Red Hot Chili Peppers in the Big Truck

For all you avid viewers of B-ritt's blog who've been disappointed by the lack of updates in the last few weeks, I'd like to begin by offering my apologies, but even a beginning blogger sometimes needs a break from the rigorous demands of her fans, so off to sunny Florida I went! Trey's family has a timeshare down in Pompano Beach (note the incredible view...), so after finals were done, Trey, Luisa, and I packed the Big Truck (a real trooper, as you'll learn later on) rather haphazardly, spent the night in Memphis, and headed to warmer weather early Sunday morning.

After dropping Luisa off at home in West Palm Beach and almost having a gas crisis in the middle of a city, Trey and I made it to the condo at about 1 AM after Trey had driven some 16 hours-- but 16 hours goes faster with Catch Phrase and jelly beans. The next morning, even though it was really windy, the Duttons and I made it out to the beach, and I got to experience the making of a sand castle with a couple of intense shovels and sand castle makers. We found a some cool copopods (I have no idea if that's the right way to spell it) and made them a little room on the top of the castle, shaded from the sun and any hungry birds and then sat in hand-dug pits while we read and watched the tide take away the castle we had just built.

Tuesday it was so windy that the beach would have permanently imbedded sand in us, so we went to Parrot Jungle Island in Miami instead! It was so cool-- it's like a zoo mainly devoted to parrots, lions, tigers, and some reptiles. We got into a little trouble right at first when we tried to take our own pictures with the parrots, but what's the fun in an adventure if you don't try to bend the rules a little, right? And did you know that a Liger is an actual animal, weighing in at a whopping 900 lbs?! There's also some animal there that smells like hot buttered popcorn but it's name sounded like plkch shatabrt, so just know if you're in the jungle and smell popcorn, it's probably not Orville Redenbacher there to join you for a leisurely stroll...

We spent the last part of our time there feeding a whole line of parrots, one of whom (Sky) was really eager to get off his perch and sit on Trey and his dad. They would just hold out their arms to feed him, and he'd climb right on. Another bird waved one wing around like he had a secret to tell you, and my favorite seemed to have some kind of problem that made him look like he couldn't stop dancing.





A few more days lounging around the pool and reading books got us all ready for another adventure on Friday. Our original plan was to have me take a resort course in SCUBA diving and then go on 2 dives with Trey, Ashely, and Rick, but apparently the conditions would have been like combat diving, and even though the veterans were up for it, no one thought it'd be a good idea for my first dive. I ended up doing the course on Friday, and it was so fun!! The Duttons all went kayaking while I did the class, and by the time they got back for a photo shoot, I was hooked--even in murky water. At one point, the instructor (Connor, who has a pirate house), came back to us from grabbing some weights from a couple yards away and said, "There's a 6 foot bull shark hanging out right over their by the dock!" I was pretty much a 50/50 mixture of curiosity and terror until I looked up and saw Trey laughing. Don't worry mom-- no sharks...yet.
Then it was down to Key West to walk around, see the southernmost point in the US (only 90 miles from Cuba, but unfortunately the marker isn't quite the southernmost point but it was pretty dang close), refueling with yummy seafood lunch and ice cream right next to the beautiful ocean and lots of sailboats, and then it was time to head back.



Rick and Debbie left on Saturday afternoon because they had to get back to work, so on Easter Sunday the three "orphans" sadly had to become stowaways on a dive boat where they had to put their underwater skills to the test in order to survive! With only a wetsuit, regulator, fins, mask, and enough air to last at least 45 minutes, it was tough work to accomplish! On an entirely serious note, SCUBA diving is pretty much the coolest, most incredible thing I've ever done. It was awesome to be at the surface of the water, look down and see the water, coral, and sand below absolutely teeming with so much life. Fish are swimming everywhere, and the whole time I was down there, I felt like I was in a dream. The dive instructor kept motioning for us to take pictures in different places, and he would always tell Trey and I to hold hands for the pictures (he warned Trey before hand that if he started spinning me around that he wasn't getting fresh but probably just fixing something on my gear). We got to see so many fish-- a HUGE trumpet fish (between 2 and 3 feet long), a scrawled cowfish, trunkfish, lobsters (which were pointed at with a "mmm yummy" signal), grouper, parrotfish (maybe my favorite), butterfly fish, barracuda, and so many others I couldn't possibly name them all! And we were in the water with a shark!!! I think Ashley was the only one of us to see it, but Trey and I both saw the instructor giving the shark sign and pointing. A word or two about tan lines: wearing Keens and being outside as much as a SCUBA instructor makes your feet look like tigers-- my instructor, David, was evidence of this! After two long dives (45 minutes on the bottom that went by really fast), we got to warm up on the boat on the way back in, and then went back to Pompano to meet our friends at the condo. Before starting the next part of the blog, I would like to say to anyone who is reading this and hasn't gone SCUBA diving-- do it! It's so amazing to actually see an ecosystem working like that, and it's unlike anything I could ever imagine seeing on land.

