My Super Rad Vacation :)

I am broke now but it was sooooo worth it!!! I have never been out of the country before so it was super exciting to get the first stamp in my passort! hopefully the first of many!

Well, I flew out to Fort Lauterdale, Florida to meet up with my friends from California. It was sooooo great to see them! I have not been home since Feb so I have been lacking contact with home. After a while it does get hard to be away, especially when you are 3000 miles away. I had a little trouble getting to the Atlanta Airport because the GPS on my phone wasnt working and for some reason, Georgia decided that it didnt want anyone to beable to get anywhere so they made the streets change names and have the same name for like 3 diffrents streets. yeah it sucked. Ihad to stop and ask for directions at like 4 diffrent gas stations. eventually I did find the airport. It was a quick flight for me but when i landed I found out that for some reason my bag didnt make it onto the flight with me so we had to go back an hour later to get it... oh delta, youd think that with you charging me for the bag, he least you can do is get the bag there when I get there!

Well Jake Brett and Tony picked me up from the airport  and the adventure started!We couldnt check into our hotel till 3pm so we decided to just go hit the beach. it was an awesome day to be at the beach! the water was so clear and so much warmer that the ca beaches that im used to!  After the beach we checked into the hotel and jake took a nap cuz they had a long fligh. So, Tony Brett and I just kinda explored the area. We found a swap meet where we got some sunglasses and hats for our trip to the everglades the next day. we got some really good BBQ too! WE all ordered something diffrent so we could share :) that was team work! then we went back, got jake and went to a movie lol it was to late to do anything else at that point so we saw xmen first class. Oh yeah... and Tony Planked me hahaha!!! He was planking all over the place! it was funny!

So, the next day we got up early and drove into the everglades. I was super excited to see trees growingout of water and to take a fan boat ride! We grabed out sunglasses, big hats and bug spray and took off . We really wanted to see some crocidiles so we kept hopeing one would be crwaling across the freeway haha!  We got to our tour place and got on the boat. The tour took us arround some islands and out in some manitee areas. Then we got to get out and explore this island  in the middle of nowhere. Then the tourguide kicked up the speed and took us zooming through some tunnels in the trees! He was so good at driving that thing! several times i thought he was gonna ram us into some trees hahah! he would come close but he NEVER hit any of them! Then we stopped in this little area where he said there are usually cokadiales but because it was high tide and they dont like salty water we didnt see any :( But we did get to feed some racoons! it was super cute! he would just come up to us and take the little dog treat right out of our hands! It was really cool! the pictures here dont even do it justice!!

Then when we got back, i actually got to HOLD a corakadile...we didnt see in in the wild but we still got to see one :) I got brave and gave it a kiss haha!

After that we went to a resturant and got some lunch. Tony orderes the aligator nuggest! I was so scared to try them! It actually wasnt that bad. It tatsed like chicken but it was a bit tough as far as meat goes... I ordered CHICKEN nuggets... im not as brave as tony when it comes to trying weird food! We were a little dissapointed that we didnt see any aligators in the wild so, being the crazy people that we are, we decided to got LOOKNG for them. We drove down this place called aligator ally. We got out of the car and there were TONS of mosquitos! it was so annoying! We sprayed ourselves with the replant but it didnt seem to be working! I still kept getting bit and there were swarms of them arround it. I would take a step then scream cuz i just got bit...then take another step and scream again haha! BUT it was worth it because we found so live fullgown aligators! Actuallt I think we found about 7 of them! I got to get sooo close to one! They were just laying in the mudd. It was so crazy! after taking some pictures I couldnt take it anymore so jake and i went back and sat in the car. The next morning I woke up and had a grand total of 47 mosquito bites!!! It was crazy! I even got them on my butt! tell me how they got through my jeans and my undies!! yeah those "suckers" were on a mission!

Thew next morning I we woke up and got packed up and headed to the port (after stopping by CVS to get some anti itch spray for all of my big bites) The ship was more of a shuttle to the Grand Bahama Island than it was a cruise ship. I mean it had the all you can eat food the pool and shows and stuff but we were only on it for a day. Then we got dropped off and checked into the resort on the island. the resort was really nice! the beds were comfy and the rooms were clean! They had like 6 pools and then the beach was right out back! We unpacked then i made my way down to the beach fast! I could not wait to get into that warm water!

