Kara's Super Spontaneous Visit

In a delightfully unexpected turn of events, my friend Kara came to visit last week!  She had originally planned on coming in early April.  But this week lined up with her work better.  Sunday she messaged Sam and told her she would be flying in... Monday night! What?!  The three of us went to college together and it was fun little reunion.

I hadn't seen Kara in probably about three years.  Since my schedule is so flexible right now, I was able to rearrange my week and spend a lot of time with her.  Kara has clear goals when she travels: to get "the history, the culture, and the nature." And I think we did a pretty good job of finding all those things.  After working Tuesday morning, I met her at the Florida Natural History Museum on campus.  We finished exploring, then walked across to the Art Museum.  Both museums are fantastic, and they're free!!  We grabbed lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon geocaching while waiting for Samantha to finish work.  It's been a while since I've been 'caching.  Searching is so much more enjoyable when I go with someone else.  And we got into some pretty interesting places...

...like this truck!

"Where is it?!" (we eventually found it :D ) 

On Wednesday, Sam was able to take a half day off work, and the three of us took a trip to St. Augustine, the U.S.'s oldest city.  After a delicious lunch at the Floridian, we spent the afternoon wandering around some shops and eventually made it to Castillo de San Marcos.  This oldest stone fort was originally built during Spanish occupation of Florida. It was traded back and forth of British rule. Then the United States gained control when Spain sold Florida to the U.S.  Historic sites like this are always fun to explore, but Kara added a new level of excitement shouting, "The British are coming!!" from the top of the walls.

Vantage point atop the fort

We wandered around after the fort closed, eventually finding ourselves on the beach listening to the breaking waves of the Atlantic Ocean.  I miss being so close to a large body of water and was just a little sad when we started our drive back to Gainesville.

Thursday, Kara and I set out on a day hike in Ocala National Forest.  The ranger station recommended The Yearling Trail.  This six mile loop winds though the land where the Long family build their homesteads in the mid 1850's.  Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings also spent some time here, and her visits inspired her book The Yearling.  The movie adaptation was later filmed on site.  Neither Kara nor I have read the book or watched the movie, but after hiking the trail, we both intend to do so.  Historic spots mark the trail including the family cemetery.  This is the first time that I've seen coins on top of gravestones.  I looked it up, and it seems to carry the same superstition as tossing coins into a fountain.  Who knew?

Coins on top of the Long family gravestones

Halfway through the trail, we found the perfect lunch spot in a dry fen.  We sat under a beautiful sunny sky, enjoying our lunch and a couple beers.  Kara liked the spot so much that she left her phone there so we would have to hike back! 

The view from our lunch spot

We drove back to Gainesville in time to grab Sam and head to dinner at Satchels, an eclectic pizza place.  Unfortunately, Kara had to leave early Friday morning.  All three of us wished she could have stayed longer, especially so Sam could have spent more time with us.  I'm so glad that she could visit at all though.  Kara has such a light-hearted, fun-loving nature.  I think her visit came at the perfect time.  We had a fantastic week, and I was able to forget a lot of the things that have been stressful and just be silly for a while.  We're both stumbling through different life decisions, but I think she has a really good mantra: do what you love, and things will fall into place.  I'm thankful to have a friend that can remind me of that, and I hope that I get to see her again soon.