Florida Trip

These are some of the pictures from our church's youth ministry trip to Florida. My friend Rachel and I went along as sponsors. It was such a blast! We went to help Community Bible Church of Orange Park where our sweet friends, the Owens, are serving. We passed out about 5,000 door hangers to invite the community to visit their church and to come for a new series they were going to be having. Although this took place in July, I never got around to posting anything about it so here it is about 6 months late.

 One of our first stops on the drive down was Bojangles. We were all super hungry and excited about it, but after eating the food the excitement quickly faded. Let's just say I will never be eating at a Bojangles again. The boys all loved it and went for a midnight Bojangles run one night, but they are just crazy.

 One of the first days we were there, a family from CBC Orange Park invited all of us to come over to their house to swim and enjoy the lake. Their house and the lake were just gorgeous! It was a lot of fun even though our time was cut a little short because of a thunder storm. Typical Florida :)

 The picture above was taken while we were passing out door hangers. It was literally 115 degrees out almost everyday. I have never sweat so much in my life.

 One night we went to Saint Augustine and had dinner on the beach. It was one of the most beautiful beaches I had ever been to. It was not crowded at all and it was extremely clean!! We enjoyed our sandy pizza and sang songs, splashed in the water, and played volleyball. It was a fantastic night!

 One night for dinner we went to a place called The Fish Camp. The whole restaurant was completely decorated with taxidermy. I mean it was EVERYWHERE. And many of you may not know, but one of my worst fears is taxidermy. So I was not too fond of this restaurant from the moment I walked in the door. The restaurant had quite an exotic menu and since everyone wanted to be adventurous they ordered meals like llama, kangaroo, shark, alligator ribs, snake....you get the picture. I went on the safe side and ordered frog legs, but let me tell you it wasn't safe. These were not fried frog legs so I basically felt like I took these legs directly off a frog and started eating them. It was sick. I will never again eat a frog leg in my life.

 That night we went to one of the couples houses where the boys were staying. We played basketball and volleyball and then enjoyed s'mores around a campfire. Then those of us staying at the Owens house all crammed into their van to ride home.

 Another morning of passing out flyers. Some of these crazy kids ran around the neighborhoods to get all their door hangers done faster...I was definitely not one of them...

This is what our mornings looked like: French braiding while eating breakfast.

 We were able to go to Universal Studios as a part of the trip and it was amazing!! My favorite part was Harry Potter World. I felt like I was in the movie! The butter beer was definitely a highlight; it did not disappoint! It was an exhausting day, but incredibly fun. 

Confession time. I bought a wand. I have mocked people for buying wands before and was like "who would buy such a stupid, useless souvenir! It is just going to sit on a shelf!. But let me tell you, when you walk into that shop with wall to wall wands and then you see the special deal they have of 6 wands for $150...you get 6 friends and you all go in on it because you can't pass up this once in a lifetime offer!!! And then you will bring your wand home and put it on your closet shelf and never look at it again. And then you will think to yourself was it really worth the $25, but your answer will be "yes" :)

 This is all completely out of order, but one day we went to an Alligator Zoo and it was fascinating (and also 100+ degrees out). The alligators were HUGE and actually kinda terrifying. Also, my skin did not get a single shade darker on this trip!!!! What a rip off!

One of the nights, after swimming in the Owen's pool, we all crammed into their living room and sang worship songs. It was great.

One of the men at the church owns a restaurant called Maple St. Biscuit Company. He invited all of us to eat there for breakfast the morning we were heading back home. It was delicious and would be worth the trip to FL just to get one of those biscuits!! After eating we said our "goodbyes"and then cried a lot and then packed up into the vans and cried some more. It was an amazing trip and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I love all of these people so, so much.