 I am still so shocked at how clear and clean the water was! and the sand was so fine and white! it was amazing! it had to be at least 85 in the water and  there were hardly anywaves because all of the reefs out in the water would break the waves before they came to shore. in the one on the top left we are in a pool with the ocean behind us... it was a really neat set up! We also went parasailing that day! I wasnt planning on doing it I figured i can parasail anywhere so why do it here. It was something that I alwasy wanted to do but it wasnt really on my bucket list. Well it was on jakes list of things to do on this vacation so i was gonna go with him but then he decided to go alone. But then Brett decided to go so he and i went together. i was sooooo happy that we went! it was awesome! the view was amazing! the water was so clear that i could see the reefs from the air!

And for the record.... those bumps on my forehead over here => are mosquito bites!! I had like 6 on my head and I tried so hard not to scrach them cuz i knew id get scars :(

The really funny thing was that this little not and duct tape was all that was keeping brett and the parachute attached to the boat below lol! I thought that was worth taking a picture of haha! see and this is why it pays to read my blog... you get fun things like this that i wont post on facebook...my family would see things and id get a tecture haha! Anyway, the next day, Wednesday, brett tony and I woke up early to go snorkiling! that was really awesome too! We got waterproof camers so we could take some pictures under the water. Brett has those and they wont be didgital for a while but ill post some of the underwatershots as soon as he develops them and gets then scanned. When we got on the boat they showed us what to do and they gave us some warnings about some of the corals we should touch like fire coral that will burn you on contact. So we jump of the boat and what is right under us? a HUGE fire coral lol! brett went to take a picture and he dove under the water and almost dove right into one! ahhh that was kinda scarey... other than that all of the colors were amazing and phillip, the snorling instructer dude brough some food out for the fish so they would swarm all arround us. Later that day we went into the little town area by the resort to get soemthing to eat...we tried Jerk chicken which was really good but to spicy for me. We alo ran in to some missionarys from my church so we sat and talked to them for a while. I got them some icecream and they gave us their contact info incase we need them for anything. It was really cool to run into them! Mormon worls is a small world thats for sure! later that night we went on a booze cruise (haha i had to follow the missionaries up with the booze cruise ) We just thought it was a boat ride arround the islant then we when got on the crew was talking about rum punch haha! there were a lot of kids on it so we wernt the only ones drinking. We sailed out far from the island and at the time we saild the sun was hitting the water at an angle that made the water look ice blue. Phillip, the guy from snokiling was on the booze cruise too... and he told us that the water was about 2000 feet deep where we were but we could still see the reefs at the bottom of the ocean! thats how clear the water was! it was such a pretty color! I wish i could have gotten a picture that would have dont it justice!

^thats me an phillip... he was getting his flirt on haha! he was really very nice.

That night Jake Brett tony and I decided to pull a table out by the pool and play spaids. We ordered a pizza and played cars till early morning! It was a really nice night! We also did some night swimming because it was still warm and the water was felt even warmer at night. Ok I had to add this one because it is too funny => I didnt post this one on facebook because they would have killed me... but I was done getting ready and I was waitng on them. When I look up I see all 3 of them standing in front of the mirror looking at themselves hahah! I had to get a picture! the picture turned out even better that real life haha it looks like brett is unbutting his pants for jake sho is standing in front of him while tony tries to sneak a peak hahahaha! oh man this wins the best picture of the trip award! lol

We spend another day on the island in at the beach in the water in the town shopping. It was so relaxing! We took naps and tanned. We all got like 4 shades darker! Sadly on thursday our time was up and we had to get back on the ship. I slept through most of it because I was sooo tired from all the water and sun! We got back to Florida and drove down to the southern tip because the next day we were going to spend in the florida keys. We checked into a little hotel and We got some laundry done then brett and tony went into miami and jake and I stayed back to talk to my "complication"/ boyfriend and his girlfriend. The plan was that jake and I were going to take the first driving shift down the keys in the morning so brett and tony could sleep on the way.

