Happy Belated Independence Day

Let me begin with saying that a year ago my best friend Katie and I decided that it's silly for Independence Day to be called the 4th of July. So I've decided that it should always be referred to as Independence Day. I've also decided that Independence Day is Will Smith's favorite holiday (ba dum psh).

Anyway, with a 3 day weekend on my hands I knew that I had to find a fun adventure. Luckily, Ryan (my friend, ya'll, just friends) was thinking about heading to Niceville (near Destin, FL in the panhandle) to go home for the long weekend. I talked Ryan into letting me come along because I wanted to go fishing in the Gulf with his brother and dad and I basically just love his family and knew it'd be fun to hang out with them for the long weekend. Of course, it didn't take much convincing on my part because I make a 6 hour drive more fun so naturally Ryan would want me to tag along.

On Thursday afternoon we left Orlando at about 4:30. At about 4:35 I realized I had forgotten my sunglasses in my car that was parked in front of my house. Bum-mer. Two hours later, we arrived in Gainesville for a pit stop at Burrito Brothers (world's best burritos. No, seriously) and dessert at D'Lites (amazing delicious and healthy ice cream...and they have Gator sprinkles. Yum!). We were then back on the road for the final 4 hours. I would explain our hilarious car ride to you (my loyal readers...all 3 of you), but I'm pretty sure it's one of those experiences where you have to be there. Let's just say that in the 6 hour drive there was about 5 minutes of silence. The rest of the trip consisted of us singing aka wailing at the top of our lungs, impersonating people and then interviewing each other with our new personas, and me creating awesome dance moves and car aerobics. So. Funny.

We got to Niceville and pretty much just went to sleep because we were getting up bright and early on Friday morning to head out on the Gulf for some fishing. Mr. Walker, Jason, Ryan, and I headed out at about 5:00 a.m. I got to see the sun rise on the bay and it was GORGEOUS. We ended up catching 3 king mackerels. We would have had more, but the dolphins kept biting them off of our hooks. When I was trying to reel one in, I couldn't figure out why it was so incredibly hard (like I thought I was going to fall over the side of the boat into the water) until we finally got the fish up and it was just a head...a dolphin had been hanging on my line half the time eatting my fish. No wonder I couldn't reel in a 300 pound dolphin!!! Jason ended up reeling in a shark too...the stupid shark kept chasing off our fish too. Bummer. About an hour and a half into the boating adventure I started to get really really seasick. Yuck. The waves were really big so it was just tossing our boat around. After we finished fishing we headed into the bay and stopped at Crab Island which is this sand bar right in the middle of the bay where the water is about 2 feet deep. We got out and swam and it was so beautiful! We also saw a bunch of dolphin swimming around. It's amazing.

When we got back to shore, we headed over to the Walker grandparents house for breakfast. Delicious biscuits and gravy. We were back at Ryan's house by 10:30 and I had felt like I had already put in a full day! I found the energy to head out for a run along the bay and just take in the view. Finally I headed back to the Walker's house, showered and we all (The entire Walker family--Mr. & Mrs Walker, Ryan, Jason, Sean, and Allison and me) headed to Sandestin to go to Mitchell's Fish Market for lunch to celebrate Jason's 23rd birthday. I rode out with Allison and had fun catching up with her. Lunch was hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing and the food was soooooo good. They brought out a free dessert since it was Jason's birthday and I swear it was the largest dessert EVER. And the Walker boys did a mighty fine job demolishing it too! The rest of the day was just spent running a few errands around Destin before heading back to the Walker residence to just hang out for the rest of the evening, enjoying some delicious chicken wings for dinner, and amazing Oreo Cake made by Mrs. Walker for Jason's birthday.

The plans for Saturday were to go fishing again but Jason and Ryan pooped out so I woke up around 7:30 and headed out for another run along the bay. It was much cooler at 8:00 compared to my run at 11:30 the previous day!! After I got back, Mrs. Walker, Ryan, Jason and I loaded up the truck to head to the beach for a picnic. We ended up staying for 4 hours and the day was beautiful. Ryan and Jason taught me how to body surf and Jason taught me how to surf (kinda). I at least got up on the board for a split second. We also played a nerve-wracking game of cornhole. When we finally realized that we were all getting toasty and red, we packed up and headed out. We drove through a bunch of small beach towns, one of which being Seaside, FL where The Truman Show was filmed. It's such a cute town. We stopped in Panama City at Pier Park before we all decided we were tired and ready to go home.

When we got home, Mr. Walker grilled the fish that we had caught the previous day and let me just say it was seriously some of the absolute best fish I had ever tasted. YUM! And it was exciting to know we had caught it!!! We just relaxed the rest of the evening (with bright red skin!), I played some Bananagrams with Mrs. Walker and Allison (I may be really competitive when it comes to this game!!), and then laughed a bunch with the two of them as we watched TV.

Sunday morning I went for one last walk along the bay before we headed to church. We enjoyed a bit more time hanging out and laughing at the Walker house before starting our journey back to The City Beautiful. The 6 hour drive back was equally as hilarious as Ryan and I played the Alaphabet billboard game. Ryan won by what I would call a fluke find of the word "Zoo." We then continued to make up random games the rest of the ride home and sing really loud at the top of our lungs to some stellar music (thanks to my mad DJing skills). And of course, we made a pit stop in Gainesville at D'Lites for more ice cream. (One is opening in Orlando soon and I am SO excited!!).

We got back to Orlando with just enough time for me to unpack and head to bed. The weekend was so relaxing and I am so blessed to have a good friend who is willing to share his family with me when mine is so far away. And I'm so blessed that the Walkers are incredibly welcoming and amazing people. I feel like I've known them forever and it's fun to have brothers that I've never had. I talked a little bit with Mrs. Walker about why God brought me to Orlando (as I feel as though I'm still figuring that out some days) and she said something along the lines of "Well if you had never come to Orlando then you would have never met Ryan and then we would have never met you." and it just reminded me that maybe God just brought me to Orlando to meet amazing people who are constantly speaking into my life and teaching me what authentic faith and authentic relationships are. If that is the only reason I'm here, that is enough and I'm thankful.