Another Beach Post

It's a tough life living thirty minutes from the beach.

Tough.

We've been the past two weekends. Just to get a little bit of sunshine and watch the birds.

Might have seen someone catch a shark. But it was little. Or so I tell myself.

But I still will go in the water to cool off - it's the perfect time of year for Florida sunshine.

Why don't you come visit?

Clemson - Hike and Clinton

After Friday graduation and a good night sleep, Cassie, Thadd, Jesse, Darin, Jake, and I headed out to Yellow Branch trails for a nice morning hike.

The weather was beautiful, the dogs were excited, and we were well fed on a great breakfast Cassie had made.

We let the boys get the the back - and were off.

Getting ready!

Are we there yet?

The fail safe map guide (in case we got super lost!)

I tried not to take too many photos - but alas. I did. Thankfully I only uploaded a few on here.

A tree. With my new camera.
You can tell the difference actually!

I was last so that I could run away faster if Jake/Darin ran into a bear.
Jake led the whole way. He's a hiking dog!

The waterfall! It was just beautiful!
Vastly different from the last time we were here with Bodie.

Cassie and Jesse
He turned out to be a hiking dog too -
once he got a little courage from watching Jake.

Jake digging to China.
So cute.

Jake was in his element. We let him off his leash and he explored the waterfall. Went up the rocks, swam in the water, fetched sticks, dug to China. It was amazing to watch!

Cassie and Thadd

Del and Darin

The group
One of my new favorite photos.
(look at Jake)

Hike back.

After the hike, we had a quick lunch at Schlotzskys (we were super craving it because it's like the only one around anywhere), a change of clothes, and we headed to Clinton, SC to the official graduation party for LaShan. We got a little lost on the way there (being like 45 minutes late - which was so unlike us), but got there in time to see her speech (which was super heart-felt) and eat.

Speech!

Man, was the food good! Ham and chicken, mac and cheese, green beans, rice and gravy. Super great - even took home some leftovers. And ate a couple of extra helpings of mac and cheese.

It was fun to see LaShan's family and her community. Everyone (us included) were so proud of her for her accomplishments.

Darin, Del, LaShan, and Cheryl

The two tall ones - we both had to remember not to slouch!

Afterward, we drove up to Greenville (after stopping for some fresh tasty South Carolina strawberries) to the downtown area and watched the Magic game. I love that town. Drove back to Clemson, talked again with Cassie and Thadd, and slept! Headed home early the next day to get back to Orlando for some R and R.

I just can't say how proud I was of LaShan (and my other friends who were/are in the same position). It truly was a great accomplishment and wonderful feat.

A Birthday in Florida

Before our Clemson trip in the beginning on May, I went with a group of women to Ron Jon's Resort to celebrate our great friend Suzanne's birthday.

She's getting older, you see, and decided to have a fun pool/beach get together before she gets too old to appreciate swimming and sun bathing.

:)

This place was just amazing - totally will go back there. The pool area was what made it different than other resorts. The slide was crazy and the lazy river was super fun. Even for a bunch of us old(er) people (compared to a lot of the children/kids that were there).

The slide. It was fast!

That's Suzanne!

We stayed out by the pool for most of the afternoon on Saturday (timeline - this was 1.5 hours after the Doggie Derby for me). The slide was fun but some times crowded, so we ended up going around the lazy river (which wasn't too lazy in actuality) and had a blast because you ended up getting soaked on it. They had all of these fun water spots and buckets that would dump water on you. Go there!

After we got ready for dinner (which took some time as there were 5 of us), we headed off to the Cove to one of Darin and my favorites - Fish Lips. Man the food there was good. And we got to sing Suz happy birthday. Woo hoo!

Brownie sundae.

Janice, Meghan, Del, Suzanne, and Stephanie

After the great dinner, we headed out to the ocean to walk around - what a beautiful night. It was so dark because of no moon. The ocean sounds were great regardless of the time. And thankfully we didn't see any ghost crabs. Phew.

Suz, Stephanie, Janice, Meghan, and Del

Sunday morning (Suz's actual bday) we made pancakes for breakfast and headed out to the pool for some more fun. You could totally spend a weekend at this place just enjoying the pool and sunshine. I was so glad to take a weekend out and just relax with friends.

Clemson - Graduation and Dogs

On May 7th, my dearest friend LaShan graduated with her PhD in Bioengineering.

And we were there to celebrate with her!

Hurray!

Ended up driving up there (with Jake!) on Thursday night because we wanted to see her officially graduate. We kind of got bad seats, but could actually see her pretty well on the floor and on the screen.

Before people were there.

We waited maybe 15 minutes after she was finished (being hooded and all that jazz) before we left. We were tired. Sigh.

Afterward, she had a get together near the school at a park with bbq. Numm numm.

CU BioE Fantastic-o Women

Cassie (in the black/white sleeveless) our hostess for the weekend took us on an official tour of the new bioengineering department. It had changed so much. Crazy!

BUT wanted to share some old memories with some blog readers - you know who you are...

413. Our old hangout area.
Now a lab.

The old rig setup. Nothing changed at all.

2nd floor lab. Seriously. Same everything.

It was strange to be back there - I feel like I spent so much of my time in that building. In actuality, I probably should have spent more time there. Ha ha. Got to see some old teachers (not old in age...) and some of the new spaces that were now there. I'll always be so proud to have gotten a degree from such a fantastic place!

***

That evening Cassie, Thadd (her husband and our co-host), Darin, and I went out to Fatz for dinner. It's a true South Carolina place with great food and these delicious poppy seed rolls. Might have eaten a whole basket by myself. There was honey butter people.