We were told that Key west was really not that good for beaches but we still wanted to go anyway because we wanted to go all of the way and see every island. It was really crazy to see how the freeway was just built over the water between the islands... i was a little dissapointed because i thought there would be more freeway between them but it was still a really cool drive!While we were driving we kept seeing all of these really awesome beaches that we wanted to stop at along the way. you could see people like 100 feet out but still only waist deep in the water! the water out there was really clear too...like pool water clear! anyway, once we got to key west, we got out to take a picture at the most southen point in the us....and tony decided he wanted to plank on top of it so we held up the line while we got him up there haha everyone was actually very amused by it.

Tony has a pixture of the actual plank...but these are way better!. So we drove arround and took pictures of a ligthouse and an old fort for brett then we did end up going to a beach on key west... and they were right.. it reeally wasnt anything to brag about. the water was warm and there was literally NO waves it was like being in a lake. but we did get this cool picture. I love the color in it!

After a while we decided to leave key west and then go back and explore some of the other islands that had better beached. We were told that Bahia honda is one of the top beaches in the country so we went there. I LOVED IT! it was clear, warm shallow and calm. i didnt want to leave. you could seee clear to the bottm it wasnt even blue. it was like warm bath water! It was a natural beach so there were a lot of buggs arround the edge..and if you like waves at the beach you would hate it but it was perfect for just relaxing!

yeah that water is beach water! crazy hu! Well we stayed here for a while but then we got hungry so we decided to drive a little way and find something to eat. We found this cool little BBQ joint on one  on one of the keys so we went in. oh man... best choice ever! the food was so good! AND they let you write your name on a dollar and hang it up in the resturant! I grabes a dollar and put the date and we all put our names on it and tony stapled it up. So, maybe in a few years we will go back and see if our dollar is still there :) we all ordered diffreent meats and shared them so everyone got to try something. This was our last hurrah going away feast.

sooo that was basically it. The last day we drove arround florida and packed and got the rental car cleaned then I had to sya good bye to my boys till August :( Its hard to board a plane separate from your friends who are going home...its hard to know that i still have another 6 weeks away. ohwell i guess ill just keep playing in Atlanta :) I am really homesick now. That always happens when They leave. BUT the trip was amazing! the beaches were unbeliveable and we had a ton of fun! Like I said, im broke now but it was TOTALLY worth it!!

Holey Crap- I Live in Atlanta!

Thats what I say to myself every time I wake up in the morning! Seriously, my life is one big adventure right now and I LOVE it!! I guess Ill start with talking about my internship...I LOVE what I do. I have an amazing supervisor who I share an office with so I can ask her anything I want to and I work one on one with her every day. I know I am lucky to have this much contact because I have sponken with aouple of my classmates who really only get to see theirs once a week for an hour.  Sometimes I feel like I ask her so many questions that we dont get anything done but she is always willing to take the time to explain things to me. I actually struggle with writting "diplomatic" emails to Bishops because I have always been as "Say what I think" "Straight Forward" kind of girl (I know, this is soooo surprising right? Ill pause a moment to allow you to be shocked............................................................................................

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 so she is good about helping me soften my letters lol! I was actually approved to work more hours for my internship which was awesome because they dont do this very often due to the budget. I get to do intake interviews and Results and Development follow up appointments. Its really neat to help people set goals and help them acheive them to make their lives better.....So my grandparents were super awesome and sent me a pizza and soda for lunch to work in ATL from CA!!! how rad is that! haha they are the greatest!

My I LOVE my ward out here too. Everyone is so nice and friendly. Most of the people in my ward are in the upper 20s. They say the agerage age in this ward is 25 or 26 and most of the members are in school or her for internships too. It is kinda nice to not be the only "transplant", Infact most people in Atlanta arent from Atlanta. If you want to hear that Southern Dixie Bell accent, you have to head out to Savannah or Southern Georgia where most of the people were raised here.
Well, the room that I am renting is really a rad set up too. The room is huge and I have a big bed too so thats nice! I didnt have to go back to sleeping on a twin lol. But the closet is HUGE and I get my own sink / vanity area but I share the bathroom.

