a little more than a 3 hour tour...

This past weekend Chip and I went boating with Chip's Mom, Dad, and sister Candi. We rented a pontoon boat from the Eglin Air Force Base Marina. Chip served as our captain. BTW - this was his first time piloting a boat. The marina makes you take an open-book test to get your license...makes me feel safe! :( But seriously, he did a great job driving the boat.

Our first destination was Crab Island. It's not really an island. It is a shallow spot at the foot of the Destin Bridge. Most people drop anchor there and hang out, throw a frisbee, float around, snorkel, and socialize with other people. We got there early in the day, so it wasn't quite "jumpin'" yet. The water there is very pretty - it reminds me of the Caribbean. We hung out there for a while and even bought some ice cream from the "ice cream boat man". The boat even plays the traditional ice cream truck music.

After Crab Island we cruised around the bay some more and then ate lunch. We started to head towards Fort Walton Beach when we noticed the storm that was building over land. We knew the weather was going to be sketchy that day, but we hoped it would hold out. It started to lightning pretty bad, so we headed for the marina. They told us when we picked up the boat that if it started to storm, we needed to come back in.

We tried to get there as soon as we could; it was getting really stormy. Anyone that is familiar with a pontoon boat knows they aren't known for speed, so it took us a while to get back. Of course we got caught in a torrential downpour! At least we didn't get hit by lightning!

All in all it was a fun day and a good way to celebrate Father's Day.

a visit from the governor

Florida's Governor, Charlie Crist, came to OWC (the college I work at) to sign the new state college bill into law. Well, technically he already signed it...this was just for show. This bill turns OWC and 8 other community colleges in Florida into state colleges. State colleges still offer 2-year associates degrees; they just can now offer bachelor's degrees. OWC already offers three, but this new law will make it easier for us to add more. The reason the state did this was to increase the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in FL. Currently we rank pretty close to last.

Anyways, when we heard the bill would be passed, the speaker-elect of the FL House of Representatives (who is from Destin) asked for the Governor to sign the bill at our school. The governor obliged. So today was the day.

The event went well, except for the Governor changing his schedule at the last minute and arriving an hour early. So we had to scramble and alert the media and community, but got it taken care of.

I didn't actually get to meet the Governor, but I got really close to him (see the above picture I snapped). He's extremely tan - like fake & bake brown. I stood about a foot away from him at one point and he asked me where the college president was. Other than that, that was my only interaction with him. I really wanted to say, "hello, gov'na", in a really cheesy British accent, but I didn't think that would be very professional.

After 30 minutes his motorcade swept him away to his next destination and the event was over. I was bummed that I didn't get an official Charlie Crist blue sharpie. That was his ceremonial bill signing pen...a blue sharpie with his name on it! I guess I thought it would be something more executive looking. Only the legislative delegates and college presidents got them. I hate being a peon!

So that is about the most excitement I've had lately. That, and playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. For some reason Chip and I were talking about that game the other day and remembered how we used to play it a lot as kids. We googled it and sure enough they still sell it! You can even download it so you can have it right away (for those of us with no patience). It's not the same version I had when I was twelve, they've fancied it up a bit, but it is still fun. Writing this made me think of the old TV show of the game they had on PBS. It has a catchy theme song by Rockapella. I found a video of it on YouTube...enjoy! :)