A-Z: Florida

A-Z: FLORIDA

Florida is a fun state that I have been to twice besides a layover once in Miami. The first time was when I was 14 and it was the summer before my freshman year of high school. My oldest brother Doug took me and we spent a week together doing all the Orlando attractions- Disney, Epcot, Universal Studios, NASA, Cocoa Beach and Daytona Beach. It was the first time I ever flew and I remember it was a 4 hour flight. We stayed in Lakeland with our Aunt and Uncle. When the end of the week came my Aunt invited me to stay three more weeks so I could spend the fourth week with my cousins who were coming from Georgia to spend a week at Cocoa Beach. I accepted and stayed the rest of the month.

My Aunt and Uncle owned a print shop at the time so I would go to work with them and learned about the business. During that time my Aunt asked why I had never had my ears pierced and I explained that my Mom didn't really want me to have it done until I was at least 12, and then I just hadn't done it. One day I was helping her employee and she came in and goes "Sarah, I need to run an errand, want to come with me?" I said I wanted to stay and help with the project and she insisted that I come with her. We walked down the shopping center their store was in to a jewelry store that was one of her clients. We went in and I was thinking we were taking an order or something and she asked the lady how much it was to pierce ears and could she do mine right then. I had no time to think about it, we just did it.

The second trip was with my brother Doug again the summer after I graduated from high school. He has a friend who was an actor and he was performing at a theater on Sanibel Island so we flew to Fort Myers and traveled to Sanibel to see Forever Plaid. Sanibel was wonderful, and I would absolutely love to go back there some day. The house we stayed at was right on a bay and my brother's friend said the day before we got there dolphins swam right up to the deck. Sanibel is a shell beach and you can find all shapes and sizes. The best time to get them is after midnight since the sun bleaches the shells. We went out at about 1:00am with flashlights looking for shells of all colors.