Florida - Thursday, June 20th
07-03-2002,

Florida - Thursday, June 20th...

July 03, 2002

Thursday morning, the plan was to get all the grocery shopping done and to settle into the condo. Tonya and I woke up early though, and decided to go for a early morning walk before the others got up. We tried to wake Jen up to see if she wanted to go with us, but the clock in their room was wrong, and she thought it was way earlier than it was, and thus that we were insane, giggle. That remains to be seen.

We got dressed and headed out pretty quickly. We still were not sure at this point where we were going, or where anything was, as I said before, the community is huge and set in a circle of sorts. We knew that there was an awesome mall somewhere in there, and we eventually wanted to find that, but we figured that for this morning, we would just walk and check things out. We walked in a few circles trying to find our way around, but we eventually got going on a nice little path. Along the way we came across a beautiful bridge overlooking the water, and I sent Tonya up there for some pictures, and then she took a few of me. It was cute and fun.

As we were walking along, we came across, hehe, the Mall!!! It was like a sixth sense and somehow we just ended up there. We were so excited and so anxious to get in there and check it out but we decided to wait for Jen and Cory. So we just looked longingly at it and was on our way. This is a mostly outdoors mall (well the stores are obviously inside, but you walk along outside to the stores, hehe), but it is all covered walkways and beautiful scenery with waterfalls and all sorts of neat stuff, and we really wanted to check it out, so it was really hard to restrain ourselves, but we did it. We headed back to the condo, and Jen was up by then.. and Cory was almost up, so we prodded her along, and all took our showers, and got ready to go grocery shopping.

First we had to stop and get our IDs from the foundation office, which was kinda exciting, and then it was off to the store. Grocery shopping was actually pretty painless, with the four of us working at it. We had a prepared list, so that made it so much easier. We just went along getting everything on the list, and checking off the stuff as we got it. Even Jen, who hates shopping so much, seemed to have a good time with it. Well as much of a good time as you can have with grocery shopping, but the point was that we were all together, and that really was nice. This was really our first day in Florida (and our first day of non-travelling) and it was just a wonderful day all together. We got back to the condo with all our goodies, and it was pretty warm, so I think I heard everyone of us say at least once, glad the condo is on the first floor, lol. We really had a lot of food, much more than we needed, lol. Jen started emptying bags, while the rest of us carried them in, and then when they all were in, we made short work of putting everything away. We were all in good moods, and we really worked together, and it just fell into place so nicely. We were all so nice to each other too.. LOL, I really do giggle thinking about the mood of that morning. It was almost like a tv sitcom.. how cute.

After everything was away, we were anxious to get to the beach, so we all got our suits on right away. We decided to have lunch before we went, so we whipped up some yummy sandwhiches and had a very nice lunch. We all got in the van and drove over to one of the tram stations.

Okay, I don't think that the tram was at all what any of us expected to be. We saw this long golf cart type thing with an old guy driving in and Tonya jokingly said, there's our tram. LOL, and it was. It was the cutest thing, and riding the trams was one of my favorite things. The guys driving them were so sweet and often stopped to show us stuff, and were just really funny and sweet. It didn't take long to get to the beach and we were so excited. We were snapping away, tons of pictures, and I wish I could share them all here, but there is only so much room, lol. We were all excited to have the cabana boy set up our chairs and umbrella, the whole experience was just so beachy, giggle.

We started off right away looking for pretty shells and stuff, and Jen got in the shade pretty quickly, hehe (for what good it did her, she still burned in the shade that day). The water was so calm, I guess it's not very wavy there on the gulf, and it was just really nice. It didn't take long for Cory, Tonya and I to make our way in. Even though we were careful to apply sunscreen often, the sun there is just so strong and we all burned. I am still laughing about Jen's burn.. she was barely in the sun.

One really cute story. Jen had done Cory's hair that morning (and mine later, hehe), and Cory just looked so cute. We kept saying that she looked like the coppertone baby. Then when I saw this picture I just about bust out laughing, since it just totally drove the point home. She really totally loves the beach and everything about it, and it so shows. She is just like a little kid in a candy store when she gets there.

We spent the day going from the beach to the water, playing, looking for shells, whatever. We would spend time laying down, reading our book, walking along the beach, playing together. It was neat how we went from being together, to doing our own thing, to being together again, and it all just sorta fell into place. It was such a fun, wonderful day, and we really enjoyed every minute of it. At one point, Jen even joined us in the water, which was awesome. We didn't even have to beg her to do it. I was sure to get tons of pictures of that, as it doesn't happen very often. She doesn't like the water much at all, and we told her that we wouldn't beg her to get in, and I was good at keeping my word, even though I wanted her to join us so bad, so when she did, I was happy. She of course was the first one in the shower when we got back to the condo.. she hates going in the water that bad, lol.

Eventually, a storm started rolling in, and we watched it get closer and closer, and eventually we knew that we couldn't avoid it, so we figured the best thing to do would be to pack up and make our way to the condo. We took the tram back, and the tram guy stopped to show us alligators and stuff, which was neat. We made it to the car just in time for the rain to really start, and then we drove back to the condo. Cory decided to swim in the rain for a while, and Tonya and I took our showers. By that time, the rain stopped, and the sun came back out, and Tonya made us some pina coladas to enjoy out by the pool. We really made the most of every minute on this trip.

Eventually, we all ended up in the living room, laying around and reading, or whatever, and Cory decided to start her dinner. We were each taking a dinner night, and Cory had the first one. While she was cooking, Tonya was painting my nails and toenails for me, and I literally fell asleep in the middle of her painting them. Something about the sun and water, it just takes it out of you. Tonya went to lay down a bit too, and Jen was reading while Cory made us an awesome dinner. She really did a great job, she made a mexican feast and it was so good. The only bummer, which you can read about in her journal, is that she got her period, as we were sitting down to eat, although we didn't exactly know what was wrong with her at first. Our hearts really broke for her, especially because she felt like she shouldn't feel that way, but we all understood so much. I am so proud of the way she picked herself up though, and really enjoyed the rest of the night. We even had Tonny make us more drinks, and Cory didn't order up virgin ones this time. I know how heartbreaking it was to her, and my heart is still with her on it.

After dinner, we all helped in the clean up as we did with the whole trip, and it really went fast. We work so well together when we want to, lol. Tonya and I really wanted to walk back and check out the mall, but it really was raining, and so we couldn't. We spent alot of time looking out the window wishing the rain would stop. We also played some cards and just enjoyed each other's company. It was a great first day, and we were so looking forward to the rest of the trip. I have to say though, there was a certain saddness that came with every night, the knowledge that one day was over, and that the trip was going much too quickly.