Let's rewind to December. I started to experience the first of my lasts. I was going to be done working at TGR Exotics on the 10th of December. It was time for me to be finished there. It was hard to leave all my animals and friends. I cried when I was saying goodbye to by kangaroo joeys and my Naytiri puppy. I knew I'd never get to do anything like that again in my life, and I couldn't help but think how much I had learned there. Not just about animals but about life in general and about who I am. I guess you could say that Texas helped piece together who Michelle is going to turn out to be. I couldn't help but think how much time and sweat I had put into that job and just how much I am going to miss it. It was rough leaving but I was excited for what was coming. My friend Amanda lived in Florida for two years and worked at the
Miami Seaquarium. She was going back for a visit and for the company Christmas party and invited me along. So she picked me up from TGR on the night of the 10th and we were leaving for Florida at o-dark-thirty the next morning. It was an 18 hour drive to Miami Florida from Houston Texas but Amanda had a surprise up her sleeve for me, WE WENT TO DISNEYWORLD and SEAWORLD! So we only ended up driving 14 hours, to Orlando, on the 11th. We were meeting her best friend Marty and her friend Jenna in Orlando. They were going to come with us to Disney and Sea World. On the way to Orlando we did make some gas stops and food stops my favorite was in Louisiana we stopped to try Boudin and Cracklins. I had never heard of either and I am always up for an adventure so I tried it. The Cracklins were gross, way to chewy, but the Boudin on the other hand we amazing! I loved them. I told Amanda that we were stopping here on our way home to get more Boudin!
At this point I'm going to change the format to bullet point and pictures!
December 12. Seaworld. Amanda had a friend she used to work with that now worked at Seaworld so we got into the park for free, bonus, and we got to do a dolphin encounter too! We saw all four of the shows and one we didn't even plan on seeing but was quite interesting. And we road some pretty great roller coasters, multiple times!
December 13. First day of DisneyWorld. We went to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. We also had a Christmas Party to go to that night at the Magic Kingdom. It was Mickey's Christmas Party. We had to buy tickets in advanced and got a cool wrist band because this was an after hours party, we were allowed to stay in the park after 7 and there was free hot chocolate and cookies along with character dance parties, a parade and a firework show. Not to mention all the rides were still working! Jenna and Marty came with us but when we went to the Christmas party they headed back to Miami because they had to work the next day.
December 14. Second, and last, day at Disneyworld. We went to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. It was sad leaving "the happy place" but we had other places to go and people to see. On our way to the bus that would take us to our hotel I was craving icecream so we stopped right before we left Epcot at the icecream shop and bought thee biggest icecream sandwich! The picture doesn't do it justice and it was soo good.
December 15. We left Orlando and drove to Miami. We met up with some of her friends, Jess and Victoria. I actually knew them, they had come to Texas to visit Amanda and she brought them to TGR. We went to lunch, where I had an Alligator Burger which was really good and went to a party with them that night. After the party we went to Santa's Enchanted Forest (which was pretty much a carnival with Christmas lights) to see her friend Jill who works with Sea Lions. They travel all over the United States doing shows and I got to meet them
December 16. Jess's Mom made us an authentic Colombian breakfast and we were off the a Miami Dolphin's football game. And I did buy a Miami Dolphins Tshirt
December 17. Visiting day. Amanda went and met up with a couple of her friends. I just tagged along, but it was fun hearing them talk and reminisce.
December 18. We went to Amanda's old work, Miami Seaquariam. That is also were Marty and Jenna work so we got to see them there. We were able to do a dolphin encounter there. This encounter is a little different than the one we did at Seaworld. Instead of just feeding them and touching them we got to get in the water with them! I swam with dolphins!!! Marty is a dolphin trainer there so she did our session, and did a great job. It was soo cool! I loved every minute and would do it again in a heartbeat. After the encounter we just stayed in the park until it closed. It was nice because Amanda worked there so she knew all about the animals, she could tell me their names and could answer any question I could think to ask. We also got to go behind the scenes and see a baby manatee. That night it was the Miami Seaquarium company Christmas party, which we went to it too. It was definitely a night to remember!
Above is a picture of a Banana Spider. I told Amanda to touch the web, and below is the video of that.
December 19. Amanda Marty and I went to Key West, the most southern point in the Continental US. It was a beautiful drive and Key West was cute. It was a sad day because we left that night to get a head start on heading home. I had a lot of fun on the trip and it was coming to an end. We got back to Miami and we said our goodbyes to Marty. It was rough I had become really good friends with her.
December 20. We made it back to Texas and in good time too. It was a long drive but I was glad I was stuck in the car with manda :)
After getting back from our road trip we were about to head out on another one to South Carolina. Amanda and her mom invited me to go to with them to South Carolina for Christmas. Amanda has an Aunt that lives in Charleston with her family and they go every year and spend the holidays with them. It was wonderful and very different from the "usual" Christmas. Yeah I missed my family and I was counting down the days until I saw them but I did enjoy Charleston and I did get to skype with them all Christmas morning. I couldn't wait to to be with my family again but I was enjoying where I was at, we watched countless movies, eat yummmmmy food, made delicious shakes and went to the South Carolina Aquarium And I can't forget that I got introduced to yoga which I quite enjoyed. We also went to the beach! We took along Amanda's dog and her aunt's dogs with us.
We were there through New Years and left two days into 2013. We got back to Texas and I had five days until I flew back to Utah. I couldn't believe that Amanda wasn't sick of me, if she was she hid it very well, because she let me stay with her those last couple days. We did some crazy things together, ate some yummy sushi, went shopping, went ice skating, saw Les Miserables, I went and watched her rollerskate and went to her derby practice, we watched The Biggest Loser premiere, made mickey mouse waffles and just tried to fit in as much fun as we could. Leaving was hard. I went and had dinner with a couple of friends before I left, saying goodbye to them was rough. I couldn't believe that the day had come for me to leave Texas. Amanda took me to the airport Monday morning, the hardest was to say goodbye to her. We had become really close. Heck how could we not after spending that much time together. Amanda was a life saver for me, kept me going on those rough days. She was my partner in crime, always willing to do something crazy with me. Relationships like ours only comes around every so often. She was so good to me. Gosh I miss her. (But I heard a rumor she'll be visiting Utah within the next year!) After a hug and some tears I was tundra bound. I was so excited to see my snow covered mountains!
My Mom was there waiting at the airport and I got a hug from her that was long overdue.
Sorry the post is so long! So if you made it this far you must really love me ;) But there you have it my last at TGR my first in Florida and South Carolina and my last in Texas.
