Catching Up To Do

I am hoping this blog finds my friends and family as a way to keep up with me from afar.

As a school counselor, I have lots of summer time on my hands. Even with this summer freedom, the boyfriend and I still find ourselves in a whirlwind of weekend plans. This first post will be a catch up of sorts. We have celebrated, relaxed and discovered many things over the last couple of months and I'd like to share that!

February 2015: Let's start with my last trip to St. Catherine's Island (because these little guys live there)! My sister is currently one of the animal keepers on the private island off our coast. This little perk allows me to visit her and enjoy the ring tailed lemurs who live here. The island is nothing short of fabulously beautiful and I look forward to visiting her again soon.

 

 

April 2015: Jamaica!

Another nice little perk to working in the school system is getting a spring break each year. We decided to go on a bigger adventure this year. I had no idea how much I would enjoy this trip until we began to leave the runway on the last day. We stayed at a middle of the road all inclusive resort in Montego Bay. It was wonderful to be able to walk down to our private beach after enjoying a mound of french toast, fruit, hash browns, crepes, bacon, sausage and pretty much anything else you could think of BUT we wanted more. We wanted to explore a little. We enjoyed our day in Negril but our absolute favorite was the drive to YS Falls and the Black River.

Jamaica is a country of bargainers! We traveled back from Negril with lots of goodies because of this. We also enjoyed a "cheese burger in paradise" and waited out the rain while enjoying a Red Strip. True Tourists. We also visited Rick's Café in tourist fashion where the boyfriend jumped off the highest platform into the ocean. I may have instigated this. I stuck to the short platform.

The Black River opened our eyes to the beautiful mountains (They looked like the Blue Ridge Mountains.) of Jamaica and some damn good fried chicken! Our slightly crazy boat captain demonstrated his crocodile courting skills while hanging out the side of the boat. I on the other hand enjoyed from behind the boat railing. I had never seen a crocodile in person and I was truly impressed by their ferocious beauty as they swam through the mangroves. A snorkeling spear fisherman displayed his catch as we drove by and I thought to myself, "Should we inform him that there are crocodiles?!" In realty, he is probably more knowledgeable about fishing, snorkeling and river navigation than I could ever hope to be.

YS Falls was our next stop. I'll be honest that the horse planation was not expected. It's a beautiful plantation with silk cotton trees, pastures surrounded by mountains and WATERFALLS. It was pouring down rain when we got there but that did not stop us. Our bathing suits helped. We took another leap of faith and took the rope swing off the platform. I'm not nearly as brave so I took a little longer than necessary to take my leap. I felt a little bit like Jane. My screams were a little different though.

We ate good, explored, relaxed and felt sad on the plane ride home.

     

        

May and June 2015: Let's Talk Weddings!
While in Jamaica, my main squeeze (pictured left) informed me through the interwebs that she had gotten ENGAGED. Now, I myself have been waiting for this announcement from her for years so I was slightly bummed that it had to happen via an in and out Viber phone conversation due to our out of the country status. Although, she's top of the heap as bffs go so she knew she couldn't wait. I asked a million questions she did not have answers to (I think I broke some bff rules by requiring this much information within the first week.) and we decided that she would dress shop during my next visit. Look, she found the dress!! She looks pretty fabulous in it if you ask me. There are a zillion more things for her to do but I am beyond thankful that I was able to hop in on the dress shopping milestone. 

The boyfriends sister got married on beautiful Jekyll Island. We enjoyed some killer BBQ and loved every minute of the sunset over the ocean. I won't lie to you, I cried my eyes out when she and her daddy danced. I'm a sucker for a bride and her dad.

My sweet sweet friend also married the love of her life in Columbus a few weeks later. The venue was almost as beautiful as she was! We enjoys some great food with some really great people. I cannot wait to be back with all of these girls as soon as possible. I often miss being with them day to day but I love being able to celebrate the big events. Until our next big event...
                                              

 



June 2015: The Rolling Stones!
These oldies are still goodies. I loved every minute of this concert in the Georgia Tech football stadium where they have not been since 1989. I'm a lucky girl to have been able to see them in what may be their final performance at Bobby Dodd stadium. The Atlanta sky line was simply icing on the cake.




June 14 2015: Sea Turtle Sighting!
I guide summer night "Turtle Walks" with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Last Sunday was my first walk of the season. To my surprise, we had 5 emerging loggerhead sea turtles that night and I was able to witness one mama lay her clutch (about 120 eggs) and return to the sea. She has previously nested on Jekyll Island and already laid 2 other nests this season. She was a slow lady though. We did not leave the beach until 1:00 a.m. It was well worth the wait and the 3 shooting stars were, again, icing on the cake.