Update (finally!!!)

I obviously got out of the habit of blogging while I was in Key Largo!!! I’ve been back in St. Maarten for over a week and am finally back into the swing of real life! Key Largo was just one big vacation and I have no idea how it went so fast. The month seriously seemed to just disappear!

I had so much fun while my parents were visiting! They arrived at Island Dolphin Care around 2:00 Friday afternoon (March 12). Their timing could not have been better because at 3:00 the interns got to swim with the dolphins!!!! They got there in time to watch! It was perfect! I also got to give them a tour of Island Dolphin Care and they got to meet the staff! We had fun talking about how it had changed since the first time we saw it. (Mom and Dad took me to Key Largo after college graduation so I could visit Island Dolphin Care. Yes, I was obsessed with this place even back then!)

The dolphin swim was amazing!!! It was so much fun! Julia and I swam with Squirt and Lotus. Lotus is a baby…only 1 and a half years old! She is still learning some of the behaviors and it was so cute playing with her. They were amazing! They are sooooo fast too! We couldn’t believe how fast we went on some of our rides and foot pushes. Too cool! Mom and Dad got some awesome pictures of us!

After the swim, Mom and Dad followed us to the apartment. Julia and I were riding our bikes and they followed in the vehicle. Haha…funny! They saw the apartment and then walked around our apartment complex while Julia and I showered and changed. Then we went with them to check into their hotel, which was about a mile away from our apartment. After unloading their stuff into the room, we went to Sharky’s for dinner! They have all you can eat mahi-mahi on Friday nights. It was delicious!!!! Then we went back to their apartment and enjoyed talking and hanging out!

Saturday morning, they picked us up and we headed South. We started with the bird sanctuary. It was not what we expected, but was definitely neat to see. I think there were more pelicans there than all the other birds combined. The place has a pelican feeding in the afternoons, which is why the pelicans are so tame there and hang around all the time! Then we went to a Bass Pro store! Dad loves going to different Bass Pro stores, so was really excited to see a new one! You should have seen some of the fishing equipment in that store!!! There were huge things of fishing line for $300!!! And some of those fishing lures were insanely large! It was fun looking around. We walked out on a pier by the store afterwards and were totally amused by a bird trying to eat a fish that was too large for the bird to swallow. It kept trying and trying, but just couldn’t get it. Poor bird was still trying when we left!

Next stop was Robbie’s! You can buy a bucket of fish there to feed to the tarpon, which are huge fish! The fish are kept in a tiny fenced off area so that it’s easy for everyone to feed them. A pelican stuck its beak through the fence though and tried to steal the fish that Julia was dangling for the fish to eat. It scared her because she didn’t even know it was there. Too funny! (Poor girl though…she didn’t think it was very funny because she was there a couple years before and got bit by a pelican while she was feeding the fish!!! I think that place is dangerous for her!!)

We had fun looking around at a bunch of little gift shops in the area afterwards. Do you remember those ankle bracelets with the little colored beads that I always buy on vacation? You’re supposed to tie them around your ankle and then leave them on till they fall off. I have always loved those things and buy one whenever we see them on vacation. Well, turns out, so does Julia! We found some there with 3 little beads, a little dolphin bead, and then 3 more beads on the other side. Perfect! We love them and are both still wearing them!

We headed back North then and stopped at Boardwalk Pizza in Islamorada. We all shared a huge pizza…half mushroom and half pineapple. Delicious! They have the absolute best pizza ever!!!! Then we went to Dairy Queen for dessert…that made Julia and me very happy!!!!! We both love ice cream and totally miss it on the island. We definitely never buy it here because it’s way toooooo expensive! ($22.49 for a gallon and you only have chocolate or vanilla for flavor choices!) We each got a blizzard and they were so good!!!!

We spent the afternoon driving around and sightseeing. We also stopped at a scuba shop, where Julia and I both got amazing deals on scuba masks! Julia had been searching for one, so was really excited to find a good deal! I wasn’t even looking for one, but when I saw one that I loved on sale for $25, I couldn’t pass it up! The regular price was $98 and the guy working there even said his boss was crazy and he had no clue why he stuck these masks in the sale bin! Ha! Mine is bright green…cool!

