D-Fam

D-Fam

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Week Twenty-Three: FLORIDA KEYS!!!!!

WHAT A WEEK!

June 26th (Monday): I had the cutest little girl ask to take a picture with me because it was her 4th birthday and she was wearing a Dumbo shirt, and liked my ringmaster costume. SO CUTE OMG. So I took a picture and felt famous :') Also we had FIVE people call out and had a pretty busy day (especially compared to the past few weeks) and had a 55-minute wait for a while at Dumb. I worked 4pm - 11:45pm.

June 27th (Tuesday): I worked from 3:45pm - 11:45pm and we were lucky enough to be down for weather from 3:50pm - 7pm. The storm was circling us, so it wouldn't leave the area! After we came back up though it started pouring, so we were super slow the rest of the night. Not mad about it. We also had Dumbo A go down for a while because it was landing in the wrong position, and had a child poop in the play tent, so an interesting day as well.

June 28th (Wednesday): Before work I went to Animal Kingdom with Michaelene and we saw Festival of the Lion King (duh), did Kilimanjaro Safari, rode Expedition Everest, rode Flight of Passage, rode Primeval Whirl, and ate at Satul'i Canteen for lunch! 


I worked 4:30pm - 1:45am and I actually had a surprisingly awesome night for EMH! Normally when you work until 1:45am you get pretty tired the last hour or so, but I had some really awesome guests at the end of the night. We had two different groups who kept re-riding, and they were just so NICE and thankful! I actually had one group take a picture with me and tell me I made their vacation end on such a high note, and that was really wonderful. I also told a little girl she could re-ride and on her way out on her second ride she turns around and looks at me and says "I love you!!" and I almost died it was so cute. 

June 29th (Thursday): So we were doing weather warning spiels because some grey clouds were rolling in, and I accidentally pushed the weather evacuation button instead, so everyone started to exit the queue. You better believe I got on that PA system REAL quick..."HI GUYS THAT WAS A MISTAKE, WE ARE NOT EVACUATING, I REPEAT, WE ARE NOT EVACUATING" hahaha it was so embarrassing. But my coordinator gave me an ER so I could get off at the same time as my two friends, Jenna and Cassie, who were my Florida Keys buddies!! I was scheduled 4:45pm - 10:45pm and ended up working 4:45pm - 9:15pm. We got Cassie's car all packed, then drove through the night (in 2.5 hour shifts) down to Key West. Of course we stopped for food on the way, but we got into Key West around 6:30am.

June 30th (Friday): We drove straight to White Street Pier in Key West to watch the 6:30am sunrise, then drove to get breakfast at this delicious crepe place (Key West Creperie I believe) afterwards, around 7:15am. Cass and I both got a crepe with nutella, banana, and strawberry, and Jenna got a chicken crepe! They got fresh orange juice and I got a chai, and it was all super tasty. 


After breakfast we went to the Key West Aquarium and got to see some sharks, turtles, stingrays, fish, and a giant snake!! We got to touch some stuff, and feed the fish. So that was fun! After the aquarium we also drove to the southermost point in the U.S. which is in Key West!


Then we drove about an hour north to Bahia Honda State Park and spent the afternoon at the beach. The beach was GORGEOUS and you can walk out super far because it stays fairly shallow (up to chest then down to waist then up to chest, etc. for quite some time).


After the beach we checked into our hotel, Captain Pip's, which was really nice and a great value. We got dinner right across the street at Sunset Grille, which was very hit or miss. Our waitress was really slow and inattentive, but our appetizers and dessert (key lime pie of course) was great!! Jenna's entree was pretty bad, and Cassie and I's entrees were pretty average. So a very up and down spot for us, but it had a great atmosphere and location!


After dinner we went back to the hotel to shower and watch the sunset, then fall asleep at 9pm to Easy A!


July 1st (Saturday): We checked out at 10am, then stopped by this AWESOME bagel place we stumbled across by accident for breakfast. Cassie and I both got plain bagels toasted with nutella cream cheese, and Jenna got a sandwich! The bagels were REALLY good. We would all definitely go back!! It was called Marathon Bagel I believe. Next to Walgreens where we reloaded on sunscreen. After breakfast we went to the Dolphin Research Center (continuing up the keys to Grassy Key) and that was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Would definitely recommend to anyone doing the keys. They had a bunch of different areas for different dolphins (so one for the adult males, one for adult females, and one for the teenagers/babies and moms) plus some sea lions. They have presentations/shows every 45 minutes or so and we watched a few of those. One was two adult dolphins and a trainer showing us different training techniques and physical attributes, so an educational talk with the dolphins as examples! Another one was a new training class with the young dolphins, so we got to watch them work with the little ones on teaching them to jump onto the scale to get weighed and stuff like that. I could have stayed there all day.




After the Dolphin Research Center we made a quick stop for shave ice by Robbie's, which is known for feeding giant tarpon (a type of fish). Finally our last stop in the keys, John Pennekamp for snorkeling!! We booked a tour thing for like $30/person where a boat takes you out to the coral reefs, and you get to snorkel for 1-1.5 hours. We saw angelfish, barracuda, a bunch of coral and little fishies, and some grouper! Other groups also saw stingrays, but we didn't. So that was a really nice excursion, BEAUTIFUL blue water!! 




And that was it!! We left straight from the park in Key Largo (northern part of the Keys) and drove the five hours home. We ended up getting home around 12:30am. SUCH AN AMAZING TRIP WOW. It cost about $140/person for hotel/gas/excursions for the weekend. Food and merch was an additional cost to that, but we feel pretty good about how we did it. I bought a long-sleeved shirt from Ron Jon and a Dakine fanny pack. Cassie bought a bunch of stuff, and Jenna got a shirt from the Dolphin Research Center! 

July 2nd (Sunday): I called in today because I was so dead tired and needed to get my laptop fixed (a FOUR hour trip ugh). I was supposed to work 9:15am - 9:15pm. Well I got to Apple at noon, when they opened, and there was already a 1.5 hour line for the genius bar (repairs). So I got my name down and walked around the mall to kill time. I went to Yankee Candle and got some wax melts for the apartment (no open flames allowed, but wax melts are fine!) and Sephora for new foundation. My laptop ended up having a somewhat dead trackpad, but Apple doesn't do repairs on laptops older than five year because they don't carry the parts (mine is a 2010), but the lady told me to just buy a mouse and disable my trackpad. So that's what I did, it worked like a charm and only cost me $13! SCORE. 

That's it for the week!! Overall an awesome week. Wish me luck this week on our 4th of July madness!





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