On March 9th Adam, Maia and myself headed down for perhaps our last camping trip in the keys before the big move out to Austin. We stayed at Bahia Honda. Originally Adam and Maia were going alone, but I decided to come at the last minute and take a greyhound bus back on Sunday night (that story is for later..).

Miss Maia loves her some edamame as you can see ..




Miss Maia hunting for hermit crabs which were hiding in all of these little rock pools.

 

Pretty much all we did this entire weekend is sit on the beach, swim, and walk. It was a very relaxing trip. One of the coolest sites on the key is Flagler's old railroad bridge which you can walk out on to get a great view of the island. This railway was damaged in a hurricane in 1935 and they never repaired it. I can only imagine how beautiful it must have been back in the early 1900's to ride a train all the way to Key West.

I headed out Sunday afternoon on my bus ride back home to Fort Lauderdale and Maia and Adam stayed for 2 more days. Sunday night they got horribly rained on and the rain fly didn't hold. I hear Maia was a trooper though, but time for a new tent!

 Monday Adam took Maia down to Key West to walk around for a bit. They paid a visit to the statue of one of my favs who spent a good portion of his life down there. Ernest Hemingway.

Maia and E. Hemingway in Key West.

a little work trip

Adam and I have some big news to announce. We are officially moving to Texas! Austin to be exact. I am in San Antonio this week working with the guy whose project I will be taking over who is retiring next Friday.. oddly Adam's last day of work (for now..) with the USGS in Florida.

So I got in Monday night and so far have had a great experience. I have realized that I have been changed profoundly since living in South Florida from my previous experiences living in Alabama, Tennessee and Montana and that that change has not necessarily been the best. My experiences, of course, were not all bad. I met some great people, made some life-long friends and of course saw many a beautiful sunset. But I am ready to move on. The change in myself I refer to has more to do with my day-to-day attitude which I mainly contribute to experiences I have had on a day-to-day basis in Florida. For one thing, in general, the people are just not nearly as outwardly friendly. What I mean by this is people aren't going to wave if you pass them on an open stretch of road, they don't seem to go out of their way to be helpful, and their driving, in particular, is enough to give you a thick-skin and a bit of recklessness after 4 years. I, of course, don't refer to the wonderful people I work with (not everyone in the office), or the wonderful friends I have made outside of work, but to the public in general. Maybe it has to do with the transient nature of the community. People come and go. Or maybe I was just a bit spoiled growing up in the south, where friendliness is just inherent, and living in Montana where people appreciate each other as there are less people around than cows. But either way, living in south FL has made me a bit jaded. A bit harder.

I have experienced the mirror-image of this in TX so far. The people are friendly, considerate, and much more laid back. In the 2 days I have spent in San Antonio, there have been 4 instances of people stopping in a road or flashing their lights to let me out at an intersection. This just does not happen in south Florida, a place where I have been closer to being in more car accidents than anywhere else I have lived.

No one has berated me for being late to work so far. No one has cared how long I take for lunch, or when I leave. People in general at work have been much more interested and supportive of my working, rather than what time I come or leave the office. There is an atmosphere of help and respect, which I must admit I have been craving. People so far have also been very direct, which makes work life a bit easier.

On another note, I went into a random gas station tonight near the hotel where I am staying and they had a micro-brewed beer selection that I can not even get at a Total Wine store in south Florida. Sold.

We are moving to Austin in April and, honestly, I can't wait to see what it all has in store for us. I will miss our friends, the few we have made in our 4 years in Fort Lauderdale.. the ones who are left and haven't moved on themselves. We will come back and visit. It will always be a special place for me. But day-to-day, I can only imagine that our lives will be a little easier. I already feel better, just knowing there is something better in store for all 3 of us.

Nashvegas!!

Adam and I were supposed to head up to Nashville together (and meet Rock Brian and Denise) at the end of June for our friend Becky and Justin's wedding, but due to Adam's bum ankle he wasn't able to make it. So I went solo. My awesome friends Laura and Erik allowed us to stay at their hizzee while they were (sadly) out of town which was awesome cause their house is cozy and they gifted us this:

The artist is Ken Taylor who also does Avett Brothers posters from time to time and they are always pretty amazing. So when we heard Erik was going and this was going to be there we asked for one and he delivered. Pretty awesome friend!

We had one goal for our weekend in Nashville: to find some good soul food or BBQ. This BBQ place in downtown Nash is pretty famous so we went to check it out : Jack's. Quite possibly the blandest BBQ and sides I have ever had but perhaps I have been spoiled by Alabama and Texas bbq. I was so disappointed.




Rehearsal dinner was at Blackstone Brewery where Becky and Justin met. It was nice and of course with all of the Georgia girls there there were lots of laughs and good times.

Ok. Side note. There are Elvis statues (and impersonators) all over Nashville. 

After rehearsal dinner we went to Layla's Bluegrass Inn which is a dive bar/music joint so of course I loved it. Becky and Justin had taken us there when we visited for the Avett Brothers last Halloween so it was fun to get to go back. We ended up going Saturday night too after the wedding and were completely entertained, not by the band, but by the crazy man who was not an Elvis impersonator, but I think just was convinced that in another life he was Elvis. Half of the bar sat and laughed and just watched him gyrate all over the dance floor. It was like a car wreck, you wanted to look away and watch at the same time. Of course after a few drinks some of us made it onto the dance floor to just dance close to him. We were convinced that he was so fertile and hopped up on testosterone that he could impregnate women in the bar just by shaking his hips at them. Classy.

The wedding was west of Nashville at a place called Front Porch Farms and was absolutely perfect. By far, one of the most beautiful wedding venues I have ever seen.

