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

it's official: #newhobbyalert

this past week was the actual birthday week-monday i received many warm wishes throughout the day as i traveled to texas for a training. it was good to be able to meet work with julie k in leander again. we had birthday dinner at chuys, a sweet card with some starbucks love, great conversation, and an early night!

the training was fun because we got to work with many of the educators we'd previously worked with, presenting small group formation and goal setting! they were super attentive and appreciative of the information!

when i got home, i had a couple cards in the mail, and something i'd ordered. and while it's alright to get shout-outs on social media, it doesn't quite beat the good ol' fashioned in-hand card! (although..video/ pic montages from friends are also very high on the list!! ICYMI: hurricane memoires)

warm fuzzies!

saturday we took advantage of the weather, as it was forecast to rain sunday. we went out to mixon farms (thanks, groupon!) because before you can take anyone out to see a new place, you want to personally check it out and give it your seal of approval, right? right! when we got there, we went in to check out the store which was full of all sorts of chachkies...then presented the groupon for a pass-sticker, and coupon for ice creams!

once we got out on the tram, the tour guide, kayla, asked everyone where they were from. this spurred me to talk to the people in front of us because the older woman was from ohio (most people were locals)...so me (who says i don't like small talk...and to be fair, i don't, but i think it's in my blood-thanks dad-and it just comes out like word-vomit. and every time i do it, i think i roll my eyes...when i blink so no one else can tell). ugh.

the small grove

because everybody needs a little vitamin c!

brings new meaning to the good, the bad and the ugly...

we splurged and got them chocolate dipped! 

making oklahomans everywhere proud! (smudge pot is not a drug)

i was shocked at how incredibly soft his skin was! 

well, we finally got off on our tour, and kayla from oklahoma drove us slower than most of us could probably walk. they had several different types of fruit in the little orchard, and she explained that this was just a small plot of land they kept for the tours, but their bigger plot of land was further out east. after several explanations, the smudge pot, and the creek, and several trees that had been damaged in the hurricane, we finally came to the 'exotic animals.' one of the local wildlife education and rehabilitation centers partners with their farm because they have the land and are on the outskirts of town, so they are able to house these animals that can never be released back into the wild. did not realize that there is an animal hospital on anna maria island, but the young man who works with them did a great job telling us all about the animals and their stories-all about being able to tell a great story!

on the way back, pulling around the building, kayla said, "and if you're interested in the self-guided tour, go through this door and back to the black double doors and the tour begins." shea and i looked to the left, and there were several doors on the outside of the building. so when we got off the tram, we went up to figure out which door it was....i looked in a double glass door, and there was an arrangement for some sort of meeting/reception...not the correct door. we checked another that looked like a tunnel leading down some stairs...then shea went to check another and i saw our tour guide walking toward the store, and called out to her to ask where the fruit factory tour was and she said at the back of the store.  OHHHHH! so what we both heard as: through this door was actually THROUGH THE STORE! hahaha!

i'm pretty sure shea tried all of the possible freebie-taster test things...twice (orange juice 4X)- i was about to have to start telling people she was diabetic and just needed to get her insulin. (?) the orange and vanilla swirl ice cream cones were like the creamcicles from kamp-yummers!

after all was said and done, we decided it might be wise to take a walk, so we headed over to robinson preserve, as it's always a pretty good walk, plus there were some geo-caches out there. i learned quickly that i am not as big a fan of the earth-caches, although they would be especially good if you were a science teacher with students, or something of that nature. lots of questions, lots of recording information...i couldn't remember the questions before trying to answer them in the app...

the preserve really has some beautiful areas!

one of the caches disguised as an electrical box-the hint: IT'S ELECTRIC! BOOGIE WOOGIE! (sneakies!)

when we got back from the fairly full day, shea disappeared for a couple minutes, then entered the kitchen with a beautiful 'woods-inspired' box (aka: Christmas trees), which got quickly upgraded when she saw a gift bag hangin' out on the table. i had no clue what to expect, but i was NOT disappointed!! fun gear!!! AND DONUTS!!! (the two go together!) the best kinds of gifts, if we're all honest with ourselves, are the gifts in which we can share in the enjoyment! am i right? duh!

forest themed...

gift-bag-upgrade...

