My (First) Time In Florida!

I had written a bunch of gloriously detailed travel logs about my trip and then the internet decided to be dumb and I lost almost 2 hours worth of writing.  So here's my best to recap what I have already written once.  

-I arrived in Florida early, early in the morning and immediately noticed the warm, wet, humid air.  It was very green and tropical.  It all kind of made me feel at home in an Oregon summer except even wetter and different kinds of trees.  The Sunshine State was actually really overcast and dull, but that's because a major storm was coming in.

-My phone woke me up from a nap telling to me seek shelter because there was a tornado warning.  Mak and I watched the news for awhile while she made tortillas and then we decided to heed all of the warnings and took shelter in the laundry room and watched Warm Bodies on the laptop.  It was pretty windy and rainy but I certainly didn't feel like I was in the middle of hurricane or tornado or anything, granted, I never left the house.

-Friday we watched over the movers at Alona's house (one of Makamae's friends) in St. Petersburg (St. Pete) while she ran to get the key to her new house on base.

-We made our way west and and hit up the beach.  I PUT MY FEET IN THE GULF OF MEXICO.  I loved it.  It was strange because everything about it was different from the beaches I'm used to in California and Oregon.  The sand was really white and the water was deliciously warm.  I'm told the waves aren't usually as big, but I'm wondering if the wind and waves were residual effects from the storm from the day before.  Next time I'm in Florida I will definitely be spending more time at the beach.  We hadn't really brought towels, swimsuits or other beachy stuff with us so we didn't stay long.

-On the way home we stumbled upon this great little hole-in-the-wall "Mexican Restaurant" called "El Huarache Veloz" in Pinellas Park.  I loved their version of "Autentic Mexican".

FROM https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z3HCc-hWDn4/UT9Yph9b8iI/AAAAAAAAAX4/1GcDVjbZHtE/w498-h373-no/El+Huarache+Veloz

FROM  http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/35/aa/84/colonial-corner-hoagie.jpg

-What I loved most about it was that it wasn't the kind of Mexican food I'm accustomed to.  It felt like it had a heavy Caribbean influence.  The rice and beans tasted Puerto Rican to me.  I got a Venezuelan style arepa (at least I think so) and Mak got a Cuban sandwich.  So yeah, nothing we got was really Mexican.  The Spanish spelling errors all over the menu was my first clue that this place was a little gem and it really was--I'm glad we stopped.

-Later in the day we hit up MacDill AFB.  I really enjoyed seeing the base and thought the houses were charming and reminded me of a Florida version of Daybreak almost.  I surprised myself with how excited I got each time we went on base whether it was to grocery shop, hit the gym or just drive around.  Here are some pictures of the houses that I didn't take but it gives you an idea of what the houses look like.

FROM  http://www.builderonline.com/Images/tmpE7E5.tmp_tcm10-604228.jpg

The ones above were def my favorite!

  FROM  http://www.macdillfamilyhousing.com/Images/Indp%20Park%20Clark%20photo.jpg

These ones are duplexes and surprisingly very spacious on the inside.  The garage is underneath.  I think the alleyway system is what most gave me the Daybreak vibe.

FROM  http://www.macdillfamilyhousing.com/Images/Freedom%20Cove.JPG

See!  Daybreak-y Charm.

-Saturday was our day to hit up Orlando and we woke up EARLY.  Like, 5:30 AM early.  But it was worth it.  The temple was awesome.  Sister Perez was coordinating the initiatories and she had the most beautiful French accent.  She married a Spaniard but didn't speak a lick of Spanish.  It was funny to watch her interact with all of the Latin sisters in her thick French accent and their thick Spanish accents.  I also had a nice little chat with an elderly German sister who was so sweet to me.  I had names from Argentina, Chile and the Bahamas.  Who knew the Orlando temple would be so culturally diverse?  We also went to the celestial room and it was just lovely.

-After that we hit up Epcot and I'm a dork and didn't take many pictures except for this one of us waiting in a line at Test Track.  I don't really remember the names of the rides but I really liked the ones we went on.  It was really big and overwhelming.  I commented to Mak that it kind of felt like an interactive museum to me.  Each ride is like an event, like an exhibit in the museum.  There weren't as many rides as I was expecting but there was way, way more to see than I was expecting.  Even though it was a Saturday in June I didn't feel like the lines were really bad or that it was really crowded.  Well, in the afternoon after rides we hit up the countries and I started to get a little loopy from the heat and humidity.  It was really cool to walk from one country into the next though.



-We decided to head home after we saw these big, dark rain clouds heading towards the park.  It had started sprinkling by the time we got towards the front of the park and by the time we made it to the car is was pouring.  During the entire drive back to Tampa it rained like something I have never ever seen in the Northwest (I did see something similar on New Year's Day in Lujan De Cuyo).  People had to slow down to 40 MPH on the freeway and put on their hazard lights because you couldn't see anything and there was so much water on the roads.  The picture below is actually from Sunday but you get the idea--when it rains in Florida, it pours!



I will write more tomorrow to tell you about Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Stay tuned.
Read about the rest of my trip HERE.