Volunteering in Central America

So its official.  My traveling counterpart, Kathleen, and myself have committed to volunteering for a month abroad in Central America.   Working full time with reef and mangrove restoration, teaching english to underprivileged children and rain forrest restoration. For the next 20 days we will be rushing to work for funding the trip.  I am selling a boat, offering web services and more.  Please read about my cause here …you can also make a donation if you feel my cause is something you would like to participate with.  All contributors will be receiving a special thank you from Central America! Hablas espanol?  Necisito practicar por favor!

So be sure to keep up with my blog!  We will be updating whenever possible.  Hasta luego, amigos!

Fish out of Water

elk mountain

I just finally got around to posting this (just 5 months late). So we all know I belong in the warm waters of Florida… Well, I decided to test out my survival skills during the coldest month in Pennsylvania. First up, snowboarding. 14 degrees!!! I’ve never been in weather colder than 40! Can I just comment how miserable snow is? I commend all you northerners for your ability to live in uninhabitable territories. My SNOT FROZE my scarf! Rock solid. Apparently my nose leaks like a faucet in cold weather.

Anyway, here is my 8 hour long learning experience down Elk Mountain cut into 6 delightful minutes of all my most memorable wipeouts. Maybe next season it will only take 4 hours to make it down the green slope without breaking my knees. Thanks Kat for your not so expert snowboarding advice. No but really, this girl has the patience of a God for watching me fall every minute for 8 hours.

Dolphins do the nasty too

One of those occasions where I wish I had my gopro video camera. I would have made some $$ on amateur dolphin gopro porn. I love where I live. Hop into a boat and drive 5 minutes into the gulf and pet wild dolphin.

Oh. I bought a slightly unreliable boat. More adventures to come.

Back to the Keys

Lost ALL my photos and videos on my computer. I know. I need to back that thang up. Well, now its backed up one computer crash too late. But 15 years of photos and videos. Mostly gone. SO I finally got some video and pics from yet another trip to my home away from home: The Florida Keys. My amazing friend from PA was promised a trip and so we finally picked a weekend in (December ?) and this is our trip in a nutshell.

Kathleen had such an amazing first time in Florida (here) that she decided to come back for round two! She flew into Tampa where we then raced our way down to Islamorada to feed Tarpon at Robbie’s. These Tarpon are HUGE and a bit alarming. I am glad to catch Kat’s initial reaction! We were the only ones there and had full reign of play time with the tarpon and pelicans.

We were supposed to go blue water fishing for marlin, but trip canceled due to inclement weather. So we went on a two hour search for the endangered key deer instead. We walked through dense woods to finally just find a mother and baby eating on the side of the road. NEVER HAND FEED KEY DEER. Because they are endangered, this is a highly protected species in the Keys. Hand feeding them make them approach human areas and will be hit by cars. They are adorable and at full size about the size of a labrador.

We then explored Bahia Honda State park, climbed trees for coconuts and successfully found some geocaches. Geocaching is the best scavenger hunt activity if you are somewhere new. Research it!

Once we finally reached Key West, we checked into our adorable loft at a clothing optional bed and breakfast called Olivia’s by Duval. That was the greatest mistake of the trip. We chose the clothing option, but the most cutest affordable B&B I’ve stayed on the island.

We rented a scooter across the street and the tour de key west began. We saw the Hemingway house, the historic lighthouse, Bahamian village, Duval Street, Sloppy Joes, Hogsbreath, Captain Tony’s, Mallory Square, the Southernmost point, chickens, hens, bums, drag queens, parrots, key lime pies, haunted graveyard, banyan trees, oy vey too much to talk about.

THEN we finished up our trip with a night paddle tour with Aquaholic Adventures and Jen took us out on an adrenaline rush adventure. Paddleboarding the open waters of Islamorada with just the light of her LED paddleboards. The boards created a 6ft glowing radius and you could see the bottom at 20 ft deep! It killed me seeing all the lobster at night with no nets to scoop them up… we also saw nurse sharks, tons of ballyhoo bait, shrimp and DOLPHINS! They were breaching just out of our light circumference and it really scared us at first! Such an amazing experience.

Here is the video… enjoy!

St. Petersburg Color Run 2012

So I was lucky enough to have a friend of a friend who graciously gave me her entry to the 2012 Color Run in St. Petersburg. The Color Run is known as the happiest 5 K in America, and it lived up to its reputation. I ran my best time in a 5k! It was a foggy morning but still a good time. The 5k Color Run filled the city with bright colors and great energy on one of our cloudiest days in St Pete of the year..can’t wait for next year!

Thank you to the kind friend who graciously passed on her gift of a ticket into the happiest run I’ve had the pleasure to attend.

Fourwheeling in Florida

So my friends were generous enough to plan a trip to backcountry Florida when they heard I have never experienced the other side of what Florida has to offer:  Woods, mud, fourwheeling, and hunting galore!  Sean and Mike have land in this private community with over 6,000 acres of just woods and mud.  You have to have own property to gain access  (hence why Cali and I had to act as stow-a-ways).  So we (as in we, I mean they) packed up the fourwheelers,  the jacked-up golf cart and guns and we headed out!

This was Sean’s first christening of the gas powered gas golf cart.  Lots of rain this week created lots of mud.  So there was a lot of pushing, pulling and winching the cart out of some holes. I rode on the back of one of the fourwheelers with Cali or Mike throughout the day. Finally built up the courage to learn to drive one.  No crashes or accidental shootings, so it was a really great day!   Definitely need to start spreading my hobbies out more to include more mudding activities. Enjoy the video. This video is rated R for language and public peeing.  My apologies.  But it comes with the true experience!

Just watching the video again made me realize that we highly resemble mario kart racing.  Cali is princess peach, sean is mario, mike is bowzer and I am a pink koopa shell.

mario kart racing

***UPDATE***

Sean has since retired the golf cart and has upgraded to a new fun toy.  Another trip soon to come!!