My Dolphin River Encounter

As we were going down the river, feeling the warmed touch of the sun in my face, the wind messing gently my hair, I breathe freedom. I felt like I was in an expedition far, far away from home, even we were only an hour away. I saw the different birds flying and resting along the line of mangroves that marks the river bank of the Indian River Lagoon. Looking to the water Jorge told me that he saw a big jellyfish, but I didn't see it. I keep looking around, and I hear my daughter saying the same thing, I missed it again. With a Titanic kind of feeling, me and my family were in the bow, in the from part of the 45 ft tour boat. When Kelly, the owner of the Good Natured River Tours, offered the opportunity to go to the front of the boat where we could have a better experience, we were the only ones that took advantage of the offer. While her husband, Captain Bill Reynolds, was pointing out all the point of interests of the river banks, birds, interesting houses and more, I was on my search for marine mammals. Kelly told us that the dolphins in the lagoon were very friendly, and that sometimes from the beginning of the tour they are already greeting them, swimming along the boat. Well this time we were not that lucky, and specially me! Up to that point, I had not seen, not even a jellyfish, just few fishes and birds. Still of my not so lucky encounter with the wildlife, I was having a great relaxing time, it was getting warmer, the sun was strong in my eyes, even with sunglasses, but still I loved every minute of the view and of the my outdoor moment.
The Good Natured River Tour last two hours and goes along the Indian River between the Pineda Causeway which we crossed under until the Dragon Point Dr. (where in the very end of that tip of property used to be a Dragon House that eventually was destroy by weather) - passing that the tip we went into the Banana River just a little bit in, then turning back to Indian River again but we kept forward until we got to the Eau Gallie Causeway. There by the Eau Gallie Causeway is where we head back, this was our last chance to encounter the friendly mammals. Our hopes were up, Kelly kept looking around with her binoculars, she told us that there was a lot of movement in the area; like boats and jet-skis, more than usual. It was Labor Day, everybody was enjoying that extra day off like us. Until that moment, before we got to the Gallie Causeway I had my first encounter with wildlife, I saw a funny blue crab swimming desperately... jaja! it was my first time seeing a blue crab or any crab swimming. Well, I learned that actually they are excellent swimmers they even have special adapted appendages that are shaped as paddles... interesting, the only thing I knew about them beside that they are crabs is that they taste very good.
















The Captain was so nice that he kept our tour going until we found them! First we saw a solo dolphin, swimming around in his own business. We were excited, we took pictures of his fin, going up and down. "Well at least we saw one", I said to myself.




I felt bad for Kelly because she was looking and looking, but wildlife is unpredictable, it's impossible to guarantee that they will be waiting for us to make us happy. But then!!! Oh my God!!! Then!!! Two super friendly dolphins came close, swam by the boat, jump and took a good look at us. Thanks God I stayed in the bow even though the sun was melting me away, definitely it was the better place in the boat to enjoy the encounter. The were so close to us, it was literally, like they came to say hello. I took a super cool video, and you will hear my crazy moment of joy, please try not to laugh... -____-

We finished our day eating at the Grills Riverside restaurant, when you get this tour on Groupons like we did, it also includes a $5 voucher discount on food per person. We were 5 in total so we had $25 dollars discount on food!!
Food was great, and we even had dessert, fried cheesecake... Yummy!

xamlinnette :)

Writing and my surroundings

The day is vanishing away , while I sit and meditate of what I want to write today. While sitting in my screen balcony that face the parking lot, with my hands on the key board, waiting for the right thoughts to flush over me, I can hear the electrical fence opening and closing every time somebody returns home. Again, I try to focus, but its getting dark, even though the sky still have some blue mix with some red orange clouds, my porch is in need of some illumination. I stand up and turn on a string of lights that hangs in the left wall of my balcony. In reality they don't give much light, but I like them because it gives me a felling of romantic outdoor moment, that's until I hear a car speed up, making a louder noise than the other travelers that pass by my condominium. That takes me back to the reality, that my iPad screen still empty.


I sit back on my patio chair to think and refocus, while I laid back, it feels pretty comfortable even though the cushions tends to falls between the spaces of the base. Now its getting darker and a little bit more "quiet", what I mean, is that at this moment the neighbor that was on the phone almost in front of my apartment, left, so my thoughts don't have to compete with his conversation anymore. While the darkness settles, the temperature its at its best, I can see the palm in front of my porch, slightly moving its wide branch, softly. The trees across the parking lot are also having their own slow dance with the melody of the wind, so soft that they are barely moving, you wont notice unless you pay attention.

