Mission Trip 2011 - Fun Stuff!

     Needless to say, if our college class goes ANYWHERE, we are going to enjoy ourselves. This trip was for a part of the country none of us had been before, south Florida and the Keys. So, starting out we had a laundry list of things we wanted to do.
     First off, going into the Everglades, we stopped for....an airboat ride in Gator Park! Which would have been super cool and fun, except that about thirty seconds after we get on the boat, it starts raining. Now normally, in Florida if it starts raining, it's going to stop in just a few minutes. That day, it rained, and rained, and rained, and RAINED! Rain kind of stings when you're going super fast in an airboat, FYI. But definitely a do-again if I go back, just going to make sure I check the weather that day!
     Also at Gator Park, our tickets included a wildlife show. Well, the show wasn't half as interesting as the show's guide. This poor fella had honestly the worst voice I"ve ever heard! We thought he was doing it as a joke, until he kept on going. YouTube 'Gator Park Show' and enjoy. Well, I enjoyed it until he pushed a 'harmless' scorpion named Esmarelda very close to my face....low point of my day there! At least it wasn't a snake....

Esmarelda....grrrrr

We look real pretty after that soggy, breezy airboat ride, don't we?

     Next, we stop at Everglades National Park. Or, more correctly, Death by Mosquito National Park. We went down four little walking trails/boardwalks, and three out of the four were at high speed, as we were running for our lives trying not to catch malaria. Mind you, we all sprayed down with Off before each, and eventually we started spraying the air too! I think those mosquitos actually like the stuff...

     Now that first trail was great! It was an open boardwalk over some marshy area and some open water/lake. We saw, very very up close, about 15 huge alligators, 2 turtles, a bunch of birds and fish, and one snake that we hope wasn't poisonous!

     Our plan was to drive the length of the Everglades, but after that fourth trail's mosquitos were approaching nuclear size and demonic possession, we decided it was not meant for us to take that route, and we skedaddled!

     Once we got to the Keys, we got the chance to go snorkeling. Our group's underwater pics aren't back yet, but it was a cool experience. It was my first time, and even though it wasn't my favorite thing (I'm not a water/swimming person, and the day we went it was really rough so we got a little sick) I still enjoyed it. I saw a bunch of rainbow fish, like the book! A few other fish, some big teal ones and a school of little black and blue ones (how 'bout them technical names?). We also swam/snorkeled in the canal behind one of the church members' houses, but only for about ten minutes since it had tons of jellyfish!

Canal Swimming

     We did venture down to actual Key West twice (we stayed on Big Pine Key), once really quickly just for a look around, and one entire day. We went to Southernmost Point (90 miles to Cuba!), Ernest Hemmingway's house, Key West lighthouse, and walked around Duval Street for a few hours. I'm very proud of myself with the lighthouse. I'm not good with heights at all. As in, if it's a choice between climbing on the counter or doing without something on the top shelf, I'm going to just suffer. But I climbed ALL the way up to the top, actually looked out, and climbed ALL the way back down. I think the coming down part was the worst! They had an iron spiral stair, and it was slick from rain, so I'm holding on with both hands super tight and going really slow! If I'd met anyone coming up, I think they'd have just had to duck under my arms lol.

    

I did look out the lighthouse!

Key West Lighthouse

Mile 0

Modeling my sexy $2 rain poncho...I swear to you they do not sell raincoats or umbrellas in Florida.

Hola Fidel! lol

     We also got to go to the Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key, and that was super cool. We got to actually get right on the platform over the water, and lean over and pet, high five, and shake fins with dolphins. Plus, watching them for as long as we wanted! Dolphins are awesome. They're very people-oriented, so the more we talked at them and clapped, the more they came up and showed off :)

     All this stuff is really cool, right? Well, none of this is my favorite part yet. It really shows how laid back and country I am that my favorite part of the trip, snorkeling in a coral reef, dolphins, alligators aside, was playing with the deer behind the church. Just about every evening between two and over a dozen little deer would walk up to the yard behind the church. And these deer, they weren't like deer here at home. If you sit back on your heels and hold out one hand, these deer walk right up to you and let you pet them! I could have stayed there all evening! Love those sweet things!

     And of course, the Keys are famous for one more thing....the sunsets!

     Of course, all our fun stuff wasn't exactly the location. We pretty much create our own fun anywhere we go. And with 20 hours of driving just to get there, we had a lot of conversations! Here's just a few of our more interesting topics:
     Guns
     Crackhead Midgets
     Legalizing Marijuana
     Extreme Couponing
     Laffy Taffy jokes
     Who ate all the Little Debbies?
     Sleepwalking
     Bathroom habits
     Swamp People
     Sassy Black Women
     Mosquitos taking over the Everglades
     Wheat Thins
     Tour guides with unfortunate voices
     Suspicious hotels
     Suspicious pedestrians
     Suspicious anything, really
     Love and marriage, in all its many forms
     When we get old we're gonna...
     Potential jobs we'll never have
     Fashion do's and don'ts
     Losing your salvation
     Personal views on sin and accountability
     Disciplining your children
     Drug addicts
     Casey Anthony
     Defective theology/Biblical history
     Key Lime Pie
     Public bathroom ratings
     Martin Luther and China....you had to be there