The house is really big and it sits on like 5 acers of land. They have some horses and a stream in their back yard. We get these crazy thinder storms out here that will just come out of no where! It will be 90 oneday then all of the sudden there is a huge boom of thunder than instantly its pouring hot rain! it is the craziest thing! Some one told me that is why the south is so humid.... it rains one night then it soaks everything so the next day everything is still wet but then its like 90 again. It makes sense actually. Well one day during these thunder storms I decided to go play out in the stream ...because im cool like that..... it was really green and pretty back there (I later found out that they actually have poision Ivy out there! now THAT would have made for an intresting blog haha!) There is this huge tree that fell down over the stream so you know me, Miss Ill do anything for an awesome picture, I decided it would be a good idea to take a picture from the tree... well I got up but I couldnt get back down...the only way down was to jump...yeah... that was fun haha I landed right in the water. yey for being adventurous!!

 But it is so gross hot down here! I was laying out under the shade of a tree in the front yard and I was sweating... It left a nast sweat mark on my pillow haha you know I had to take a picture of it lol :)

 Every day when I come home from work, my room temperature is never under 80. Yeah its nasty! I turn on the AC then jump in a cold shower till it cools off enough for me to stand in my own room with out sweting buckets.

So, before I left a lot of my friends told me to take tons of pictures so I hope you dont mind but Im gonna take you on a little photo tour lol So this blog looks long but its just because ive got like close to 40 pictures in it haha!

So first, I went to downtown Atlanta and played in Olypic park and had fun at the aquarium. It really was one of the best aquariums that I have ever been in! They has dome cool displays and a lot of interactive things to do and we got to touch a lot of slimey things (get your minds out of the gutter friends haah!!)

Then the next weekend I was invited to a friend from the wards family cabin up in the north georgia mountains. It was a long drive but i got to rid up with some cool people in the ward who I had not met yet lol Im down for carpooling with strangers as long as someone will vouch for them lol....and we wernt strangers when I left so it was totally cool! So we went in the spa and watched top gun to celebrate the 25th annivershery. Then the next day we went out and found a really pretty lake with a waterfall. and of corse it started raining in the middle of the trip haha! But on the way home we stopped and found a cool resturant that had a dineing room patio over a river. People were out there fishing in the river and the water was so clean and clear!

Then the next thing I did was go downtown with a friend from the ward. We started our day with a trip to Piedmont Park. Its kinda like the central park in ATL. They had a farmers market so we went to see what the GA good were! I got to eat my FIRST real Georgia peach...it was sooo good! they were still a little hard but its kinda early in the season but the flavor was amazing! I wanna go back and get more! We Sat by the water on the lake and watche people feed the Ducks while we ate the yummies that we bought from the vendors.

Then we went into the city and had lunch at the Sundial resturant at the top of the Westin hotel. The resturant actually rotates arround the city. It makes one full rotation an hour. The view was amaing! you could see the airport, Turner field, Stone mountain, the staduim the Falcoms play in, The aquarium... everything! it was swesome! The from there we went to Underground Atlanata. This is kinda in a sketchy part of town but its worth visiting. It has a lot of history. When they rebuildt ATL after the civil war the part that is now underground was a train station. But as we got more advanced, they just kinda built the city on top of the train statio so it looks more like a subway station only it has stores. Its like a strip mall underground. Its not as sketchy if you go in the day...it was actually pretty cool! I wanted to get a shirt that said i love black girls...but then I thought that would realy only be funny in Utah hahah!!

Yeah they had some live music and street performers too. It was one of those places that wa spretty cool to see but I dont think ill go back again haha! The following weekend i went to a Braves gave with a frind. that was super awesome! it was my first baseball game of the season! woot woot! they lost...and they wernt the Dodgers but they have a pretty killer stadium! it was like staying at a 5 star hotel haha! I love Dodger stadium though dont get me wrong :) Its pretty cool because they have the city skyline in the back drop! It was a perfect night to go to a game too! it was not hot and it didnt rain at all! the only issue was that there were like a bajillion bugs!!!

Then this last weekend for memorial day I wanted to see some other cools stuff especially since it was a long weekend. So, A group of friends from my ward went to tStone Mountain. It is literaly a GIANT stone just sitting in the middle of atlanta haha The guy who carved the faces in Mount Rushmore also carved some  Rebel Civil War heros in the rock. they build this whole park up arround it. Peple come out and sit on the lawn and have a picknick. they play music and then when the sun goes down they have a cool lazer show that is set to music and Georgia history. It was super rad! I did get tons of bug bites from sitting out there on the grass like that but it was still worth it to see something new :) thats one more thing i got to mark off my Atlanat Bucket List this weekend! yey!!