And I can't take credit for all these pictures-- Trey and Ashley took them all!

When we got back to the condo, Laura, Peter, and Karen had been waiting for a little while for us to get back, running in the rain on the beach and getting completely soaked but apparently having a good time! Samantha came in a little while later, and since it was Easter, what else was there but an Easter egg hunt!! Trey and I hid them all over the apartment, filled with candy and other random items like cookie dough, cheese, and pretzels. After giving hints like "I hear wheat thins you out" for the one in the Wheat Thins box, all the eggs were discovered, and Easter was complete! On Monday, Laura, Samantha, Karen, and Peter went to Naples to see Laura's family, and Trey and I met them for dinner after we dropped Ashely off at the airport. And let me tell you, good company, alligators, and oldies music makes a 3 hour drive go by really fast!

The next few days were a great way to end Spring Break-- we lounged on the beach, took walks, read, and made dinner on the grill (mostly)! The first night of cooking out was great! We had super burgers, and Trey and Peter constructed a hut to block the wind from the grill, and the burgers tasted great, along with out mac and cheese. The second night, Karen and I ran out to grab some more things for cooking, but ended up taking too long, so the charcoal had died, so we had somewhat grilled, somewhat baked chicken for dinner that night. Lesson learned-- grilled chicken is deee-licious, so don't run out of heat too soon!

On the last day, Trey and I went up to have lunch at Luisa's mom's restaurant in West Palm Beach. It's called Mono's, and it's a Colombian restaurant. Trey told Luisa just to pick out her favorites, and we both had absolutely amazing lunches--empanadas, chicken with cream sauce, steak, rice, fried plantains (2 ways), beans, and arepas (like thick corn tortillas) with fresh cheese. By the end, we were absolutely stuffed!! Luisa and her mom showed us around the back where they make the arepas, and then we took a picture and headed back to Pompano for a few more hours at the beach!

Friday morning was another early, but we all hit the road headed for Memphis. We had a competition between the cars to see who could get the most number of license plates/states on the way home, and even though Karen, Laura, and Samantha beat our car with states, we had a whopping 72 with all those crazy Florida plates!! And we even saw an Alaska...amazing. We also played catch phrase for about 4 hours and contemplated life as the "billboard lady." Tuuupelo was a great source of entertainment for our valiant driver, Trey Dutton, sole driver of the big truck.

Memphis was also an adventure! After Karen, Samantha, and Luisa headed off to school on Saturday, Laura, Peter, Trey, and I went to Range USA with my parents to participate in the southern sport of shooting. Mom and Dad gave us some safety lessons, and then it was all about the targets...which are now hanging up at Prin! Needless to say, we had a really good time, and my parents were pleasantly surprised! Dinner was so good y'ull slap yo mama at the Commissary, where Austin branded our foreheads with Cars stickers and my new baby niece Chloe (who has my birthday!!) couldn't keep her eyes off Trey! Back at home we played with Austin, hiding Hopper on the fan, in vases, and finally ending with a brilliant game of "Bob the Weasel"--Hopper style. Austin was running around the room sneaking candy as Hopper whizzed past his head multiple times until he finally saw him due to a catching mishap on the adults' parts...come on guys, get it together and win with some dignity!


Even though our trip back to school to start the last quarter at Prin was mostly uneventful--except the stimulating Physics and Chemistry conversations flying between Peter and Laura in the back seat, we didn't make it home without one last big blowout of an adventure! 43.8 miles away from Trey's house, we heard a huge pop, and Trey pulled off to the side of the road (I think all our hearts were beating pretty fast at this point), only to find that Laura had eaten a few too many jellybeans! The tire was just flat, it was exploded! Luckily, the Duttons came to our rescue because it was pouring rain outside, and the spare was under all our our luggage. When I called my dad to tell him we weren't going to get to school right on time, he said, "The back left tire, right? Yeah, I heard it squeaking this morning in the garage, and I knew it was going to happen. I should have said something, but I didn't." Thanks, Dad... just kidding, but he did know. So, for all you car owners out there, a squeaky tire is what "Car Talk" would say has delaminated, a fancy car term for, "you're basically going to explode your tire in the next few hundred miles, so go slow or change your tires." So, after some more car Catch Phrase and an ice cream break at the Dutton's, we finally got back to Prin!

And now life consists of Natural Resources Conservation, Intermediate Photography, and Personal Journaling. Life is hard when you're a senior... Thanks to everybody for an amazing last Spring Break!