If you don’t like spelling errors, run on sentences, improper use of punctuation, then x this page out now. It’s late, I refuse to edit a journal entry, and I’m tired and going to bed. 🙂 If you can stand for a few cringe worthy uses of the comma. If you don’t mind the occasional and general misuse of the words their and there. Also, a smattering of run ons and fragmented sentences that sometimes stops before a thought is completed. Please turn your judgement off and continue reading. 🙂
Every time I’m thinking about posting in my blog, I get distracted, or something more pressing come ups that I need to give my attention to. sigh.
Mike’s in bed, I should have a few quiet moments to think. It’s been a cold long winter…as John Snow (Game of thrones) said “winter is coming” well it did, and thankfully, for us, it’s over! A late spring has sprung since it snowed through March and into April. Thankfully, by May it was over. We had a few hot days, yet this spring has been cool and not overly warm. We are now into June and still cool. It’s my favorite weather. 73 with a nice breeze are my favorite. Â We’ve actually had that weather a few times this week. Boy, am I happy about that!
We had a great past year…We skipped our regular Gay-cation/geowoodstock vacation that we typically do and instead, we took a our first cruise to Alaska! Mandy, Brittany, Mike and I went to Seattle, Washington and we visited all the sites to see in seattle. We saw the troll under the bridge, saw geocaching headquarters, we did the geocaching/geotour which was a nice tour of the area. We saw the gum wall and unsuccessfully found the geocache there, even though we tried really really hard! We also managed to do a nice multicache around pike’s market place and even stopped by the first starbuck’s location. Super fun! After that fun, our travel agent picked us up and dropped us off in Vancouver. She’s also a geocacher and we stopped for our first canada geocache! The cruise ship we took was the “Radiance of the Seas” which is a Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship. I loved that boat! It had an indoor pool area, and an outside pool area. The inside pool was adults only, which was nice since kids would just make it loud and echoey. Not like there was many children on the cruise. We had a good time! We saw glaciers, went on trams up mountainsides, we went kayaking, saw whales, saw people carving totem poles out of cedar, saw a really long zipline, an eagles nest, lots of bald eagles, did a geocaching exploration excursion, did a rainforest tour. We also went on an awesome train ride too, up and around the yukon White pass trail. We saw and did so many things! Our cruise ship even cruised up to a glacier and did a few turns around so everyone on the ship could see the glacier. It was a beautiful turquoise/blue color, and they said on a cloudy day like it was, it glows more blue. We saw seals at the glacier. We also saw the glacier breaking off and falling into the water. Very neat! White thunder, is the noise it makes when it cracks off and splashes into the icy waters. We also took in all the foods, sounds, bingo, karaoke, cake decorating contests, Watched movies outside in a hottub in alaska and the casino. It was so much fun exploring the ship and vacationing with Mandy and Brittany!
Mike then flew Mandy and Brittany out for Thanksgiving! Which was a nice surprise! It was so nice to see her and Brittany for the holiday! We see them at least once a year, but not everyone in the family has the chance. So, we figured, we would bring them to the people.
Christmas Day Mike and I, drove to Miami to meet George and Carol (Who flew) to meet up for a cruise! What a fun trip we had! We got to see Roatan (Honduras), Belize City, Belize, Costa Maya, Mexico, and Cozumel, Mexico! How very poor those countries are! It’s amazing how different those people live, and how unsafe as an american I feel there in those places! There is a reason we are on “private” Cruise ship only beaches. They are very protective of the guests on the cruise ships because awful things could happen to you. We did lots of fun things there too!  We did cave tubing, hiked to Mayan Ruins and were allowed to climb on them, we also went on a catamaran ride and went snorkeling and did a beach party! We also did snorkeling on the beach in honduras and it was really neat, lots of fish, lots of things to see in the water! Unlike the snorkeling excursion we booked, we didn’t just see people’s legs and constantly be kicked by people’s flippers. There was real things to see, which was great! The cruise ship we were on was the Norwegian Sun. Which was a little less up to date unlike the Royal Caribbean ship we were on with Mandy and Brittany! However, the food was great, the shows were wonderful! The dancing every night was super fun! It’s too bad the best part of the night got started by the time Mike was already tired. If only there was more time to rest on the cruise! I wasn’t concerned about sleeping because I was probably going to toss and turn all night. I’m not very good at sleeping on cruise ships. I get anxious every time the boat rocks a little. I’m trying to learn how to get used to it! I don’t get seasick, just nervous. All in all it was a fun time!