Going back to my business, now the only bright light in my porch is coming from my iPad. Beside the sound of my fingers against the key board, the cars coming in and out, the traffic passing by the avenue, the loud music from a distant car, I can hear the engines from some airplanes trying to make their way to the airport that its close by. After an hour out here, all the sounds are mixed like one big soothing song. I am writing despite of everything that is happening around me until I hear that peculiar and specific text message tone that I assign to my Jorge, suddenly the soothing song breaks up again in different sounds, too many now to over come, thanks God I finished with my writing, I going inside now, lay on my bed and answer my loves text.



xamlinnette :)

How everything started...

Today I decided that I will tell you how everything started even though I don't know how is going to end. But the ending part it really doesn't matter, this journey is been good, not perfect but good, because I have learn so much about life and about myself.

I've been writing for many years and I was keeping it all to myself. I have notebooks with notes, poems, essays, but I kept them hidden in a memory box. You know... one of those boxes where you hide your tears and disappointments, your embarrassing moments and your rage. With the time I started sharing some of my writings with my mom and some friends, and they loved the way I express my self, even my best friend suggest me to start a blog. I didn't know what was that at that moment, so I searched and for the first time I wanted to share the world what was on my mind. Still I was shy, and afraid of people judging me. Anyways I wasn't very consistent on posting things, even I had plenty of things that I could it shared. A lot of drama was happening in my life at that moment and of course with that comes a lot of inspiration but I didn't want people feeling sorry for me and my heart broken drama so I kept my writing to my self again. I kept the blog, and I wrote few things here and there but never shared it with people that knew me, in other words, I had a ghost blog that nobody knew about.
Beside my crazy inspirational thoughts, poems and essays, I have written entire scripts for plays at my church. As the leader of the theater group at my church, I love to presents original material with great subjects. I really enjoyed this kind of writing because the words doesn't stay on the paper, they come to life, from a non-existent set all in my head- to see them come to life, is fascinating. Let me describe you a little bit of the scripts that I have written before; I wrote about a young girl dying of cancer and how her love for life change people "Cristina". Also I wrote once about a homeless man trying to find his way in life and how a chance, an opportunity changed his live "Unconditional Love". The last one that I wrote is a script about an innocent man with a death sentence, he gave his life for a person he loved "Death Sentence".

Anyways thats how everything started... I will share more of my journey and how I am here now, with "Exploring My Own Back Yard"
xamlinnette :)

Leviathans in Paradise

On our way to our last getaway by ourselves (no kids), the GPS and Siri were leading the way.  I heard many times about the little paradise "close to home" but never had the chance to experince it.  Less than a week away of our last days alone, we wanted to have some relaxing, laid-back mini vacation. Beach, flip flops, drinks, nice simple restaurants, and few books, that's all we wanted. Because of lack of planning and a quick destination desicion, I did not researched much about it.  We made our conclusions  base on what we heard before. Thinking that Anna Maria Island was one whole beach we thought that our resort was just in front of Anna Maria Island beach. Later on, and learning my lesson for not investigating before going, we learned that the 7 mile island is divided in 3 cities; the noth part is Anna Maria, the middle is Holmes Beach where we stayed at the Longboat Key, in the Silver Sands Gulf Beach Resort and the south of the island is Brandenton Beach. Nevertheless it was a great location with a private beach.  Even the beach chairs, umbrellas and towels were included.  We didn't have to go anywhere for hours. Just what we wanted, books, cooler, sun... delightful.

After arrival, we went straight to the beach. We met my best friend Debbie and her boyfriend.  They stopped by on their way back to Orlando from Naples and visit us for a few hours. The afternoon, was sunny and breezy, the ocean wasn't calm, but it wasn't fiery either. The waves crashed constantly but with no particular rhythm, still was a pleasant, soothing sound. Jorge and me stayed on the beach until the sun left us alone, and our stomach demanded more things than snacks.

Ready to go and with no particular destination on mind, "Yelp" helped us find St. Armand's Circle, south of the Island more in the Sarasota area. St. Armand's Circle has restaurants, boutiques, galleries, shops and more. At the time that we got there, we just wanted to eat, it was late anyways, most of the shops were close. We eat pizza at Venecia... with outdoor eating! I love to sit outside, specially when the weather is good.  It was warm  and comfortable enough that I was able to wear a strapless summer dress and flip-flops. We had a pleasant night but after eating and walking a little bit to see the area we call the night out. Leaving our Saturday behind and getting ready to a fresh start on Sunday.

