Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

of alligators and illness

(Hey! So, predictably, I'm a bit behind on blogging. But today is a "snow" day [more like a day when it was supposed to snow, and the city freaked out and canceled everything only to be totally embarrassed by a boring gray day], so I'm going to try to catch up. A little. First things first, I want to finish blogging about our amazing December roadtrip. This is post 3 out of 4: see the whole thing here)

After our super fabulous extended stay in New Orleans, we drove to the Everglades. And when I say "we," it's really important that you know that I actually mean Ross. I was finishing a paper, and so Ross drove for twelve hours while I typed away in the passenger seat. Obviously, Ross is amazing. Obviously, I'm really fortunate to have such a supportive partner. Now let's never speak of it again. It was a stressful day for both of us. 

After a sleepless (for me) night in Naples, and with my last paper of the term totally and completely done, we drove into the Everglades. One of the nice things about our roadtrip was that we were able to hit a bunch of different travel categories. Austin: Food. New Orleans: Culture. And the Everglades? Behold: nature.  


There were air plants (also known as bromeliads, natch) everywhere.



Just a bald eagle in its massive nest. No big deal.




Our second stop was alligator alley. We were hoping to see some gators in the Everglades, obviously, but we weren't really expecting to. Ahem.



Turns out, the gators in alligator alley are more than used to people. I like to think we maintaining a respectful distance, especially compared to some of the other visitor who were getting awfully close to these incredibly reptiles.


To be fair, it was hard to resist the urge to approach.



We spent the evening camping in the southern end of the park. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of pictures of this, since at this point I was feeling extremely and mysteriously sick. It took me several days to solve the mystery. Turns out, staying up all night staring into a computer screen and eating veggie straws is a really good way to get seriously dehydrated. Whoops. After a day or two, I figured out what was wrong, got some Gatorade, and suddenly felt worlds better. In the meantime, I couldn't shake this fantasy that Ross would have to suddenly pull over the car and I would accidentally puke on a gator. Luckily, this didn't happen.




In spite of my stupidity-based illness, we both loved the Everglades. It's a truly special place, and I, for one, am grateful to the efforts of those who are trying to conserve this incredible ecosystem.

Next up: Key West!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2012 in review

Long-time readers know that I am an incorrigibly inconsistent blogger. Sorry about that. However, there are a few things I try to do every year... I try to blog on my sister's birthday (sorry about missing this year, love!), I post New Year's resolutions, and I always, ALWAYS write a post in January reviewing the previous year (except for when I don't). Behold.

January began in the best possible way: celebrating with friends (and Cassidy!) in Portland.




(Congrats on your engagement, Jess!). Resolutions were also made, I was offered a research assistantship (complete with office!), and I began to hear back from PhD programs.

In February thank-yous were extended, mushrooms were harvested...


Valentine's day was celebrated with chicken/veggie pot pie...


and Leap Day was celebrated in an appropriately 30 Rock-ian fashion ("Real life is for March!). February was also my most successful blogging month, with four (count 'em!) whole posts. Sheesh.

March was nuts. In March I traveled to Orlando for a conference, to Buffalo to visit a PhD program there, and we got to see the cherry blossoms at their height:




While in Orlando I was able to meet up with some of our dear friends for a whirlwind day at Disney:



In April I posted a recipe for happiness (I highly recommend it), and we celebrated springtime in Laurel by cuddling with Creature:


April was stressful because we didn't know what was happening with school for me. I'd been wait-listed at GW, and there were some issues with finding a funding line for me. However, this was resolved in...

May, when I was able to officially announce that I'd been accepted into GW's program. Whew! This freed us up to do some fun things, like celebrate my newly acquired Master's degree with dinner at our favorite restaurant in Baltimore...


and build rock pylons and take a hike at Harper's Ferry:




June was busy, too, but in a fun, adventuresome kind of way. In June I started working at the Maryland Zoo, Charlotte sent me a sweet gift from my beloved England...


we went to Truckeroo and Moonrise Kingdom...


I was able to be involved with the DC Pride Parade...


and we had an amazing camping trip on the Eastern Shore...




June also brought us the derecho and a fridge full of other people's food (which we did not eat, to our great credit):


In July we celebrated the fourth of July with our second year on the Mall:


My birthday was an embarrassment of celebration in 2012, with an outdoor movie party with friends (O Brother Where Art Thou, natch)...


A picnic in the park with Ross...




and an amazing trip to Charleston and the Disney resort at Hilton Head with friends:






Even the elephants got presents on my birthday:


Later in July Ross went to visit his parents in Chicago, and then our dearly beloved, fabulous friend Heather came to stay! We walked and talked without break for two days. I think she might have been trying to kill us, but it was worth it:



While we were waiting for Heather's flight to arrive we visited the air and space museum, which was SO COOL.



In August we celebrated Ross' birthday with duck fat fries and ice cream cake...




...we found our dream apartment in DC and started to pack...


and we played mini golf at the National Building Museum with some of our favorite friends.


In late August I started school (again) as a full-fledged PhD student and teaching assistant.

In September we bid (a surprisingly bittersweet) farewell to Laurel and moved to DC!






Later in September I traveled to Boston for a conference where I got some unexpected good news.


In October we celebrated our third anniversary with another camping trip and a pumpkin patch adventure...



and we celebrated Halloween by dressing up as, naturally, a gentleman and a scholar...


and carving pumpkins with friends...

Photo from my darling friend, Kim's, fabulous blog.

In November I totally failed as a blogger, we had grasshopper tacos at Oyamel before going to the Kennedy center to see War Horse...



went camping again...




and had an epic solo Thanksgiving, if I do say so myself. Which I do. 



December was filled with all kinds of adventures, which I will blog about in the next few weeks. In the meantime, here's a taster: 








Happy New Year! Here's to an equally adventurous, exciting, busy, packed-to-the-gills-with-life 2013!

Psst: Previous Years in Review: 20092011. So maybe I don't ALWAYS do it. Hush.