"Is this salt water?" "It's the OCEAN" - DUH!

My annual vacation that I take from Christmas to New Years this year was to Florida. I hate going back to the same places so I wasn't thrilled to be returning to Florida.  However, my parents had just bought a house in Florida in March 2010 so I figured it would be a cheap trip and I would be able to check out their house and visit the Keys and some national parks! So that is what I did! I spent Christmas with my aunt, uncle and cousins, visited my parents house, went to Key West, snorkled at Biscayne National Park, checked out the Everglades, got a tan in Ft. Myers beach, and gambled my money away in Tampa!!!

 

Highlights of Key West include:
*hanging with my cousin, Kim, during the whole adventure!!!
*drinking with Kim because last time we got to hang out, she was underage.
*meeting up with my friend, Steph, of whom I met at Yellowstone National Park.
*bringing home some fourloko (which has been banned in MA)
*made friends with a guy from Ohio!
*Kinko sandals! ENOUGH SAID!
*Eating an enormous cookie while I was drunk while we were driving to our next area destination!
*drank at the smallest bar in the Keys. It WAS pretty small. Actually, I drank at almost all the bars! haha. I started at like 11am.

 

Highlights of Biscayne National Park/Everglades:
*snorkled at Biscayne (one item on my bucket list)
*had a really hot looking tour guide at Biscayne! YUM YUM
*stupidly asked if we were in salt water before it even dawned on me that we were in the middle of the ocean and the ocean is salt water! What a dumb blonde moment that was!
*jumped around in a eurobobble (on my bucket list)
*took an airboat ride (on my bucket list)
*sat on an alligator (on my bucekt list)
*hiked a bit.
*ate escargot (GROSS)
*ate alligator (good but doesn't taste like chicken)
*went to Robert is Here....SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!! If you are in the area, you MUST stop there!!
*went to the coral castle! Very neat!

 Ft Myers/Cape Coral

*hung out with my cousin, John.

*went to Ft. Myers beach

*enjoyed some beach time

*did a dolphin cruise tour

*saw fireworks at Ft Myers beach

*enjoyed some beverages!

*became obsessed with Fireworks by Katy Perry!!!!!

*drank way too much orange juice!

A trip to see the National Christmas Tree - Dec 2010

I LOVE Christmas! I love it probably more than anyone should! I love Christmas music, gift giving, family time, the food, gift receiving, days off from work, decorations, Christmas trees, parties, etc! I love it! I found a cheap bus ride that cost less than $10.00 to go to Washington DC so I figured why not go and see the National Christmas Tree and see all the things I hadn't been able to see the last time I went!  My friend Amber came with me! 

The bus line we took was Megabus!!! It wasn't bad of a ride at all! I definitely preferred them over Greyhound!!!! They also offer free wifi but it didn't work most of the ride! Amber and I made friends with the people sitting behind us! They were cool shit!

We got to DC Friday evening and met Amber's friend, Bryan, and his girlfriend, Annie! We went out for dinner and then went to see the National Christmas Tree and all the State Christmas Trees! I can tell you Massachusett's tree was pretty boring!!! I LOVED it! Then we bid adieu to them. 

We went to our hotel at the Days Inn and then met up with my friend, Patrick in Adam's Morgan to party for the night!!! We went to Peyote's Cafe and did some karaoke...well, more like I did some karaoke! Some guy bought me a shot and chatted with me before he went MIA and a group of guys told me that they were shocked that I sang "You Oughta Know" good.  Adam's Morgan is not complete without a stop at one of those pizza places.  I went to Jumbo Pizza and got a slice! Amber didn't think I'd eat the whole thing but boy did I prove her wrong! haha. The slice of pizza is probably the size of a small-medium pizza!! It's really huge! On the way back to the subway, they were going down the escalators too fast for me (I really had to pee) so I stopped and talked to some stranger who's name was Butch! Poor Butch. Hahaha..my drunk ass was probably a little overbearing.  He did give me his number though.

Saturday we got up early and did a tour of Ford's Theater (where Abe Lincoln got shot), walked around and found Whoppi Goldberg (it was fake), visited the Washington Monument, waited and sat with Santa (yes, we really did),  checked out the Arlington Cemetery and saw the changing of the guard, and listened in on a talk at the Lincoln Memorial.  It was a busy day!!! We ate at Moby Dick's, which wasn't as good as I had remembered it!!! We then met up with Amber's friend who we were staying with for the night and we went out to a new area in DC!!!! We even met up with Butch!

Sunday was a crappy day! We had to get up early to get on the bus.  I had woken up early to use the bathroom SEVERAL TIMES!!! My stomach did NOT like me! Even on the way to the bus stop, I had to stop and use a bathroom! The whole way home, my stomach hurt and I had to go to the bathroom!! I either had the stomach bug that was going around or I had food poisoning (which could have been either of those)!! Also, Amber lost her ticket to get back onto the bus so she had to pay for another ticket!! So Sunday wasnt a great day! I was so happy when I got back home!!!!

A wedding and Mt Washington

So I'm still back tracking and I got ahead of myself when I posted about my birthday and my lovely Halloween costume!!! Lets go back to about mid September when I attended Kalene and Shane's wedding.  Kalene is a lifelong friend of my family.  Her father, Gabe, and my dad are best friends and my siblings and I grew up with Kalene and her twin brothers, Jake and Gabe.  The wedding was a ton of fun and it took place in Nashua, NH.  The day after the wedding, I had planned a hiking trip up Mount Washington with my friend Justin so he came up after dinner and joined the wedding....

So Saturday morning came way too soon!  I didn't get much sleep because my dad snores like a banshee!!!! Seriously, noises like that should NOT be coming out of a body part!  Anyways, Justin and I got up and made the trek to the White Mountains. 

For those of you who don't know, Mount Washington is the highest peak in Northeastern United States and is known for its dangerous and unpredictable weather! At 6,288 feet, Mount Washington holds the record for the longest wind gust of 231mph winds. Kind of scary when you hear stories about people dying or caught in dangerous weather conditions! You always have to be prepared for this hike because it could be nice and sunny one minute and then a blizzard the next. 

The hike takes on average about 4 hours to do which is what it ended up taking me (Justin is abnormally fit and could probably run up this mountain in under 2 hours!)  It probably would have been a great hike but I ran into a few issues.  Maybe a mile or so into the hike (definitely the first hour), I started getting blisters!  Something you don't want to be dealing with when you aren't even 1/3 of the way up this mountain! It was getting so bad that I was thinking of turning around when we ran into this group who had wolf skin to let me put over my blisters! This lady was a savior because without her, there was no way I'd get up that mountain! Then, when we only had a 1/3 of the hike left, my groin started to pull (which is a reoccuring injury from soccer)!!! But we did it!!! We made it to the top! I was in so much pain from my feet and groin that there was no way that I was going down the mountain, however, Justin wanted to hike back down.  I took the van down and napped in the car while he hiked down!

Next time, I plan to be prepared!!! I will make sure I stretch before the hike starts, don't double up on socks so I don't get blisters, bring wolf's skin in case I do get blisters, and get a decent night sleep!!!!