it's official! #newhobby

and this morning we went to find a cache in our neighborhood, then off to lowes to find some ways to create our own...it's about time to take this adventure to the next level and share in the creation! we also made it over to target where i indulged in my other hobby and may have spent the majority of my time in the card section! it had already begun to rain sprinkle, so after 1/2 price sonic drinks, we returned to our separate abodes and i then spent the remainder of the afternoon creating cache-hiding-things, and watching netflix...good times!

let the games begin! did you see the spider? 'bout to be sneaky!!

if you don't have one, get a hobby!
julie

hiking in florida is actually just walking...but hey, still nature.

i arrived home from the baby shower last sunday just before noon, so i came home and took a short nap, and then shea agreed to go out to anna maria island to do some more geocache adventuring...

it was actually pretty cool, there are several out there. the first one we went to  had a beautiful little bay-side view with a park and benches, tennis courts, bball courts, etc. i 'm fairly certain i never would have ventured in to see it, had we not been pointed in that direction. and the cache itself was super creative!

from there we walked to the next one, which was merely .5 mile, i think. not too hard of a find, but no real beauty to speak of, just a little water-logged treasure box.

then we drove to the north part of the island, if you ever visit me here, this is one of the areas we would certainly visit! parked on pine, then walked to the museun...which was closed. boo. so was the dounut shop...double whammy...we then walked up the way and found our first geo-tour 'taking-flight' cache. it was actually pretty cool, because there was a story tucked inside. 2 letters, one was like a date letter, the other an engagement letter, they also left pictures from their wedding, came back and left a picture of the positive on the preggers test-having a baby! we kinda felt like we knew them...very neat! and being a 'taking flight' cache, there was information about the native birds and how to protect them. good cache.

we then had one last one in the area to check out near the beach. it was still too cool to really enjoy the beach, but beautiful views are hard to ignore. so was the burger joint...we smelled them as we walked by, and i hadn't gone shopping for food, so... just gonna' have to put off that complete healthy eating for a minute.

fast forward--nothing major happened this week, since it's the weekend before my birthday, and i have to travel on my birthday for work, shea made sure we did something for the bday weekend- kudos to having friends!! friday night we grabbed dinner at zoe's and then decided to try to find this rolled-ice cream place in the mall...it was somewhat of a scavenger hunt, but we found it! the flavor was fabulous, but it seemed that for the price you didn't receive as much as perhaps a coldstone or a kilwins...

so glad we have one fairly close-by!

great looking presentation, just hard to get started and get the spoon through the roll to eat it...

hmm.. on the board it said: LIKE YOU A LATTE....please note the more appropriate name for my ice cream choice: LIKE THE WAY YOUR (you're) LATE (proof reading is never a bad thing). and please note the name of the shop-it reminds me of the isosceles triangle bit from geometry class.

also, i did finally get my first glimpse of our hurricane video that shea edited and put together, and it's a lot of fun! we watched it yesterday before exploring little manatee river state park, one of the state parks that's nearby. we took the 6 mile 'hike' and of course, i pulled up the app and there were geocaches here as well...so what should have taken far less time took a little longer..oops. at least the weather was fabulous, and the caches were different and interesting! not much wild-life, we saw an armadillo toward the beginning of the hike, then again at the very end back at the trail-head. apparently there was also a dead wild boar near a bridge that we missed (a mom and daughter on the trail told us about it); we figured it must have been recently killed, as there were no vultures, flies, no smell, etc. there were a couple of times the app on the phone didn't go off, so we backtracked to find the sign-in-logs...i think we may have confused some of the other trail-walkers, so we of course did our best to explain.

but first...donuts!! weren't sure about the sausage and gravy donuts, but wow!

found an orange tree in the rough....

found the spikes on the tree...

just shea playing on the furniture

this tree fell during irma, and they had to cut branches to make the trail passable

cache 1 off the beaten trail

cache 2 looked like it was in a mini toolbox

cache 3 was hidden in a hole in the rock...

cache 4 was just a dangler

"amazing the change of vegetation that even a few feet in elevation will produce" said a blogger...umm..could it the land closer to the river have different vegetation than the land further away?

 my knees were feeling the 6 miles-mostly because it wasn't regular flat sidewalk. it was a good hike, i probably out to do this more often than i do, but most of the good state parks in florida seem to be a bit further north, requiring a full day at least to not feel exhausted by the drive to and from. planning. these will require planning.