After those fun events, I decided to strike out on my own and take myself someplace that I’ve always said I would. I have been telling myself for 14 years I’d go visit my best friend Jessie…originally it was NY, then she moved to Nebraska. So, I made the trip to Nebraska! I booked it myself, I flew alone for the first time, and I navigated through the airports like i knew where I was going…(Not, I asked everyone I saw that worked there if I was going the right way, or what my next step was…I cheated a little) I was so nervous before my flight that I cried and sobbed all the way through my shower that morning and the whole car ride to the airport, poor Mike, he was probably so happy to finally get that crying banshee woman out of his car. lol. I had a lot going on in my head. It was my first flight alone, I was worried about traffic missing my flight, I was sad that I was leaving mike and I was upset because we lost a good friend a few days before and by leaving I would be missing his funeral. Kamal was a great man and too young! He was helping his wife on the farm and collapsed and had a heart attack right there in the field! He was only 44 years old, they couldn’t revive him, he was gone. I am really close with his wife and leaving her at that time was really hard for me, but he would have wanted me to make the trip to visit my friends and his wife would have been upset if I postponed my trip. So, off I went to the airport, tears streaming down my face. To arrive in Nebraska to a beautiful family! What a great family the Edwards are! Beautiful and intelligent kids! They listen great for 4 year olds, happily doing things themselves and being helpful with putting away the dishes and being great big brothers to their sister! Even the 1 1/2 yr old does a very good job listening and trying to do what she is told, even though her clumsy fingers and not so great balance gets the better of her on the way to the task at hand. It was fun! I got to do some helpful things like clean their car that had been well loved by some tired/worn out parents and 3 children. I wasn’t put to work or anything, I choose to do the things I did, emptying dishwashers, filling dishwashers, ect. I love being helpful! We went as a group on the weekend to the zoo! What a great big zoo they have there, all the animals were represented. Even a few I’ve never heard of! Their was biodomes of different regions of animals, desert, tropical rainforest…ect. Another day, we went to the large farmers market in downtown lincoln! What a great place! I bought beef jerky as a little inspiration to try new things. I bought some yummy hawaiian flavored jerky which had a slight sweet pineapple flavor to it.  We also went for a walk up the big hill and found a geocache! What a nice view from the top of the hill near their house! I also went to the dairy store at the college campus and got to take in some icecream and geocaching with Jessie!! We also got to experience a little Nebraska tornado weather, when we had some tornado warnings in the area, how exciting! I also got to learn about flights and what happens when you miss yours. They have a very interesting system which helps you get home. They managed to squeeze me into a flight to Colorado, and then flew me to Boston for Colorado. Which turned out for the better the Nebraska to Colorado was a full flight but only an hour long. Then the Colorado to Boston was an empty flight so i sat by myself, 3 seats to myself, and we nearly arrived earlier then scheduled. Where my original flight got in 3 hours delayed due to bad weather in boston. My rescheduled flight was perfect! Arrived only a half hour after my original flight had landed after being pushed out so late! It was awesome! Things happen for a reason! I flew southwest by myself which was okay. I’ve never taken them before, but it worked out great!
Since geowoodstock this year was in Maryland, not too far away, we decided to make the drive down and do the event! It felt a bit rushed, since we usually make it a week or two long vacation, but this time it was only a weekend, and we managed to fit in time seeing Sara Reilly and Marcelo in DC. I booked a hotel in West Virginia which was only a 10 minute drive from Boonsboro Maryland we needed to be in for the geowoodstock event. We didn’t follow directions and enter from the north, we entered from the south and scooted through town before the memorial day parades started. We didn’t get stuck in any geowoodstock traffic like we normally do! Woot! What a great trick! We got to do a few of those new lab caches that are trial caches that you get credit for, but they are only available for the event. We didn’t do too many because we were excited to get on the road to see Marcelo and Sara! Their home is so welcoming! They have a guest bedroom with an attached guest bathroom! Seriously pretty luxurious digs they got there! We went out to dinner at a nice restaurant along the National Harbor. They have a really cool statue at the national harbor which is a giant person buried in the sand, head, hand and feet all poking out of the sand! Super cool!! We also learned about UBER and got some free rides by signing up each other as new ride takers. 🙂 Thanks for the free ride uber! Marcelo drives as an uber driver during his downtime. He says he likes to get out of the house and make a few fast $$. Sunday of memorial day weekend is a terrible time to visit DC! All the roads were shut down for parades, bike rallies and other memorial events, so we didn’t go anywhere fast! We changed plans and went to the park near the airport. It was extra neat because when the planes are coming in or out of the airport they fly right over head. Pretty close at least. It’s super neat! We got some delicious burgers at a yummy burger joint. After the outing, we got in the car and headed back to home, trying to beat the traffic that would be rushing home on monday. We planned it great, our 8 hour ride was only 9 hours and we made it home by midnight! Tux was so relieved to see us, poor thing waits by the door waiting for us to come home when we leave the house.
Now that it’s super late and past my bedtime 2am…or maybe it’s early…Either way, now that you’ve been caught up, I should head to bed! It’s been fun exploring by air, land and sea. Until next time!
Did you just seriously read that whole thing? Congrats to you!!