That evening we went to dinner at the Conch House! We had heard it was really good…and it was! Yum! We all shared a piece of Key Lime Pie for dessert. We planned to get more than one piece if we liked it, but we were glad we didn’t! Mom loved it but Dad, Julia, and I were not fans at all! Kinda funny! After dinner, we went back to Mom and Dad’s hotel room and played Shanghai! It was great!

Sunday morning, Mom and Dad picked up Julia, Jenny, and me at the intern house and we headed to church! It was a really pretty church with tons of stained glass windows! After church, we went to Kohls in Florida City!!! Jenny needed a suit because she got an interview for a grad school and had to fly there that week for it! She found a great suit as soon as we walked in the door! Nice! Julia and I LOVED shopping in Kohls! We miss that store! I was good though…all I bought was a bunch of those re-usable grocery shopping bags. They were on clearance for 19 cents each and they’re really nice ones! I sent several home with Mom and Dad, but did bring 3 back to the island and have already used them. They’re great! We ate lunch at Wendy’s (YUMMY) and then went to a winery nearby. We bought a bottle of wine to sample that evening! It was good! The wines are made with local tropical fruits. Then we went to “Robert is Here” fruit stand. Mom, Dad, and I went there 7 years ago, so it was fun to stop there again! They have the best milkshakes ever!!!!! There are tons of flavors to choose from and they are huge! I got passionfruit. It was delicious!!! Then we headed back to Key Largo and stopped at Kmart and the grocery store. We wanted to stock up while they were driving so we wouldn’t have to ride our bikes with as much later! (We did make one trip the next week to the grocery store. I had milk, fruit, and yogurt in my backpack and it weighed 21 pounds!!!! That was not a fun 3 mile ride back to the apartment!) Mom and Dad took us back to the apartment and waited while we put away our groceries. Then Julia and I went back to their hotel again for Shanghai that evening. None of us were hungry because of the big lunch and huge milkshakes, so we decided not to go out to dinner that night. Instead, we totally enjoyed snacking all evening while playing cards!!! We even had deer sausage that they brought from home. It was good! Fun evening!!!!

I was very sad when they took us back to the apartment that night. It was such a fun weekend, but of course, it went way too fast!!!! I am so glad they came! I had such a great weekend!!! Julia really enjoyed hanging out with Mom and Dad too! She says they are so sweet!!! And Mom and Dad really liked Julia! I’m so glad they got to meet her!!!

The next week at Island Dolphin Care flew by too! We were pretty busy and had the cutest kids that week! It was a lot of fun! There was even a proposal at Island Dolphin Care that week!!!! The ring (in the ring box) was tied to a board and Fiji (a therapy dolphin) swam up and gave the board to the boy’s mother. She was so surprised!!!! It was an absolutely amazing moment and I was so excited to be a part of it. It was quite possibly the best proposal ever! Everyone was fighting back tears…it was so sweet!

Saturday we went scuba diving with 2 of the guys from work! One is a divemaster and the other owns a boat…perfect combination! We got to see the Christ of the Abyss, which is what I really wanted to see!!!! It’s an underwater statue of Christ! It was amazing! We enjoyed swimming around the statue and got some cool pictures of it too! On the boat ride back afterwards, we saw a dolphin!! That was really cool too! I spotted it first and yelled “I saw a fin!” Everyone probably thought I was crazy, but sure enough…as we watched, we saw the dolphin jumping out of the water. Beautiful!!!

The last week at IDC was not as busy. We got lucky because on Thursday morning, one of the therapists walked in and asked Julia and me, “Do you have your swimsuits on?” (We were supposed to wear a one piece swimsuit every day, under shorts and an Island Dolphin Care Intern Tshirt.) Since we did have on our suits, she said “DO you want to swim NOW?” We couldn’t believe what we were hearing! Turns out, they realized at the last minute that 2 of the dolphins were available and since the next day was our last day, they offered to let us swim again! We were soooo excited! We swim with Bella and Fiji that time! Bella had a scratch on her belly though, so she wasn’t doing a few of the activities. The trainer traded dolphins a couple of times with the trainer on the platform next to her. So then we had Elvis and Nika! So we got to swim with 4 of the dolphins that day! We hadn’t ever interacted with Elvis or Nika before since they aren’t therapy dolphins. (They are used for the public swim programs, not for the therapy sessions.) Nika is cute…she’s really tiny! The trainer described her as petite! We totally enjoyed our swim and were so grateful that they let us swim again! After the swim, we hurried home to shower and then returned to IDC for our afternoon therapy sessions!

