Key Largo at the bird sanctuary

Here are some pictures I took at this Bird place we came across. Mostly of Pelicans and Cranes and Eagrets.

The pelicans blend into the ground well, and are not the prettiest birds around, but fasinating to see a bunch up close all at once. We had fun feeding the birds!
The colors vary by age of the bird, the younger birds are whiter and gradually get a brown belly as it gets older. this one is a "teenager"

At 3:30 it is time for bird feeding, we had the chance to feed the pelicans some fish.
Andrew taking his turn feeding fish to the birds.
My turn feeding the pelicans.
There is an excited birdy flappin his wings for me, "over here!" I want some fish!"

Beautifully posed, sometime they would stand there for a while, then all of the sudden the stretch out their neck and yawn, then clap their beeks together, making a clapping noise. Funny.




I pointed out a bird in the cage area called a "Brown Booby" (pic below)...
Andrew says, "Where? I want to see the Booby?"

At the end of the bird sanctuary there was a guy showing everyone this pretty orange snake. The snake color coordinated with Andrew's Hooters Tshirt, and with my ring.

Cool Snake.

wearing the snake as a neck tie...

Key Largo Continued day2

Day two, we went to a bird sancuary and came upon a helicopter ride at a beach. We hopped on that oppertunity in an instant! It was $100 per passanger, $200 later we had a chance in a lifetime filled with the beauty of Key Largo from the aireal view, the ride was so smooth and floaty feeling. I thought helicopters were bumpy rides, but not at all.

Pics below of our adventures...

We flew over a lighthouse and people in boats. The ride was such an awesome experience!

The dark areas in the water is all seaweed and reefs. the aqua-light blue waters are shallow, to about knee deep.

Fun times in KeyLargo!!!

Day one in Key Largo, we drove over to Anne's beach. The water her on the east coast is much more saltier than west coast beach water. Andrew and I were swimming around in the shallow waters and I inevitably got some water in my mouth, MAN WAS IT SALTY! Tasted like a cup of salt poured directly into my mouth. ICK! The theory to this, water evaporates quicker here with the humidity and is leaving all the salt behind. Verses the California beach water is cooler and doesn't evaporate as much, that it does not taste so salty.

The picture of the fountain is a giant “conch shell” The Florida Keys is all about Conch and Key lime pies stuff. Andrew ordered Conch soup for lunch, and I bought a conch shell from a shell shop. We haven’t tried the key lime pie yet. The conch shells are the kind of shell you can put up to your ear and listen to the sound of the ocean.

Here are some pictures of Andrew and I hanging out in the shallow waters, of Anne's Beach near Key Largo, FL.


The shalow waters range from knee deep to waist deep for miles.

Many of the mail boxes around the islands are creative like the fish bait one in the photo above. I took this pic to show my dad, he lives in a small, fish town. This type of mail box would be perfect for my parents house.

Keylargo here we come!

We are off to a vaca. in Keylargo, FL! Any suggestions to things to do and see while we are there?

So far planned: Relax, massage, beach fun, swimming, snorkling, fun times.

Photos provided by online hotel pictures of Keylargo, FL.

The massage table awaits for my arrival...

"Keylargo...baby wanna take you to the...FL Keys!" -BeachBoys song
Out door dinning, by sunset...breathtaking!

June means wedding season!

I work at a hotel, so we will start to have alot of weddings here. Either for the reception or for wedding party to have rooms with us. We also get a few just married couples with no reservation, just walking in still in their dressed up attire. It is so pretty to see the different wedding gowns the brides are wearing currently.


I was in a wedding a few weeks back for my best friend, Emily. I was her Maid of Honor. Her wedding was on the beach, wiggling our toes in the sand; on a beautiful day for the ceromony too.



Here are some pictures from her beach wedding, off of Cayucus Beach:

Matron of Honor (me), Best man and the mother of the bride in blue.
Mother & Father of the Bride give her away after a brief prayer is said. The 4 brides-maids and 4 grooms-men pray along as the groom patiently awaits his bride...Amen.
The Blushing Bride! I took this picture while the photographer was taking a series of poses. My favorite wedding photo from that day. She is so pretty, and blissfully happy and in love.
The happy couple on Cayucus peir. At the reception I take a photo opp with my "little" brother. haha.

WEDDING TRADITIONS:
Wedding tradition of feeding each other cake.

First dance as husband and wife.

Tossing the bowquet to all the singler gals at the wedding.
Tossing the brides garter to all the single guys at the wedding.

It's the End of Another Decade

I am coming up around the corner to ending another decade. I am going on decade number 3 now. Andrew just had his 30th birthday last Sunday, and a few of my friends have turned 30 this year also. I turn 30 this August.