The on sunday, THE BEST THING EVER HAPPENED!!!! I got to see fireflies!!! ohmigosh! you guys have no idea how awesome this was!! I did not believe they actually existed...i thought that they were something that Disney made up to make their movies look pretty! So Sunday night i was talking to the family that i am staying with and they asked me if I had seent he fireflies yet and was like "what!! They are out now!!" they said yeah there were tons of them this weekend. you bet your booty I was out there that night at dusk waiting for them to come out.... i sat there for like 20 minutes with my cell phone and my camera and waited for them to come out. then all of the sudden out of the corner of my eye i saw a flash... it was really fast so i wasnt even sure I saw it... then it happeend again! then the light came closer to me! I was so exited! this little firefly washovering right infront of me just flashing its cute little butt!! Then I saw another one! haha i started stalking them with my camera to try to get a good picture of them but its hard because you dont know when they are gonna flash. They looked like little twinkling lights in the trees! I tried to get video of them but it wouldnt show up :( but im gonna keep trying! Ok so these are 2 pictures of the firefly that came by my face...one is when its not glowing and the other its glowing soits just a bright spot on the page...My trip to the south is now complete...I have seen fireflies!

Then on Memorial day I decided to head out to Tybee Island wich is on the georgia Coast. Like my frind Liz said, its just not memorial day with out Mel being on the beach somewhere haha! Most of the people in my ward were going to a pool party but i didnt want to waste a perfectly good day off just lounging arround a pool...I can o that In CA...so idecided to drive out there on my own and have a relaing day at the beach,...and get some color before m cruise next week. As i was driving down the free way I saw p apart of  georgia that was hit by tornados. It was reallycrazy to see how the treews were just snapped in half like little twigs! The trees are all lush and thick and green along the side of the road till you hit this part where it came throughand just destroyed everything. tornado damags is unreal!

I know its kinda hard to see in the pictures but usually you wouldnt beable to see any sky. its think forresty treess along the highways all over georgia. But I kept driving. it took about 4 hours to get there...and it was soooo wortht he drive...besides the little roadtrip by myself was kinda cool....in my nomad days I have learned to apreseate just hainging out with myself :) Well i drove through Savannah so I got to see some of the famous spanish moss that just hangs from the trees out there! It was so beautiful! It just makes it the city have a unique look! I didnt get a chance to explore savannah as much as i would have liked to so i will be making a trip back down there agiain before I leave... besides... i promised my friend savannah from class that Id get her a souvenier haha! so this is spanish moss.....

Then I continued on to Tybee Island... it was a really cute little sure town thatreminded me of venice. It has all of the little shops and resturants along the board walk. It was very diffrent from a CA beach though. I notced it the minute I stepped in....The water was sooooo warm! it was like the shallow end of a swimming pool after a long summer day...still kinda cool but warm for it being such a large body of water. It must have been like 72 degrees in the water! and i noticed that all of the people were out in the water with hats and sunglasses on still soem people even had drinks and their cameras...IN the water! Thats when it hit me...there were hardly any waves!! In CA i have almost been killed by wave after wave tumbling me to shore! not out here .... the warm water justs rocks you back and forth. it was pretty awesome! So I just went in the water to cool off and then went back to my blanket and got some color.. and yes... I am lobster red.. in true melaney form :)

I left the beach about 5 so that id have enought time to get home still and get a good amount of sleep. But I did stop along the way at a waffel house. It is kinda like a denneys they are a Southern thing. i have been told by so many people that I need to eat there so I decided that thios was a perfect time. I got some hashbrowns and they will put whatever you want on them so I got mine with cheese and onions. It was really good but nothing spectacular. It was really cheap so I can see why people think its a big deal...it was just a little to greasy for my taste :)

So that is most of what i have seen so far. I have gone to other farmers markests and done some cool things with church but nothing worth adding to this. So, I still have much more to explore and Im excited to give you guys part 2! And hey... i promised pictures and i delivered hahaha! But i must take a break from the adventure to go on a cruise.... oh man its a hard life I lead....so stay tuned for the next instalment.... from the bahamas :) If you are a CA or UT friend who is reading this I miss you and I cant wait to see you guys soon!!