Julia and I liked to eat lunch outside, by the dolphins. The dolphins always swam up to check us out and see who was sitting by their water! They would come and look and then would continue swimming around. Sometimes they would hang out and watch us. It was funny! Well, Nika had never really paid much attention to us before. However, Thursday and Friday during lunch, she stayed really close to the edge, watching us the whole time! (We swam with her Thursday morning.) We seriously think she knew that she had just met us and wanted to hang out more since she knew us. She was curious! It’s amazing to realize the things that dolphins know and understand! They are too cool!

Friday the 26th was our last day at IDC! It was so hard for us to believe that it was our last day!!! It was sad to say goodbye to everyone! That is truly an amazing place. There is currently a job opening and it was all I could do to not ask for an application! I would love working there! Kids with special needs and dolphins…I can’t think of a better job for me!

That evening, Julia, Jenny, and I rode our bikes to Mrs. Mac’s for dinner. The food was amazing! I had the best shrimp I’ve ever had!! And the sweet potato fries were awesome too! As if that wasn’t enough, we rode our bikes (in the dark!!!) to Mr. C’s after dinner! Mr. C’s is a little ice cream shop. All of their ice cream is handmade and they have tons of different flavors. The small is $4.00 and you get to pick 3 flavors. It was soooo good! Then we headed back to the apartment to pack!

Saturday morning (March 27th), Julia and I finished packing and cleaned up the apartment a little. At 12:00, the Keys Shuttle was scheduled to pick us up to take us back to the airport. The shuttle was super late, but at least it showed up and got us back to the airport safely! We had a pleasant surprise at the airport! They let us each check 2 bags for free! We had each planned to check one bag and then take our small rolly bags and our backpacks as carry ons. We decided to go ahead and check the small rolly bags too so we wouldn’t have as much to mess with! We flew to Puerto Rico and only had an hour layover there before flying to St. Maarten. The flights were fine and were actually right on time! Everything was going way too smoothly though, so something had to go wrong right? Of course! My small rolly bag never arrived!!! There was a similar looking bag that no one claimed, so we were afraid someone took my bag! The airport was less than helpful and just said they’d call me if someone brought it back! UGH! Obviously, that annoyed me more than a little! However, I was super excited to see Phillip!!!!! I can’t believe I was away from him for so long. I missed him a ton, but I am so thankful that he let me do this internship. Let me really isn’t even the right way to describe it…he encouraged me to do it! He said right from the beginning, of course you have to do it! He is such a wonderful person and I am so lucky to have him!!!!

I spent Sunday unpacking and starting to study. I also called the airline and they tracked my bag! Turns out, it just hadn’t arrived the night before! It arrived in St. Maarten that day! They said it was scheduled to be delivered to me and that someone should call about it! Someone did call around noon and said they would deliver it in about an hour. Phillip went diving that day!!! I could have signed up to go too, but was worried that may be a bad idea in case our flights didn’t get in on time or something. The group was actually doing an advanced scuba certification. Phillip already has higher than that, but likes to go hang out and just dive for fun whenever we do certifications. So he had a busy day with 4 dives!!! He was super excited about seeing manta rays! He had never seen them before!

Vicki and I went to church for Palm Sunday. (Phillip was still diving, so couldn’t come with us.) Church starts at 5pm, but you have to get there super early to get a seat. We pulled up at 4:30 and couldn’t believe what we saw!!!! People with huge drums leading a “parade” to the church. Ok, it was really just all the people going to church, following the guys with drums. It was pretty crazy though! We parked quickly and joined in the back of the parade. The church was already pretty full, so we sat in the seats behind the Priest. Oh well, at least we got seats!!!! They went ahead and started Mass as soon as everyone was in there. Good thing we always go early or we would have missed part of church!!! After church, we went to the airport. My bag was there! HOORAY!!!!