Becky and Justin getting married under a huge oak tree.

Denise and Brian

Me and Denise

The ceremony was short and sweet because it was hot!! I will just post a link to some pics of the wedding. The two ladies taking the pictures were incredible as you can see here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.243271895684040.71561.125179487493282&type=1

Rock and Brian at the reception

Here is my date since Adam was absent... he's no Adam Foster but still pretty cute, although not a very good dancer...

The sunset and dancing were the best part.. 

oh.. well except for the Boones Farm "wine" at every table.. took me back to high school.

To finish off the weekend I got to see Kristy and Cade for a little while on Sunday before I headed out and was having so much fun with them at the airport that I missed my flight and had to stay one more night.. :(

Goooooooaaaaaallllllll!!!!!!!

Adam scored two sweet tickets to the US vs. Panama game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup last month in Tampa! And so we went. And of course when we have time we never take the fast route but prefer to take the long scenic route winding through little Florida towns so we can take it all in.












On the way up we stopped at a little authentic Mexican market/carniceria near lake okeechobee to grab some food. The dirtier the better so we found the biggest hole in the wall we could find. I don't even remember the name. Assuming it even had a name. The food was awesome (we ordered seconds) but by far the best part was the drama we walked in on when we entered the store.

First off this place I am pretty sure was owned and run by pakistanis. When we walked in there was some yelling in Spanish at the check out counter and we got to witness a very drunk and very unruly Mexican guy screaming at the guy behind the counter. I don't speak Spanish but obviously they did enough as the wife came out from the kitchen with her wooden spoon yelling and threatening the poor little guy. I think he just wanted another beer. The cops came (and let him go!!) and we were able to finally enjoy our food at last. South Florida entertainment at it's best. Ole!!

We made it to the only hostel in Tampa which was a lucky find. The owner had a healthy obsession with gram parsons and thus it is called gram's place. If you are ever in tampa and looking for a cool place to stay off the beaten path I recommend it: http://www.grams-inn-tampa.com
All of the rooms have musical themes and there are various neat lofts and spots in this small fenced in lot to just sit or look around. I heart old hippies that invite people into their homes.

















We made it to the games and had awesome seats like 3rd row centerfield.





Unfortunately the U.S. lost to Panama (what?!?!?!?-- thanks to some shitty refereeing) but we had a great time none the less. We were surrounded by panamanians who were pumped. Can't really blame them. The US still advanced but ended up losing to Mexico in the final. Wonder what our Mexican friend was getting into THAT night.

Sunday morning we had brunch with Joe and the fam (my friend and colleague from the usgs office in Tampa). We had Gouda cheese grits. Great end to the trip!

Rocky mountain high.

The day after rock and brian's wedding I flew straight to Denver to attend and present at the modflow and more conference in golden co. I lucked out and got a room at the last minute at the table mountain inn in downtown which is walking distance to everything. The weather was perfect. I have missed the mountains since I lived in Montana and it is always nice to get some fresh mountain air.



My talk was first thing on Monday morning. It went well although I went over (as always) and I got lots of great feedback. http://igwmc.mines.edu/conference/MODFLOWandMore2011_Program.pdf

The conference was great. The talks were informative. The discussions were interesting and I made some new friends. I also got to hang out with these crazy, fun, smart guys: chris (my previous mentor who brought me on to the survey who moved last year up to headquarters in Reston. Joe would say to this "he is all fancy now"), Joe (who I currently work with at the usgs and is one of the funniest people I have ever met) and frans schaars (a member of what we call the Dutch mafia-- a bunch of crazy funny smart dutch guys in our field). The week was full of crude jokes and lots of laughs. Maybe it was the high altitude. Here we are at the coors factory.


The last night of the conference a couple of people from the survey hosted a house party at the bed and breakfast they were staying at, pansy's parlor. John Doherty was there (another genius who has an incredible sense of humor. His stories and lectures are normally peppered with various colorful phrases and "bad words" as Maia would say). I also got to spend a lot of time with Eve who is our technical advisor for the southeast region). She likes to drink beer and shoot guns and is always entertaining, as well as extremely nice and helpful.


Here she is (along with Keith halford of the Nevada office) telling a funny story.

All in all a great week! But I was glad to get home.

Trip to Tejas

Last month we traveled to Texas for a few days for Rachel and Brian's wedding. For those who don't know Rachel ( or Rock ) is adam's sister and Brian is her new hubby although they have been together for years so it's not really new. Rachel just finished dental school and recently took a job back in Austin.

Maia Adam and I all flew out together. The trip was fun as Maia was well behaved.






Adam's best friend Christian and his fiancé Allison picked us up and we got a quick tour of the fire station where C works. Maia got to sit on the fire truck here with Allison and would have jumped down the pole if Christian had not been there to stop her.


Maia was quite the trooper all weekend for all the festivities and danced the night away at the rehearsal dinner with aunt Cheryl.






She was the hit of the party pretty much every night.

The hotel had an awesome pool where everyone hung out during the day. It was a blast getting to know all of brian's friends who I had not met before and were all really nice. And of course the lovely Georgia girls were there. I also got to meet some of Rachel and adams friends from Austin.






The bar trip to Bar 96 on Thursday night included Adam and I being forced to endure the taunts from the mavs fans there as the heat lost. Needless to say there aren't many heat fans in Austin.



Here are some pics from the wedding which was beautiful although it was hot as hell outside.



Here is me with my fake eyelashes and my hair did. PURTY as Laura would say.





All in all it was a fabulous weekend and we were a bit sad to leave but ready to get home.

I left the day after for a conference in Denver and Adam flew back with Maia to laudy. More on my conference later.

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