Last Week

(That’s not my hair)

 

Yesterday was an adventure. My family and I woke up at 5am in Maryland. Having packed the night before, and stayed up for the two basketball games, I, for one, was a little tired. After dressing quickly, we got into the rental car and started our 1.5 hour drive to the Reagan National Airport. Upon arriving, we quickly walked to the bag drop off area. The bags had to be less than 50 pounds, and we had four of them, besides carry-on. It’s amazing to me that we could fit all of our luggage for the next 9 months in 4 (6, if you count carry on suitcases!) Unfortunately, we had 2 bags that were 60 pounds and 2 that were around 35. The airport lady said that if we could get the 2 bags down to 53 pounds, we wouldn’t have to pay the $100 fee that is charged for bags over 50 pounds. It was worth avoiding the extra charge, so we quickly reshuffled the bags until it worked out.

Our flight was to leave at 8:30am, and it was 8:10. My family and I hurried to our terminal and gate, and then stopped and ordered breakfast. After a few minutes of standing around and waiting for our food, we realized that our plane had already boarded. So we all ran to get on (except for my dad, who was waiting for our food). My dad, in seeing that we needed to go, just got a cold chicken wrap instead of our ordered meal. I didn’t like it, so I ended up not eating breakfast. We ran into the plane as the last passengers to get on. Wow! That was close. We all breathed a sigh of relief as we were safely on board for our flight to Miami.

After arriving in Miami, we took a 3 hour Greyhound bus ride to Big Pine Key. Our grandfather, who we call Pots, picked us up. We then proceeded to a rental house where we will stay this week.

Today, my dad, grandfather, and Benjamin went to the marina to put Pots’s boat in the water. While we were there, a manatee swam up to the shallow part of the marina (where you put the boat in) and we could see it. A manatee! The gentle giant is also known as a sea cow. After it swam off, we saw the manager of the marina giving it freshwater. They have to drink freshwater to live, so this manatee was drinking out of a hose. Benjamin and I ran up to the manatee, and I reached down and touched it! The manatee was rough, but very gentle. Benjamin got a photograph of it.

That was the highlight of the day, since Kansas was beat by Kentucky in a game that was boring except for the last 3 minutes. Since this is probably the last time I will blog before we leave on Monday for Peru, I will tell you that I am somewhat anxious and excited – a combination of emotions. Have a great spring break!

Here is a video we made about one of our days in Washington DC.