Mini springtime road trip!

Last week I had the pleasure of having one of my SETAC friends from Europe come to Florida for a visit! Dragan and I met at the Long Beach meeting and he graciously hosted myself and 2 other grad students at his place in Krakow during the YES meeting. I was so glad that he was able to stop by during his latest working trip in the states :)

We got to enjoy a day off in the sunshine by taking a trip with some lab mates to the freshwater springs for tubing and snorkeling. After he gave a seminar for our group his friend Jelena (currently doing an internship in Philly) also joined us and we began on a short road trip through the gulf coast. We spent time at St. George's Island, Port St Joe, the emerald coast, and ended our journey in New Orleans. I continue to love the gulf beaches more than any of the others in Florida and also had an amazing time seeing New Orleans for the first time!

Most importantly, I enjoyed the company of two incredibly fun people and we spent waaaay too much time laughing and sharing stories on the road and on the beach :) I continue to be incredibly thankful for the chance encounters and friendships gained from conferences and SETAC-related interactions. They have been a very enriching part of my time in grad school and I am thankful for the company on this crazy journey towards getting a PhD!

I will post photos on picasa sometime later this weekend but here's a small sampling of our adventures:

Tubing on the Suwanee with the CNEL and CEHT labs

Gainesville-ing with Dragan and Jelena

Our first beach stop (with DOLPHINS!)

First amazing gulf sunset at Port St Joe :)

 The aptly-named Emerald Coast

At the mighty Mississippi in Nawlins

2013 Escape from Fort De Soto Triathlon

Just got back from a weekend in the Tampa bay area after completing my 3rd triathlon! Every April there is a short triathlon at one of our favorite parks south of St. Petersburg called Fort de Soto park. The triathlon is a 0.5 mile ocean swim, a 10 mile bike ride, and a 3.5 mile run. It is always a challenge (especially the ocean swim for me!) but it's a big adrenaline rush and is always a fun event once its done :)

This year we camped for the first time at the park, which was nice because then we didn't have to drive very far to get to the race before the 7am start time (and with setting up all my gear I usually like to get there around 6am). After the tri we got cleaned up, packed up our camping site, wandered around the bay for a bit, and then had lunch with my friend Noel.

It was a really fun but exhausting Saturday :P We are enjoying a quiet evening at home tonight as I rest my weary legs!

Early morning warm-up

My favorite part of the ocean swim is getting done!

Good ol' bike ride

Finishing off one of my better runs in the hot ocean sunshine

Final time: 21:31 for the swim (last year was 17.55, I blame the waves :I), 28:50 for the bike (last year was 28.48; Austin even said he thought I was slower here! hahaha), 37:24 for the run (37.42 last year) and including transitions final time was 1:35:32 (1:37:50 last year, -2 minutes!!) which puts me in 16th out of 28th place for my age bracket (female 25-29).

Happy to be done!

Enjoying some sunshine along the bay

Easter service photos

One of the Wesley students took photos on Sunday since we were doing baptisms and lots of other fun Easter stuff :) I thought I would share some of them with y'all!

Welcome song

Sing to the King

Communion song

Austin looking very contemplative :)