Instead of staying home for the holidays this year, an executive decision was made to go to Tampa to visit my Gramma for Christmas. Since I’m on the east coast and my family in the midwest, we flew separately to Florida. Due to (what I assume were) mechanical problems, my flight kept getting delayed until we finally boarded the plane 5 hours later. No worries, friends! While I was sitting at the bar awaiting the updates on my flight, I made some pals! That’s how 4 random strangers shared a few hours of friendship. Naturally, we took a selfie.

This was the best we could do with our given lack of sobriety and tiredness and airport lighting. Why didn’t I correct for any of this before posting it? I want you to feel the way we felt before boarding.

Naturally I did make it to Tampa (very late at night) and after some decent sleep, was ready to rock on day one! We grabbed a mimosa and the brothers and I sat on the beach and walked in the waves collecting seashells.

It was a day for relaxing. We did some running and exercising but mostly just adapted to the southern heat and humidity. We spent a lot of time the next day with family, cooking and preparing gifts. It was Christmas and I didn’t have time to take pictures to share!

Day 3 we got up early and packed some lunches and headed south to get on a boat and go fishing. I slept on the drive down because I am absolutely not a morning person.

We ran into a couple dolphins as we were searching for fish. They played around us for a bit. It was exciting to me!

We finally started dropping pools in various spots. I waited to take pictures of all the fish until the end of the trip. But we did accidentally catch some other critters!

We ended up catching 5 fish total that were within the size range acceptable to keep. I caught 2 of them! Which was surprising to all of us, since I haven’t been fishing in many years.

I was so proud of my little fish! Well only one was that little. They were both sheeps head fish and they were both delicious! We cooked up the fish for dinner and boy oh boy was it scrumptious!

A bit of a ways back, Wickett and I went an one last quick hike before it turned too cold out. We barely made it before the sun fell below the horizon.

So we headed out on our way as quickly as we could to try to make it to the overlook above the marsh.

As you can tell, it wasn’t super clear where the path was going except for the occasional bridge. Since the park closed at dusk, we didn’t see anyone else. Well except for a couple deer. I tried to get a picture but they ran away too quickly.

We reached the marsh! In case someone was questioning where they were, there was a very informative sign declaring “End of Trail”. Thank goodness!

The birds on the marsh were squawking pretty loudly! I thought that maybe they would calm down being that the sun had set and it was starting to get dark. Not true!

It started to get very dark so Wickett and I sprinted back down the path to the car. We kept hearing animals moving around us in the woods, but we couldn’t see them. It started to give me a fright that maybe we were entering a horror film! Alas, we survived!

Last week, I found myself with some down time between studying and work. So I called up a gal pal of mine to see if she wanted to get out of the apartment for an hour or so. It was getting decently late at night and I knew the event I wanted to go to was going to be closing relatively soon. But we decided to make a run of it anyways!

Now there are many zoos throughout the country that do their own versions of “zoo lights” and they tend to be similar, while each being unique. I have been to the Chicago Lincoln Park Zoo “Zoo Lights” several times before and always loved it. So I decided to see what the National Zoo here could offer.

You can walk in off the street or park and walk up from one of several parking spots. And immediately, you are met with several paths with overarching lights.

Holiday lights and colorful decorations always cheer me up. Especially after all the work going into finals and the end of the semester.
    
So we walked inside the main entrance building to check out what they had in store. And what do you know, they had a little bar set up!

So we grabbed a seasonal cocktail and walked into the main room. There were displays for children to look at and play with. We were more interested in checking out the gingerbread house competition. There were various categories for people to enter but the theme was a Small Mammal Christmas. The houses were pretty impressive!

We hopped back outside to meander under the lights and check out the displays.

There was a really fun looking tubing slide set up we had wanted to go down. But when we went to go buy tickets, they had already stopped selling them. But doesn’t it look fun?!

Unfortunately, there weren’t animal exhibits open this late. Many of the areas were roped off and the public denied access. This was a bummer to say the least. I guess I’ll have to come back another time!

Goodness have I been busy recently! Lots of schoolwork and job scheduling has prevented me from getting out too much so I thought I’d share a local path down the street from me that Wickett and I sometimes tread.

Autumn is such a beautiful time of the year. I think it might be my favorite season. Boots, hats, and cute jackets? Yes please! So I snapped some random trees as they change colors on our way to where the castle was.

Yes. I did say a castle!

Dr. J. Bay Jacobs had purchased this land from Bessie Baily Dawson in 1936. I’ll touch on Bessie in just a moment. But the good doctor wanted to set up shop in-between the main hospital in Georgetown and out in Virginia. Unfortunately, this estate was taken down and destroyed in 1994 (during my lifetime!) and not much remains.

There is a walking trail that leads through the area where the castle once stood and back behind a local park that Wickett and I play at on nice days.

And here at the park stands the home of Bessie! It’s currently undergoing reconstruction and is used as a room for park district activities. Last week I saw many kids dressed in Halloween costumes going in for a party there.

It’s so fun and interesting to find such seemingly random historic sites. It makes me feel like to be living in an area of such historical importance and where our nation truly began.

I’m hoping to get some posts up soon that are more than just me wandering through nature, as much as I love it!

I think I’m falling for this place!

I had been saying it for weeks but I finally found some time! I’ve been meaning to take Wickett with me and do some hiking in the area around me and the temperature and timing was perfect. There are several little nature preserves near my apartment and I have decided to check them all out. First up? Scott’s Run.

The coolest thing I have to mention is the history of the place. It was going to be commercialized and the local people didn’t want that to happen. So they banded together and raised the money to buy the land themselves! Ain’t no parking lots going here!

So we headed down what seemed a trail. It was basically going alongside a creek there. Until the creek was going over the path! We hopped across best we could.

I chose to head towards the waterfall there where the creek meets the Potomac River.

The views around the waterfall were so beautiful and calming. There was a “path” to get down to the bottom of the waterfall but that included scaling some boulders. Which Wickett found intimidating and I couldn’t hold him and climb.

From there on, we just meandered our way around going from one trail to another. I find that if there’s a fork in the path, take the way that looks like more work. It often leads you to some great views!