The words 3 decades sounds longer than saying, 30 years. Last night I saw the movie, Sex and the City and the characters are all in thier 40s now, with 'Samantha' turning 50. So I guess 30 is still young, as the phrase goes, "40 is the new 30..." Then 30 is the new 20... On August 19th I will be turning 20? and become 9 years younger then. Just kidding. I am happy with what ever age number I turn; and Andrew is my 30 year old husband, and my 30 year old friends are all still young in my eyes. (giggles)

We had a blast at HOME!!!

HOME was hoppin last night. We had blast at HOME! Andrew and I went to Ameristar Casino last night to celebrate Janaes birthday. There were nine of us so we split the cost of a reservation table. Basicaly if you don't have a table, then there are no seating areas. The reservations are a two bottle minimum along with mixers such as Orange Juice, and little dishes holding limes, lemons, and olives. We danced and grooved the night away till 3 AM! We had too much fun!

Before the party strated I played on the quarter-slots with ten dollars to start off. I was playing for a while winning here and there off my ten bucks, then I was getting down to a few plays left on the slot machine and the reels landed on 2 jackpot symboles and a "double" symbol! Resulting in 307 quarters! I couldn't calculate how much it was to quickly and pressed the cash out button, and the paper reciet prints out to give me $76.75. I was so excited, and up $66.75 in winnings. I stopped playing and knew when to stop. I didn't want to risk loosing the money, I needed it for the rest of my night in club HOME.

On a side note, which phrase is correct? When people drink they say, "beer before liquor never sicker" and a similar phrase goes, "liquor before beer you're in the clear" Just because it is a catchy phrase and rhymes well doesn't mean it is a "drinking rule" to go by!

My Poem...

A Man & a Woman in the Bookstore Café
May 21, 2008 Wednesday 5:30pm
Observational poem by: Martiel Hay
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He gazes into her eyes
As she rattles on about something insignificant
He is mesmerized by her smile
And the green shade of eye shadow she has on
She leans forward in her seat
Anticipating his next word

He discreetly glances at his watch
The spark is dying down…
As he sips his hazelnut latte
She says something funny
Catching his attention
Still not sure how this blind date is going
He hopes to leave holding hands

She’s starting to get the first date jitters
And nervously tares her café napkin
As their date is coming to an end
They leave together from the bookstore café
Not holding hands
But just as good friends

To be continued…

Just like the movie I paid it forward...

It felt so good to pay it forward. Just as the movie does in the story line where one does a selfless act and helps another person out, you feel better afterwards and the silver lining is discovered from a cloud. I had my car washed yesterday, interior mostly and standard exterior. The company gave me a coupon to use for a free exterior car wash the following day...if it were to rain the same day sometime by midnight. I held onto the coupon, because sure enough it rained later that evening. Now it is the following day and with my coupon in mind, I planned on getting a spot wash redo. BUT first I went over to Mazda for my oil change and new tires. The Mazda people washed my car as a courtesy service. With this, now I didn't need the secondary car wash from the car wash place. The coupon expires today on the 13th, so I drove by and saw a cute, guy pulling up in his new car, but dirty, and decided to "pay it forward" offered him my free car wash coupon. It was a selfless act of kindness to another, didn't cost the other person anything in return, and I didn't waist the coupon. I felt so good to surprise him on the spot like that to get a free car wash. Yeah me. (Pat on the back)

If you get the chance to do a selfless act towards another person, out of simplicity such as the coupon, or even paying an expired parking meter, go for it! The possibilities are endless and to do what ever you feel like doing in the action of "paying it forward".

Rent the movie "pay it forward" if you have not already seen it. It is very inspiring.

Identical twins gone wrong!

Twins? Identical twins, no doubt! What went wrong? This is a photo of the Olson twins, present day. This is shoking how old and frumpy MaryKate Olson looks, and how well postured and tall beauty her IDENTICAL twin, Ashley Olson is. They grew up acting on the tv show, Full House playing the cute litte girl named Michelle. Today in 2008, they are 20 something years old all grown up attending the New York Met red carpet event and MaryKate looks so frumpy.

Happy Mother's Day

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Fun times visiting back home.

A few weeks have already passed. Andrew and I flew back to California to attend my best friends wedding. I was her Maid of Honor (MOH). While I was in town, I went fishing with my dad on the peir. We went to Virges Landing for some bait (anchorvies in a bag) and would cut each fish in half to use one fish for two poles. We had such a big bag of bait, I guess we could have fished with a whole fish as bait per fishing pole. I saw a bat ray swim by the peir, it was a good size. Dad started to catch a fish but it was too big to real in and it got away.


Afterwards we headed over to the French Cafe, and enjoyed some morning coffee and danishes. He ordered a big cruisant with chocolate in the middle, and I ordered a cinamin roll with walnuts and caramel sauce drizzled over it. Delicious!