I spent the next few days studying and trying to get used to “normal” life again! It is so HOT in St. Maarten!!!! I wasn’t used to that again! (It was too cold in Florida when we first got there…too hot here…I just can’t be pleased can I???)

Vicki and I started swimming laps! I’ve been loving the pool time and the exercise! Of course, it makes a great study break too!!! Thursday night, I ate dinner at Deep Bleu with Julia, Willow, and Danielle! It was fun hanging out with the girls!!

One afternoon after swimming laps, I was walking back to the apartment and was thrilled to see our groundskeeper in a ladder in the palm tree in front of our window! He was trimming it and I was sooooo excited because it kept scraping against our windows and the sound was so annoying! Then it got even better…he offered to get coconuts for us! He got 2 coconuts and even used his machete to chop the tops off. He explained that you can drink the coconut water and eat the coconut. Vicki and I had fun pouring out the coconut water and then scraping coconut out! That night, we used the water and the coconut to make frozen drinks! We poured them into the coconuts, added a straw, and headed to the pool! The drinks were delicious and we had so much fun!!!!

Vicki, Phillip, and I went to church for Easter Sunday…same church, 5pm. We went even earlier than usual this time! Church actually didn’t fill up as fast as we thought it would though. Toward the end of Mass, a girl passed out! She fell forward and was slumped over the pew in front of her!!! A man, I assume her dad, halfway carried her out. She had come to a little and was able to walk some though. It caused quite the commotion. A med student was sitting right beside the girl and did follow her out. There were tons of med students in church that day and no one else followed her! So Phillip got up and followed them out also. The other med student was really glad he followed. She asked him right away if he was previously an EMT or paramedic or something and she was totally relieved when he said yes. I don’t think she had any idea what to do. Turns out, a nurse had followed the girl out too. She was fine…had too much sun that day, didn’t drink enough water, and then it was hot and crowded in church…just not a good combination. Anyway, the reason I’m telling that story, is because I’m really proud that Phillip didn’t even hesitate…he quickly said, I’m going out there. I was surprised that more of the students didn’t. But I’m proud of Phillip!!! After church, we went to McDonalds!!! McDonalds for Easter dinner! Ha! Well actually, Phillip and Vicki had McDonalds. I decided to get food and a slushie at Bubble Tea, which is next door to McDonald’s. I love Bubble Tea!!!! They thought I was crazy for passing up McDonald’s. But those are everywhere in the US! I have to take advantage of Bubble Tea while I’m here!! :-)

I took Vicki to a salon in Maho yesterday. I studied while I waited. I also looked at the price list…since my hair is long, it would cost $73 for a haircut!!! That’s insane! That’s the reason I now get my hair cut once every 4 months, when we’re home for break!!! ;-)

Vicki and I babysat for a little over an hour yesterday evening. (Vicki went along because I wanted her to see these apartments! Rainbow Beach Club is super nice!!! They have 3 pools and their own private beach!!!) 3 of the 4 kids were home with us. 2 of them were sleeping though and one watched a movie! Ha! I studied and Vicki read. We got paid in chocolate chip cookies and wow they were good!!! :-)

Mom and Dad are driving to Colorado to see Sara and Andy!!! It is such amazing timing because Sara and Andy recently received some fabulous news!!!!! They were chosen to be the foster to adopt home for 2 little kids…brother and sister! The kiddos are starting to spend more and more time with Sara and Andy (during the transition phase of moving into their home). This means that Mom and Dad will get to spend time with the kiddos too!!!! I am so incredibly happy for Sara and Andy! My eyes just filled with tears again…that sure happens a lot lately when I think about them. They have waited so long for this and I am just so happy for them!!!!!! I love hearing Sara talk about them and tell stories of their time together. It’s sooooo sweet!!! Mom, Dad, Sara, Andy, and Kiddos – I love you all and hope you have a wonderful time together! Sure wish I was there too!!!!!