My favorite meal of the day is breakfast! I was looking forward to try something new, but this time we wanted a place on the little island. "Yelp" did it again! We found this peculiar local place, Ginny's & Jane E's Bakery Cafe. Jorge and me love coffee.  Is important for us having a good coffee to start our day; its almost like a "spiritual ritual" where we enjoy every sip that we take. So this peculiar place... I wasn't sure if it was a souvenir store or a bakery.  But as we walked in, we saw a line of people ordering, so we were in the right place. I looked around, and Yes! it was also a souvenir store with the most bizarre display of things. They had things hanging from the ceiling, and other things where randomly around the little place.   Even though some of those items looks like junk yard "stuff' they also had nice little gifts souvenirs; some made of shells, and so on. There were so many things that it was hard to look at something in particular. The tables and chairs where people sit were like a collage of different dining table sets, where nothing match with each other. Definitely this little treasure box is full of interesting things but what really, really blew my mind was the Creme Brûlée French Toast; it was extremely delicious and sweet, very filling too. Yummy! I almost forgot to tell you that the coffee was pretty good too.

After eating we head back to our hidden place at Silver Sand where we spent the whole day, between books, conversations, drinks, FaceBook the day went by. Hiding from the giant heater under our umbrellas all day, still we were melting away by the heat. I couldn't take it anymore, so I ran to the water like it was an oasis in the middle of the desert. Jorge was studying for a test and didn't want to come at  beginning, but when the puddle of sweat was bigger than his test, he jumped to the water too. Now is when it got interesting!
The water was so refreshing and clear, almost no waves at all.








We swam, played, talked, and sometimes just silence was enough for us to enjoy the moment. When out of the sudden, Jorge jumps and starts running/swimming out of the water saying that something bit him. When I saw him so hysterical, I also headed out of the water. We sat at the shore and he started explaining that "some monster bit him on his foot" and so on. I wanted to see his foot, to see if it was ok or had any injuries. Guess what? There was nothing, a little tiny of nothing!!
I start laughing so hard, probably was a tiny crab, but the way he described it, it sounded like it was something out of this world, like the marine Leviathans monsters from the book of Job. Oh men's... so dramatics.




Well, no matter what it was, it took us out of the water!
Next day we ended up our little getaway visiting Siesta Key Beach, rate it as #1 beach of the nation on 2012. It was nice, but too crowded for me. After being two days on a private lonely beach, beside the "Leviathans on the water", I preferred the quiet sounds of the waves.
xamlinnette

Leu Gardens

Leu Gardens

Exploring in my own backyard

Xamara Duarte

August 2, 2013

Movie Date Night

Like a mass migration, everybody was walking at different speeds, but all with their beach chairs, blankets, coolers and more to be at once by the largest outdoor screen in Orlando, to watch the "The Vow" for a date night under the stars.  We were part of the hundreds that wanted to take advantage of that once-a-month perfect romantic night. Being our first time, we did not know how popular this activity was among our neighbors, so we took our time getting there, thinking that just being on time at 8:30pm, the time that the movie was supposed to start, was sufficient.  But after seeing the avalanche of people walking to the park we concluded that being on time wasn't good enough! The parking lot at Leu Gardens for non-members was full, so the instruction given to us was to park on the streets close by.  The only problem was that there was no parking anywhere close to the gardens. While we were looking desperately for a parking space, we kept seeing more and more people walking towards the gardens with all the needed equipment.   Suddenly our little romantic adventure close to home begins to shift in another direction.  We even thought of leaving, but I insisted that we keep going. Now the curiosity invaded me and I wanted to know why so many people were here.  Is it worth the trouble for a romantic night? I was wondering if it really was going to be that romantic. Finally we found a parking space and after walking a while, sweating and fighting with bugs in the humid warm night we got to our destination around 15 minutes after the movie started. The place was packed! At that moment we started a new adventure of finding a place to open our beach chairs and the bottle of wine. Once we sat down I was exhausted.  After taking a deep breath, I looked around; all these people, under the stars, on their blankets like they were the only ones, opening their  bottle of wine, cuddling while watching the movie-it was so perfect that not even the heat and bugs could ruin their romantic night. For us, well, we joined the group and enjoyed our night too.  Next time we will be there early enough to make sure that it will be a perfect night for us too.

There is much to see and do at Leu Gardens.  For more information, and other activities, you may visit their website and look at their calendar. www.leugardens.org

xamlinnette