Monday, March 10, 2008

Spring Break

This is the longest post ever, lol.
I have so many pictures lol. Sorry it's taken me so long. I 've been having troubles uploading and what not. I posted a lot of them as small pictures so click on them to make them bigger ;)
Well, where to start?
I had a blast! Everyone was really cool, and Florida was so beautiful! We ended up having to build a boardwalk and tear down the old one in order to make the path meet regulations for disabled persons. I don't know if mom and dad told you, but I stepped on a nail in the process. It hurt really bad, but I was tough and didn't even shed a tear. I'm more sad that I my shoe has hole in my shoe lol. Our project was really neat in that, we helped the refuge, but we were also helping the people who visit it.

We saw and did so much! Here's kind of a brief (I hope so anyways) description of each day:

Day 1 - Saturday
We actually left midnight on Friday. I stayed awake until 6am in order to keep the driver awake. Then slept through most of Kentucky and northern Tenn. Woke up around Nashville, which was neat because I wanted to see the "Batman" building. In Alabama we went for a hike at a wildlife refuge. It was really neat. They had the cutest beaver there:P
We arrived super late and unpacked. This is our house ;)

Day 2 - Sunday
We didn't have to start work until monday so went to St. George Island, which is a national state park. The temp was about 75 degrees. Beautiful. I swam in the ocean for the first time (that I can remember anyways).

What the houses looked like:


Day 3 - Monday
This was probably one of my favorite days (besides the nail in the foot). We started the day out with a full tour of the refuge. We saw so many alligators!! The tour felt like a safari. I have never seen this kind of ecosystem, it was so neat. After the tour and lunch, we started to tear down the old boardwalk. This is the day I got a nail in the foot. So I was in Tallahassee for the remainder of the day.

Gators

Hanging out after a crazy day (note my foot)


Day 4 - Tuesday
It rained most of the day, so we didn't have to work, which was good for me because I was supposed to take it easy on the foot. We ended up taking a very short hike on a path that GVSU students made in 2005. One of girls found me a walking stick:P The path was really pretty. Afterwards we went to an aquarium in Panacea. That was really cool.
Listening for the ocean.

Picking up Sea Urchins. The two people on each side of me are my lovely site leaders. Incredible people :)



Day 5 - Wednesday
Work. We did most of the construction this day as well as tear down another old bridge. After work we went to a local beach, and then came back to have a bonfire.


Day 6 - Thursday
We finished the construction of the boardwalk and got feed a really great southern lunch. It really hit the spot since we mostly lived off of PB and Js. This is day was probably my favorite because we finished our project and then went on a really awesome boat tour in Wakulla Springs. We got to see manatees as well as all kinds of other wildlife. Lots of cool birds and of course, more alligators. The water in the springs averages around 70 degrees year round. This is where I got to jump of the platform. I was hesitant at first because of my foot and I didn't have my swim suit on, but one of the other girls said that she had some extra clothes, soooo I jumped in with all my clothes. 20ft high!!! It was so cool. We also had one last bonfire that night. It was really great.


Gator just chillin'

The ugly-cute manatee

This is not me jumping, but it might give you an idea of what it was like...


Day 7 - Friday

It was storming pretty bad so we again didn't have to work. Plus, we had the boardwalk done. So we visited the refuge one last time. We ended our trip by getting a tour of the St. Mark's lighthouse. We got to go the top and we also got to go outside on the very top. It was pretty scary since it was so windy, but it was a really neat view of the marsh land. We left St. Marks at 2:30 pm.

View from the top of the lighthouse

Pelican


Day 8 - Saturday
We ran into a HUGE blizzard in Tenn. and Kentucky. I really wonder what the people of the area thought about it because I even thought it was a bad storm. We saw a lot of accidents, but we pushed through. At times, we were driving 25mph. Pretty insane, but we made back to Michigan around 1pm. We made pretty decent time considering the weather.

4 comments:

Stacy said...

I've had trouble posting too so it's not your computer.

Sounds like you had a good time. Looks like it too. Hope your foot is feeling better.

Kelly said...

sounds like sooo much fun. I saw some more of your pics on facebook too. The beach looks really nice. Hope your foot is doing better. I love all the pictures. Looks like a goodtime sis.

Kelly said...

One more thing that I forgot to post. Doesn't the house remind you of beatlejuice? THat's what I thought of when I saw it.

Laurie said...

haha... yeah it does sort of :P I was going to tell you to look at my facebook too. Glad you checked it out. I should be posting all of my pictures soon, but I'm having troubles uploading them there too :(
I have an extremely busy week, but I will call both of you soon :)