A Wandering WeyrCat...

Jason and I had a lovely time at Highland Park's Earth Day celebration at the Eugene Young Environmental Center. It was so nice to have a warm, spring day so we could there!

Shane and I made our annual visit to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens' Hatsume Fair for spring! We got there early this year, as in 20 minutes before it opened. Last year, we stood in line for an hour, just to have the "newcomer" line and the "been here an hour line" get merged. It was stressful, and getting there early made such a huge difference. We were able to go into the main entrance right as it opened, and there was really no line. We got our Japanese Mix Mochi balls right away, because last year they ran out! These delicious ice cream balls wrapped in rice gelatin and powdered with sweet rice flour, always a highlight for me.

My husband and I were invited to attend the FAU vs UTEP football game, which  would honor veterans that attend the university. Neither of  us are big football fans, and neither of us have attended an FAU game before, but we accepted.  We were shown to an MVP box next to the Presidential Suite,  with other FAU vets (student and professor). The food was complimentary and delicious. It's nice to have a tasty and filling vegetarian  option. The view was fantastic. The glass has a wall-sized sliding window, opened for perfect viewing. If games were like this all the time, I'd go more often.

Jessica, Morgan, and I had the opportunity to revisit the Riverwoods/Archbold trip we took as interns for the   Arthur R. Marshall   Foundation for the Everglades! We drove up, met the newest group of interns (such great people!) and got to join them on some of the learning experiences. It was great to see some of our favorite trips again!

I #hiked 5.5 miles on the #FloridaTrail in Jonathan Dickinson State Park.

We failed to save Husband from electrocution during #EscapeTheQuest's #StayOfExecution! I really think with another ten minutes we'd have had it! (We started a little late, bit couldn't have more time. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) The game: On DEATH ROW your time is up, the chair is HOT!! Will you be pardoned or will you not? A call from the governor is your only chance.  Or is it? You have one hour to find clues and solve puzzles. Not to spoil it too much, in this case, your party is split up and you have to put together clues without being able to see what the others see!

TLDR: Hatsume Fair was very fun, very hot, and I look forward to going back next year! The  Hatsume Fair  at Morikami Japanese Gardens is an annual spring festival held at their beautiful (and huge) garden and museum! Husband and I met up with several cool cats from FAU (mostly the math department) and took in the spring and the costumes. (More after the jump.)

Let me tell you a little about what I did last week! I hiked nearly 25 miles of Appalachian Trail in Georgia, with the   Certified Student Leadership   course I took (the "Wilderness Track"). We Drive to Georgia on May 2nd, and from May 3rd until May 7th, backpacked up and down the mountains. I really believe it's the hardest thing I have ever done. I'd gotten to know the other students just a little, but I believe I've made a few new good friends. I was so nervous that my knee or slowness would make me a liability, but as we went along we all adjusted to each other and learned how to support one another. We each had a day where we led the entire group, and on my day a girl twisted her ankle, exacerbating an an old injury. It was really hard to keep camp organized for such a long period of time. We hiked only 3 miles that day and after just an hour in camp people were napping and wandering off. I found it so much harder to organize them in camp than on the trai...

To celebrate #WorldWildlifeDay on March 02, 2015, (and because it's awesome) we visited Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park​! We explored the HUGE 1930's visitor center, and took a ferry ride down the river.

Weird big stuff in Florida. Click to make them even bigger. So, roadside attractions can make a roadtrip a little longer, but they definitely make the drive more memorable.

Hard work paying off, I had made time to visit the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens and take the last tour of "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great". The collection, owned by Elke Brockway, hasn't been shown in ten years. She said this about the small exhibit at this Historic West Palm Beach home - turned - museum: “We came up with the idea of Alexander, the Macedonian, because I have always kept Greek and Roman, Persian and Gandharan, and Chinese artifacts. I have always tried to keep these collections separate in my house. So I thought I could set up the three rooms according to the artifacts that I am going to bring,” she explains. Click to continue reading!

The Casa Malpais is a Pueblo People's site built around 1250 A.D. and was inhabited until about 1440 A.D. (1). The site was designated a National Historic Landmark Site on July 19, 1964. I had an opportunity to visit in 2014, on a very short trip to Arizona.

The Gulf Specimen Marine Lab is tucked in among really nice seaside residences. A small front building contains the gift shop and a small office, while the aquariums are pretty much all outdoor or in open air tents.  They have several touch tanks with various  shell-life and horseshoe crabs (mating, I  might add), but some tanks were strictly  "no touch".  The marine lab is a working lab  and human interference in the experiments  means trying to account for the errors you introduce or injury you cause (via the  chemicals on your hands) or starting the entire experiment over from scratch. It was a really cool place. They had a nurse shark pair and their calf. I think I had to take ten photos just to get one with one adult and the calf in the same shot. The parents swam in circles in the small-diameter of the tank (maybe ten feet). One stayed near the calf  nearly all the time, and following it when it swam off. Allie is a Loggerhead Sea ...

Shane and I went to this special evening admission at the local zoo to see the animals when they're most active! We've been to the zoo before, and it's a GREAT zoo, but it's really hot in Florida. If I could sleep through the hottest part of the day and ignore all the screaming children, I probably would too. We had a schedule to keep, so first went to see the Wings Over Water show. It was the same show they do during the day, but I always love it. ONE exception: Hunter the Eurasian Eagle Owl is back! He's been out for a while because of a foot fungus, but was back and ready for pictures. Is it weird that I know these things? I did get to see a Harris's Hawk, Austin, which was made extra cool because I'd just seen a little educational video on them the night before! During the WoW show the birds fly very close to you while the hosts tell you about the birds, their habitat, and how you can help preserve that habitat through little things. I always enjoy it....

While on vacation in Apalachicola my family visited the "ice machine museum", according to the sign outside. While that doesn't sound very thrilling, what's inside is way more interesting. Sign first: The Florida Heritage Landmark reads: Dr. John Gorrie (1803-1855) was an early pioneer in the invention of the artificial manufacture of ice, refrigeration, and air conditioning. He was granted the first U.S. patent for mechanical refrigeration on May 6, 1851 (U.S. Patent No. 8080). Dr. Gorrie moved to Apalachicola in 1833 after the completion of his education at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York in Fairfield, New York. Motivated by a severe yellow fever epidemic in the summer of 1841, Dr. Gorrie and his predecessors felt the fever was caused by heat, humidity and decaying vegetation. He sought to effect a cure by introducing and element of cold in the form of refrigeration. Dr. Gorrie noted, "Nature would terminate...