EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Florida
Distance - 113 miles
Time - 3 hours
By the time I got up and showered on Saturday morning, Mariel, Ali, and PJ were all up and hanging out in the kitchen/living room, and Lou had come back to spend the day with everyone. Mariel was feeling enthusiastic about breakfast, so we all sat outside and had a delicious meal of arepas, scrambled eggs, fruit, asparagus, and a few other delicious things that I'm forgetting now that I'm trying to remember nearly two weeks later because I've been a very neglectful blogger recently. (I'm sorry!) Ali, PJ, and Lou went out to go shopping, Mariel settled in to write and watch the Cooking Channel, and I went over to Kerry's new apartment!
Kerry's been looking to move out and get her own place for a while, circumstances were finally ripe to do so, and now she's living in a very cute little one-bedroom just a few minutes from her office. Before moving furniture in, she wanted to do a through clean of her new home, so I offered to help so I could spend some more time with her (plus I actually enjoy cleaning when it's not my own mess). We had a great time talking and mentally arranging furniture that would be arriving the next day, and when we left the apartment was sparkling and entirely empty save the Christmas tree which we had set up and decorated - what's not to love?
Kerry had plans with some other friends so we both left and I went back to the big house. Ali and PJ had been debating staying another night but decided to drive back down so that they could spend Sunday at home getting ready for the work week. Mariel and I were considering going out to a movie but couldn't find one playing at that point in the evening that we really wanted to go see, so we happily watched Iron Chef battles and talked until we were both ready to go to bed. Have you seen the Winter Food Network vs Cooking Channel battle? It was amazing! They had to use frozen ingredients (a lobster frozen in a block of ice, frozen peas/peaches/cherries/onions/vodka/etc) plus they had to serve them on ice dishes custom carved on the spot by an ice carver! It was absolutely incredible. :)
On Sunday Mariel and I spent the morning cleaning up the house and making sure it was ready for the owner to come and set up for her next renters, then she drove to the airport and I drove over to Kerry's to say goodbye. In less than a day she had acquired two sofas, two tables, two chairs, and a mattress! Magic! I brought her all of the leftover food from the house to stock up her fridge with all kinds of odds and ends, and we started plotting how she could arrange her kitchen - it's funny how all kitchens seem to end up very similar, there's an expected logic to where you find things (spices in those little awkward narrow cabinet next to the stove, dishes and cups in the largest set of cabinets, not often used appliances tucked in bottom corner cabinets, etc).
I had to get going so we took some last photos and I hopped in the car and went to go see Aunt Sue in Palm Harbor! She lives in a retirement park, I remember visiting for Thanksgiving 10 years ago with Dad; it was interesting to see the parts of the drive that were and weren't familiar. We had a beautiful calm even making dinner and catching up on family and friends - it's always nice to stay with family!
Kerry's empty apartment with a Christmas tree :)
From Burkina to America! We look a lot cleaner here, but still just as smiley
Bamboo growing outside of her house
No comments:
Post a Comment