I guess it's time...

I guess it's time for a new blog to share my amazing adventures ;). I haven't done much exciting stuff lately though, except work, organize and attend dinner parties, go out and dance, have drinks, attend a wedding of a good friend and had a lot of drinks, see movies, go to an amusement park, danced some more, walked the Airborne with my mom (10k) like I do every year, reunite with old friends, go to London and meet travel buddies from all over the world for a reunion :), finally see the Lion King musical there after wanting to see it for years and years! and do the Harry Potter studio tour, celebrate my 26th birthday many many times, go away for the weekend to Baarle with friends, celebrate Halloween in Moviepark Germany (just over the border), celebrate my grandma and moms birthday and many others, celebrate my last day at work (again) with lots of cookies and fly to Florida for my annual family visit! Like I said, not much exciting going on...

It was great going back to Florida and see my aunt and cousins again! A lot has changed and the kids got older, it's great seeing them grow up over the years but I also always feel like I missed so much. It's been a little over a year since I was last here, a couple months before I went on my big trip. I was greeted at the airport by my cousin Amy and my aunt holding flowers and a bag of veggie straws (chips). My other cousin Max and uncle were back at the house doing homework. And I felt like coming home again, like I do every year.

I've done a lot so far during my time here and was reunited with some great friends! A friend I've known since High school, Dennis and his brother were traveling through Florida and came to visit for a night. It was strange but great to see them here! I loved finally showing one of my friends where I've been hanging out for a couple months a year since 2007. We had so much fun and of course had to go to Walmart around midnight and sit in an electric shopping cart and ride bikes in the store :). We did a Boat tour in Fort Lauderdale on a Riverboat, one like the New Orleans boats as seen in The Princess and the Frog. We passed some amazing, huge houses and yachts! Ended our time together with dinner at Hooters...boys will always be boys.

I also helped out at my cousins school, helping organize, set up for their HUGE Halloween party, haunted house and everything included. Very hectic but fun night! Had lunch at Rosies in Wilton Manners, a gay town we 'discovered' a couple years ago, it's so much fun to have lunch there! And walk through a beautiful garden; Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Miami. And of course have a Halloween party of our own! My aunt hired a DJ to play in the front yard and it was amazing! One of her friends is a Zumba instructor, so of course having been doing Zumba for the last 5 years, I had to tell her and we started doing Zumba moves on the streets, me on bare feet (definitely noticed that the day after) and soon the entire neighborhood joined! A great way to celebrate Halloween, a friday, and life! And how else to end a festive weekend by going to a high school play of Anne Franks diary.... but it was my first time seeing the story (I know shame on me) so that was nice. After dancing on the street with the Zumba instructor, she invited me to join her class as a guest! I loved being able to do Zumba, it always gives me energy! Also joined a Zumba masterclass for charity with my cousin and her friend, so much fun!

I've also been helping out the woman I did my internship for in 2007, a couple of times, great seeing her again and work side by side remembering when I was first here for my internship. Not to forget that I discovered $6 movie Thursdays, how can I not go and see a new movie!! The seats might not be too comfortable but it's not too busy there so I usually have some of the surrounding seats available to stretch out on.

Not only did I see my friends from back home, I also met up with Momma JoJo from England whom I met in New Zealand, then again in Australia and during the reunion in London! She's traveling around and happened to be in Miami while I was here too, so drove up there and had a day together, visited the Holocaust memorial and the Aventura mall since it was raining. A week after, the kids had a day off and the weather was beautiful so we went to Jungle Island, which was about time too! Too bad it wasn't the great'zoo' I imagined it to be, but I did get to see my first LIGER!

After seeing the brothers Klom, their sister came to visit me for 8 days. I had been planning for it for at least a week since she was only here for a short time and likes to have some sort of a plan/schedule, and hoping the weather would be great for that weekend! And it was! I picked her up at Miami Airport and we spent that night in Miami. The next morning was beautiful and sunny so we had breakfast outside and drove up to the Florida Keys, I love the keys and it's been a few years since I was last there. It was great to share this with someone and we had great stops on the way! The world famous Tiki Bar, I still don't know what for, but we took a picture! And I fed Tarpons, HUGE HUGE fish, kind of scary and yucky when I found out I had to feed them dead fish! But it was fun and my aunt's been telling me about it for years! We also saw the Key deer, who only lives on the Florida Keys, it's basically a small version of a regular deer. Very cool to see them in the wild. And even though they're used to visitors, they still run away from sudden movements and noise but not from slow moving paparazzi. We finally arrived in Key West, the most southern Island and also America's most southern point. That night we took a ghost tour stroll and learned about Key Wests 'scary' history. Obviously we spent the night in Key West and left to go home the next morning but not without going to Zoo Miami, since it was such a sunny day, it would have been a waste to be inside. The zoo is beautiful and not expensive at all! The animals have so much space and so do you, you are even able to rent a bike with two seats next to each other or two in front and two in back to go through the zoo. It was great to see the animals with all this space and all being pretty active after seeing them all sleeping and being in little cages at Jungle Island. We spent a couple of hours walking around and drove home after to introduce Louella to my family.

After a day of rest and the weather being terrible, I still had made plans for Louella and me to do since she only had till saturday! We went shopping, went to West Palm Beach and Lake Worth where I showed her some huge houses and Worth Avenue, a very very very expensive shopping street! We also did a Everglades airboat tour, which is one of the must do things while visiting Florida and yet I had never done it in the last 7 years, so I guess it was time to finally do one! And I loved it! The surroundings were beautiful, we saw one gator Damien, so cool! And at the end I held a baby gator, another animal to add to my list of animals I held/petted. Of course no visit to Florida is completed for a girl who loves shopping without going to Sawgrass Mills Mall, a huge mall with hundreds stores of which a lot of outlets of expensive brands. 

And then Mother Nature was finally kind and gave us a beautiful afternoon we were able to spend while having lunch outside! We met up with one of my friends here to go to Renegades, a country bar where people linedance. Very strange to do, can you imagine going out and when someone asks you where you're going, you say linedancing. It would be fun to have something like that, but I guess in Holland it's not very popular under young folks. It was great seeing my friend again and doing a few linedance steps :). Oh yeah and not to forget the manicure/pedicure we did that afternoon.

On Louella's last full day, we went back to West Palm Beach for the Diva Duck Tour. A vessel that's both a boat and a bus! We passed some of the rich and famous houses including Celine Dions old house, which she gave to her mom. Maybe she got sick of a boat tour passing twice almost every day... We went to my cousins school for a dance show, it was amazing how these kids dance at such a high level at such a young age. After that we went disco Bowling till midnight.

Louella left today after getting breakfast in bed, made and brought by my cousin and her friend, packing the last bit of her stuff, and a quick stop at Hollywood Beach! I feel bad for her, she had terrible weather here! Not a lot of sun at all... so all the more reason to come back someday! It was great having her here and sharing all these touristy things, especially the ones I have never done myself either! And I loved driving around all week with my own music (I made CD's for our time together Cruisin' vol 1-5), it makes me feel so free and adventurous! 

Now that everyone is up to speed of my 'oh so boring life', it's time to finish this little bedtime story, make a cup of tea, lay back and watch tv before going to sleep!

Cheerio!