an adventure in your honor

Today was an interesting adventure, albeit under unfortunate circumstances. You may remember in October, I flew out to Salt Lake City to photograph a meet-and-greet with Jack's Mannequin. The woman in charge of that amazing experience is Terri, who has been friends with my mom since they were 15. Aunt Terri runs Cancer Wellness House, an amazing non-profit organization dedicated to helping cancer survivors and their families. Sadly, her mother passed away from cancer this weekend. Today, we went to the fruit stand to send a basket in honor of Suzanne and ended up at the IGFA Hall of Fame. Terri's son, Justin, was a fishing fanatic. He passed away when I was a sophomore in college. I know that sometimes she reads my blog and I just wanted to share with her (and with the rest of my readers) what we did today while we were thinking of her and her family.

We started off by going to Bob Roth Groves. It's become somewhat of a tradition to stop off there on our way to and from the cemetery where my grandmother, great-aunt, and step-father are buried. This fruit stand is known for its amazing key lime pies, but we also know them as huge supports of the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life. I could not think of a more appropriate place to send a gift basket from.

Afterward, we needed to run an errand at Outdoor World and we ended up at the IGFA Hall of Fame. I was going to get just one photo in honor of Justin, but then mom remembered that it was the first weekend of the month so our admission would be free. (Thank you Bank of America!) While none of us are into sport fishing, we still had a great time and got plenty of photos. The ecosystem boardwalk has always been and always will be one of my favorite things ever.



















Doug had never been to Outdoor World so we walked the whole store, including the Islamorada Fish Company. It was a wonderful end to the day.

night at the museum

Friday night, Doug and I were invited to sleep over at the Museum of Discovery and Science with the cub scouts. In the course of 12 hours, I took 400 photos. Even after cutting them down as best I could, this post is still going to be monumental.

We started the evening wandering around the floor, exploring the exhibits at our leisure. Doug and I started with the baby loggerhead sea turtle.
























Experiment time in the lab. I sat with Aunt Mar and one of the dads, which is why we managed to win the diaper absorption challenge with 600mL.









I stayed with the twins' group for the underwater tour and the activities.







We got turned loose again while the kids watched Night at the Museum 2, so of course Doug and I spent half an hour playing with bubbles.










We explored until 12:20.













When it was lights out, we slept among the fish tanks. It was amazing!





I didn't want to say goodbye when it was time to go.





The last thing I did was toss on my fisheye to get a few shots of the great gravity clock.