Alternative Spring Break: Conclusion

Our final work day was by far my favorite. We were dropped off in the middle of no where and had to follow a path through the forest. At the end of the path was a bay.

We walked a mile in knee deep water to reach the barge with the bags of fossilized oysters.

We were in charge of building the reef. We unloaded the fossilized oyster bags into small fishing boats and then pushed the boats to the coastline were we built the reef. It took about four hours but was a-m-azing.

Beautiful weather, perfect water temperature and we could see the result of our hard work.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because there was no way I was going to bring my camera and take the possibility of dropping it into the ocean. I stole this one from a friend. It is our group standing on top of the reef we built.

Do you see the yellow barge in the background? That was FULL of the fossilized oyster bags.

That evening we went to Okaloosa Island for dinner.

I love Alternative Spring Break.

Each trip is different and teaches me something new about myself and others. I can't imagine spending my spring break any other way. I would never want to waste a week of time "wasted."

Alternative Spring Break: Day 4 - Wednesday

Paint nearly everything in a park, tear down a bridge, and rake the beach.

Day 4 was rather easy.

Dinner = AJ's Seafood and Oyster Bar in Destin

Later that evening we sat around the campfire, ate s'mores and sang.

The smell of wood burning and the sound of beach waves made for a perfect evening.

Alternative Spring Break: Day 3 - Tuesday

See all those bags?

They are full of fossilized oysters.

Weighing in at around 40-50 lbs. each, they are not as easy as lifting a sack of potatoes.

Instead of explaining to you how we bagged the oysters, why don't you watch the video that the admissions department had me make?

It will give ya all the details.

Check it out.

(If it says 'an error occured' click in the bottom right hand corner to watch on youtube.)

The evening was spent at "The Track" (a family fun place)

We rode go-carts and mini-golfed...and complained about how sore our arms were.

Picture overload, right?

Alternative Spring Break: Day 2 - Monday

Day 2: First day of work.

Task: Take down a forest. Yes, you read that correctly. The land that we cleared was basically donated to Habitat for Humanity.

The ten lots would retail for about $40,000 each, but a sweet old man cut HFH a deal at $2,500 per lot.

Savings of uh...ehh you can do the math.

Bargain.

I wish I had a before and after picture. We seriously took down the forest. Homes will be going up soon.

The director for HFH was highly impressed with us Bearcats.

"What your team did in one DAY would have taken my normal volunteers one MONTH."

Wow. Must be that Midwest work-ethic.

After taking down the forest we headed back to the camp and laid out on the beach for a bit. Then we cleaned up and headed into Destin for some ice cream. Before heading into town our friend Elizabeth took some pictures of Nat, Roz, and me. I love them. Enjoy.

My absolute favorite. Doesn't this look like a professional took it? That girls got talent.

Alternative Spring Break: Day 1 - Sunday

Well...here we are sitting at the bar waiting for our margaritas!

Just kidding! This is ALTERNATIVE Spring Break, folks. We volunteer our spring break. We don't party, but we do play hard.

Sunday was our 'fun' day. We got to pick what we wanted to do for our activity.

The majority of us decided to go parasailing.

It was incredible.

High up in the air, overlooking the big beautiful blue ocean without a care in the world.

I went parasailing with Natalie. In the picture on the right you can see us being dunked into the water.

When I say dunked, I mean it.

I drank ocean water.

My mouth was open because there was a family of jellyfish swimming right where they dunked us. (I was screaming)

No stings. No worries.

After parasailing we had lunch overlooking the ocean. I indulged in some fabulous shrimp with a baked sweet potato. Yummy!

Following lunch we went snorkeling.

I hated it.

It freaked me out that I could breathe underwater. I let my mind play tricks on me.

That's me with my hands on my hips debating whether to get out or not.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the boardwalk, taking photos and of course laying out on the beach.

We headed back to Camp Timpochee pretty early that night. We arrived in Florida about 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Traveling in a charter bus always takes longer than one expects.

We needed our rest to ... ... ... you will find out tomorrow :)

Laughter.

They say a picture says a thousand words.

Laughter.

Happiness.

Delight.

Excitement.

Many more spring break photos to come...

Currently...#2

Currently...still thinking about how redneck the Maryville St. Patrick's Day Parade was.

It is the world's shortest St. Patty's Day Parade (86 ft) with six entries.

#Not winning.

Currently... still amazed at the amount of students who attend this parade.

Currently...you can see my bed because I am done packing.

Currently...stuffed from eating a delicious dessert my friend Ashley made for our grill out we had tonight.

Currently...kicking myself in the bootay because I forgot today is Friday which = no meat.

I had a brat. Whoops.

Currently...still in shock at the fact that I accidentally threw my phone away! Seven calls later, I figured out where it was. The bottom of the trash bag.

Currently...needing a break! Ohhh Wait!!! Alternative Spring Break starts starts in 4 hours. We are helping restore the Gulf Coast in the Pensacola, Florida area.

Bye bye blog readers! I'm heading to the sunshine state.

Catch ya in a week!