break for it. I built a cheery fire while Wade made dinner. We had marshmallow appetizers then spent the evening watching the fire crackle and burn. The thunder continued to roil in the distance so once the fire we down to it's ashes we covered everything up carefully, took a shower, then tucked ourselves in for bed. Now, thankfully, we were prepared and The Ghost (the name for our white tent) was up to the task of keeping us dry in the ensuing storms that night. It poured, thundered, and flashed lightning for most of the night. When it finally died down in the wee hours we awoke to tree frogs singing their hearts out and a few wily ones had even taken refuge under the fly of our tent!

We awoke Friday morning to the continual sound of thunder in the distance, intermittent sprinkles, and soggy everything. We ate breakfast standing up, shook out everything the best we could, and proceeded to pack up. It didn't look like we were going to get in another day of swimming, so we loaded up the car to head to the visitor center for a look around. On the way out, we realized we fared better than most - the other campers all had roomier but cheaper tents so they were completely soaked while our sleek little sleeping tent was perfectly dry inside. I even saw the family next to us take their tent straight to the dumpster rather than pack it up to go home! We made it to the visitor center in time for a quick look around. All throughout the trip we were kicking ourselves for forgetting our underwater camera housing - so many neat things to see underwater, especially the springs literally bubbling from the ground! But, we were in luck - at the visitor center there were some springs near the boardwalk so I could get some video of the ground as it "boiled":

Soon, the rain followed us there and we were on the road for home by lunch time. We packed a lunch in the car and ate on the drive back. We took the scenic route along US 41 and saw some interesting areas of Florida. We were happy to get home early though so we could wash all of our gear - our tent was half covered in mud from the splattering of rain during the night's storm. Despite the rainy interludes it was a wonderful time and we're looking forward to making it a summertime tradition with anyone who wants to join us. :) To see our pictures, click here to go to our Picasa site.

We have officially bought our last house

So, we have decided that the process of buying a house sucks so bad that we will never do this again and intend to just live here as long as life lets us. No, really, we're not kidding. We love the location and the neighborhood and the lot has plenty of room to grow, so if we need more house, we're going up or out, but not to another house, because so help me God, I am never doing this again. Now, this has always been our intention - buy a house we can grow in rather than a "starter" house - but after this week, that feeling has been cemented into our brains.

After some last minute paperwork drama the day before closing, I was already "done" with the whole process and I wondered why people ever even bother buying a house. Despite quite a few last minute indications that we wouldn't close in time, we did finally sign away our life this morning and become homeowners. I would like to say we had a swelling sense of pride, but in reality it passed in a blur and we spent the rest of the day getting quotes on work we need to have done. (Our realtor, however, did bring some fantastic brownies to the closing and gave us a lovely platter, so that was a nice surprise!) So, by the end of the day we felt flat-out overwhelmed.

Oh, and here's a little more info about our first home! She's a cute little 1926, 1.5 story Craftsman-style bungalow in a historic area of town, nestled at the back of a lot and a half. I'm trying to think of a name for her... given the big Magnolia tree in the front yard, I'm leaning towards "Magnolia-" something. We have lots of ideas and dreams for her, but for now, here's her "before" picture...

As I type, we're packing for a trip this weekend. We already had a camping trip planned to Rainbow Springs State Park for this weekend, so we decided it would be nice to unplug right after closing to let our brains have a break. We'll be gone for a few days and will hopefully come back refreshed and ready to attack the work in the new house head on.