Jake and Jesse became fast friends. They were quite hillarious. Jake would take a toy from Jesse's numerous toy basket area, try to get Jesse to take it (which he wouldn't), drop it, and then go get another toy. This was what their living room looked like after 20 minutes:

Before.

After.

It was funny to watch. He was just being his normal strange self. Poor Jesse didn't know what to do with this weird dog around and ended up sitting on the couch by his mama watching tv.

After tv watching and picture viewing, we went to sleep because we were exhausted! Had a terrific day though and we were so glad to have come up for such an exciting event.

BP Doggie Derby

Three weekends back in the beginning on May, we had the opportunity to participate in the 3rd Annual Doggie Derby. We had the honor of taking Ms. Maggie Moe because, well, Jake would probably kill/attack the other dogs there.

We picked her up, dropped Jake off, and headed out!

Basically the concept was simple - dogs pair off (in weight groups) and whoever wins, moves to the next match. Maggie was a heavy weight. (She's a gentle giant.)

We think she was either the heaviest or second heaviest dog there!

Go Maggie!

The playing field

Our competitor.



Waiting in the shade, it was hot!

Well to put it mildly, she didn't do much at the starting line. I think she was a little intimidated by the other dogs and the people around. Plus, we didn't practice.

She took a step, looked back at me, and the other dog was already finishing. Oops.

But she tried!

And then she cooled as best as she could:

We had a great time watching the other dogs - it was so cute. The smaller dogs didn't necessarily know what was happening and kind of ran in circles. Some dogs were super fast - some not so much. Everyone had a great time - we ended up leaving early because it was hot outside and Maggie seemed to be getting ready for some air conditioning.

Next year we'll have to decide whether to bring Jake because we both think he would have had a great time and would have done well. Either way, we'll definitely practice before hand!

Woo hoo!

Updates Coming

Wanted to write something quick.

Been busy after work (and at work too for the matter) and haven't had time to upload all of the great pictures I took from the last two weekends...

BUT we have nothing (but yard work and house work) to do this weekend and I will get things up-to-date for everyone waiting for pictures.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys the sunshine!

Yogurt

We eat smoothies every morning.

Gives us energy, lots of fruits to eat, and Jake a yogurt container.

As you can see, he likes them a lot.

And we don't have to clean the container before we recycle it.

Win-Win.

Side Note: Before we ate yogurt too - Yoplait - and the containers would be all over the house after Jake would lick them clean and be done with them. It was very funny.

South Cali - Sunday

Sunday.

Time to see Melissa, Kyle, Kyle's Mom Joan, and K.

:)

We woke up to a cloudy-hazy day. Normally the haze would drift away, but it wasn't cooperating for our pool time. While we were cleaning up (with the door open mind you), we had some visitors. We had met them twice before.

They liked Pringles.

Decided to check out and head up to where Kyle and Melissa live. It was about 30 minutes north of us - hopefully by then the sun would be out.

Got to their house and there was sunshine! Had decided previously to eat lunch at this wonderful chowder place by the grocery store (why didn't I get pictures of this?) and then headed off to the beach.

Not so much luck there. Ended up staying maybe for 30 minutes then headed back to their pool.

The pool saves the day!

At about 3 pm, my sister and Mom left for their flight - I got to say later and spend time with them all. I basically got all day Sunday!

We ate dinner. Went for a walk. Talked!

And I got to spend time with this cutie:

K. @ 4 months

With her Grandma, Joan

With her favorite guy

Her cute room!

We became friends!

Finally!
(K. was fascinated by the turned on fan!)

Wished I could have spent about a week longer with them all. BUT it actually worked out well for everyone. We'll get out again soon I think - so at least this trip was successful.

South Cali - Saturday

Saturday morning.

Searching for coffee again.

But a special day: Mom's birthday!

Casey had suggested a breakfast place in San Diego and after remembering what it was called, and getting a reservation, we were off.

This place was crazy.

C.R.A.Z.Y.

We should have split something. I don't know why we didn't. I guess our eyes were bigger than our stomachs.

Dru got biscuits and eggs:

Mom got a scramble:

And I got the biggest pancake ever:

***

Went back and headed two different places. They wanted to go to the beach (I was feeling to wimpy to deal with the FL/CA temperature change) and I went to the adult pool.

Side Note: Didn't talk about the wonderful hotel. It was a resort - huge in size and had five pools. Yikes.

They came back for some pool time (we changed to the 'kid' pool), and we enjoyed ourselves for a couple more hours.

See the pool in my glasses...

This represents my Mother 100%.

Giant Bird of Paradise

***

Then it was off to La Jolla.

Beach Patrol!

Sunset - later that evening.

I have many fond memories of La Jolla. Eating, surfing, enjoying friends, eating. As did my Mother. She remembered this restaurant - and we had to find it. It was her special birthday wish. What was once a rooftop hamburger joint was now a posh LA type rooftop bar.

So glad we went though. Excellent food. Good beer on tap. Strange pepper drinks (my sister go this). And excellent views.

Notice the glasses. We are definitely sister.s

Seal rock!

We sang her a silent happy birthday and enjoyed our time together.

And then went and found cupcakes to celebrate even further.

Walked around La Jolla for a long time - could have just stayed to watch the people and seals. I can't wait to have Darin be there to experience it.

Went back to the hotel and tried out the hot tubs! And they were hot! Drank some wine, talked to some strangers, and relaxed. Hot hot hot!

And then sleep!