peachy-bakers, cache-takers, training-trends and miami-friends!

what's been up these days? glad you asked!

since the last time i posted, there may or may not have been a donut-truck incident...thanks to shea's suggestion...yes, i will partake. i mean, who wouldn't want to check out peachey's at 8:00 a.m. (not early for me, but early for some). there were to gals in front of us, and the one who looked middle-school-ish, said i had to try the pretzel, so of course, it ended up being a donut and a pretzel to get the full experience! glad i did, because both items lived up to expectations!!

dripping with sweetness!

yes, please, i will partake! the salt after the sweet #allaboutbalance

this cute little outfit began as a family farm business, and they took their shop on the road- it used to be amish something or other, and they made a wise decision to change their name, as food truck drawn by a horse might not go over as well...check them out on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAmishBakingCompany/

that was friday the 2nd. the next day we went to sarasota to pick up shea's running packet because she was brave enough-or got fanagled into doing a half-marathon; funny how that all panned out...so after we picked up those packets, we stopped in sarasota, since we were down there anyhoo. there were about 3-5 caches in the area, so we walked around town, saw one of the parks, and walked the marina area, finding some neat little hides. it felt like we walked 7 miles, but all said and done it was only like 5. ugh, amazing how walking, standing and searching can be so exhausting!

check out these cool historical buildings/houses! cool little finds in sarasota!

i'd live here for a minute!

at the marina on a beautiful day

iconic

at some point during last week, i got some items in the mail: oriental trading pins (the cheapest and cutest i could find)! these will be amazing little trinkets to put in caches far and wide! my e-trex gps also arrived! thank you southwest points!! so it will be fun trying to figure out how to get my maps to download and get things going with that! (i find myself running my battery down on the phone). 

southwest-the gift that keeps on giving!

the flamingos are adorbs, the pineapples are welcoming, and the flowers...well, they're flowers!

friday i got on a flight to miami, where i was meeting jane to then drive down to marathon, in the keys. the flight there was uneventful. i despise the miami airport with every fiber of my being. i stopped to grab a cuban sandwich while i waited, but it was nasty. not all cuban sandwiches are made the same (i loved the panini one we had in key west). then i made my way to the baggage claim, and then on to the rental car pick-up. once jane arrived, we made our way down to the keys. we stopped at lazy days on the way down, and had some sea food stuffs. i'm such a sucker for a good ocean view with a slight breeze!! in fact, it was so breezy that it blew a couple slices of baguette off the crab-dip plate as the server was bringing it to us...only he didn't notice it had happened. so we ended up having to pile it on to get the correct disbursement.

unbeatable dinner view!

the airbnb guy, robert, called and we gave him our ETA, so that his dad could meet us at the place and show us the ropes. we arrived a bit earlier than expected- probably because i have a lead foot, and it was hard not to drive the dodge 300 like a boss. it was dark by the time we arrived, and then siri told us one thing, but there was no place to park, and the house numbers weren't matching up. we must have driven up and down the little street three times before we finally called robert to get specifics. there was indeed an rv in the driveway, as they were renting that space to someone to park. his dad arrived a few minutes later, and finally we were able to get in and it took longer than necessary to walk us through the basics-he just wanted to be a host and took his responsibilities seriously! #proudpapa

unfortunately we only had a few hours there, once we arrived we worked a little to talk things through, and come up with a final plan, and woke up early enough to hit mcdonald's on the way to training. we had to go around twice. the first round we got my meal and all of our drinks, but they failed to order up correctly, and we were missing 1 hot cakes plate, so we made a second trip around the drive through! uf.

the training went off without a hitch! we had another great group-two of the ladies from last time returned, and even though it was basically the same training, they said they got even more out of it, and were now looking at how to apply what we were going over. i love repeaters, because they were serious! everyone else was new, but they were all tuned in, except that one. at least that 'one' wasn't rude, just there for the stipend, i'm sure.

just a little balanced literacy and istation!

we got out around one and stopped at a cute little lunch place on the way back to miami. the staff were super sweet and the inside was adorably decorated. we were able to make it to our hotel by the airport around 5:15 pm. got checked in, and i made a quick change and headed over to hellen's to have dinner with her and jacy. we had comida tipica- i should've gotten a picture, because hellen fixed up the table to be so cute!! from the table cloth, to the souvenirs, to the food! best beans-baleadas, pupusas and taquitos...yea! we sat around chatting, mixed with some laughter, and then hellen pulled out the videos from senior year! ha!!! good times! a little reminiscing goes a long way! can't wait until we can pull together a little class reunion in miami with more classmates when they happen to be up visiting!

ah, these two! familiarity is comfort!

the next morning came early! jane and i got to the airport and took off in good time.

alright, those of you in relationships, enjoy valentine's day! for the rest of us...pizza and netflix! then off to the candy sales aisle before they start putting out the halloween candy!

julie