Each fall, as I travel to different Buddy Walk events, I am fortunate to have an amazing little travel companion/partner in crime. At 7.5 years old, Liv has been going to Walks with me since, well, she could walk. We've lost track of the actual number she has been to, but we think this year was #13. She is a regular at Walks in Ohio: Cleveland, Boardman, Cincinatti and Columbus, and last year, she joined me in Tulsa. This year, I brought her to what may be her most memorable Buddy Walk ever: Jacksonville Beach.
Between staying in a hotel right on the ocean, having carnival rides, a bungee jump AND the Walk ON the beach, I knew she would be in heaven. And I was right. We were in Florida for 4 nights and despite the poor girl being sick with a cold/upper respiratory infection (we had to make an unscheduled stop to an Urgent Care) we had a wonderful time collecting shells, visiting with my amazing friends from the Down Syndrome Association of Jacksonville (Liv met lots of fun people and got to hang with some cool kids (with and without Down syndrome) which made it an even more enjoyable and meaningful trip.)
Without any further ado, our trip in pictures:
Thursday:
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| Breakfast of champions. Don't hate. It was early. |
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| Liv's "artistic" photo from 10,000 feet |
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| Finally... hitting the beach |
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| Savoring the moment |
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| A love letter to the beach (I originally thought it was for me.) WRONG! |
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| Sand art: our hotel, the ocean and the sun. Brilliant! |
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| Miss adventurous was determined to have crab legs for dinner. Success! |
Friday:
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| Sunrise from our hotel room |
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| Early morning shell hunt. Found a jelly fish! |
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| At the St Augustine Alligator Farm - an albino alligator |
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| When in Rome (or St. Augustine) ... you gotta hold a 'gator |
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| Hamming it up with Princess |
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| Feeding time! |
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| Someone was hungry and extra ferocious |
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| Excited to see the "Golden Tomb" from history |
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| Her 2nd favorite part of the day; watching a python swallow a rat. Crazy kid. |
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Gator wrestling.
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Saturday:
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| A girl (or girls) could get used to this view in the morning |
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| Professional shell collector |
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| Volunteers hard at work setting up for the Buddy Walk |
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| Ready to get our Walk on! |
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| Miss Joni and Penelope before the Pirate ship ride started. Smiles weren't so big when the ride was over. Phew! |
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| Liv and her new friend Penelope. They had so much fun together in Jacksonville! |
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| Liv made a flamingo, "Jackie" at the Buddy Walk. |
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| Whee! A bungee! |
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| A fly-over plane promoting the Buddy Walk. How cool! |
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| Buddy Walk on the beach! |
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| Miss P frolicking |
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| Liv and Miss P. How cute! |
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| Miss Debbie, DSAJ's Executive Director. So honored to recognize them as being the 2012 Buddy Walk of the year! I have enjoyed working with her the past 11 years! |
Sunday:
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| We saw a heron from our hotel room and hurried down to check it out |
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| A close up of the great blue heron. |
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| So excited to find a conch shell this morning! |
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| Mr. Timmy and Chad's collection of shark and megolodon teeth. Cool! And Miss Jennie gave Liv two sand dollars from her collection. How exciting! |
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| Our last sunrise on the beach. So beautiful! |
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| Catching a few zzzz's on the flight home |
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| SURPRISE! My luggage was inspected! |
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