i felt it this morning, so i lounged for a bit, but the weather got way too nice out to just sit around inside...although i did sit around in my pajamas a little longer than i should have before finally talking shea into getting outdoors too! in tomorrow's edition!

julie

the case of pooh. or pooh in the globe in the case...

last weekend was a whirlwind...i blinked and it was over! i left for katy, tx on saturday morning, as they were having a baby shower for one of my dear friends. i was looking forward to an easy flight... i had originally planned to check a bag, but decided last minute that if i could fit everything into a carryon, that would be the new plan. and so it was.

unfortunately, as i was going through tsa and they pulled my bag off the conveyor, i remembered WHY i was going to check my bag!! ugh. so i watched her open it, and unfortunately the gift was wrapped. she was trying so meticulously to get the tape off, and to not tear anything, so i told her, "look, don't worry, just rip it off, at this point i'd rather just re-wrap it, but i need to to get down to the counter to check it and back up through security..." basically i kept looking at my clock and hoping she'd get the hint.

the most frustrating part of it all is that i had just read a story on fb about a couple that had to throw their snowglobe away because it was too big and they didn't have time to get down to check it -it had their pictures for an adopted grandchild, etc and a lady saw the whole thing, fished the snowglobe out and found them a month later to return it to them... all the feels...

(i'm thankful i got my tsa pre!) but seriously, c'mon, now tsa...a freakin' winnie the pooh snowglobe? this seems like overkill to me...

finally when this tsa lady was done, she walked me out and i took monorail to the terminal and the elevator down to the ticket counter to check my bag. as i got off the elevator, i realized that my phone stylus was missing! ugh. i use it a lot!

no time to back track, i got my bag checked and made my way back through security, and remembered that my phone had fallen while i was waiting for the tsa person. i breathed a sigh of relief when i went back to that table and the stylus was there near a power cord! yay, me!

fairly uneventful flight, the dallas layover was short, and when i got to the houston airport, i went to pick up the rental car. as i pulled around to exit, the lady asked for my license. i couldn't find it, so i backed out and went through EVERYTHING! purse (small) pocket by pocket, card by card, backpack-same, no dice. after about 10 minutes of looking and re-looking, i drove back to the parking lot (she had already called the front desk to make sure they hadn't accidentally forgotten to give it back). i was getting frustrated, as i was going to need that to fly home! so i parked the car back in the lot and got out of the car, and i think i must be the luckiest person alive, as it was on the ground behind the car next to me...whew!

so now i'd wasted about 30 minutes, and felt rather silly being frustrated, thinking in the back of my mind that the id was at the front desk and they just couldn't find it... so i was off. i'd been craving whataburger pretty much since i moved to florida, so i had planned to make that stop once i got to katy. and it was worth it!

then i remembered that i had to stop for gift-wrap! once i found some, let the wrapping games begin! i purchased a small exacto knife instead of scissors-cheaper, but not necessarily as brilliant... so i cut the first piece, which was plenty large, but sitting in the car gave me some difficulty-and it was looked pretty rough. i had to rip tape off, because i cut my finger with the exacto knife (a tiny cut, but it bled, nonetheless!) so i taped my finger to avoid messing up more paper, and cut off another large piece...this time, i pulled up a video i had seen of a really cool wrapping job, and tried that-on the trunk of the car. this was difficult, as it was breezy out, and the sun was bright, making it difficult to see what the guy in the video was doing...and then i realized the paper was not quite large enough...not about to do a patch-job! so i cut off one more large piece, and used the tried and true wrapping format. at one point someone pulled up nearby and i thought the kids might be filming the crazy lady wrapping gifts in the parking lot, struggling.

i don't recommend trying to wrap in a car

impromptu-make-do bandage

originally i was supposed to have plenty of time. such was not the case. i was a little late. boo. but i arrived and got to meet some of the family and friends, and stayed for a bit to chit chat afterward. i love seeing friends, and especially on such a joyous occasion! she was certainly showered with love!

but this little girl was there!!

i'd share pictures of the shower, but i forgot to ask for permission, but it was super sweet!

i traveled home the sunday, and it went much better than the previous day!

this was the only downer....i asked for the panini, and they gave me cibatta..ugh. if i'm going to have bread, at least give me the kind i like!!

 fortunately all was on time, and i got home at a decent hour and there was time for shea and me to go out and find a few more caches to add to our geocache tally!! more about that in the next posting, because it was pretty cool!!

great day!
julie