Hello from sunny Miami! It’s spring break, and yours truly is finally having a much-needed reunion with warm weather and a few days of relaxation. I’m writing to you on the tail end of my vacation: I’m spending five days in Florida forgetting about my many responsibilities… and five days in the thesis lab back in Boston, trying to get as many of those responsibilities accomplished as possible. So I leave early (6am flight, oh to be young) tomorrow morning.
My new Floridian friend! His name is Snippy
I’m joined here in Miami by three of my closest Wellesley friends. We knew that realistically this trip could be one of the last chances we could all travel together, and so I’m really glad it happened. The period leading up to break was one big blur of eight-hour lab days on top of class. Our flight got cancelled (thanks Winter Storm Toby) and there was a frantic last night of simultaneously re-booking cancelled flights and studying enzyme mechanisms for my biochemistry exam. Needless to say, I have made it, and have spent the entirety of today alternating between lying on the beach and swimming in the ocean.
The perfect beach <3
I think we’ve managed to find a nice balance of fun and relaxation in this trip. We started picking up shells on the shores of Sanibel and trying to figure out what species of fish the bones we found belonged to. We went kayaking through the mangrove reserves and I almost fell out of the boat in my enthusiasm upon seeing a Roseate Spoonbill fly overhead. And we rode an airboat, with a big fan strapped to the back, zipping through the Everglades and stopping only to see gators watching us in the water.
The Vizcaya estate in Miami (we did not stay here, spoiler alert)
I’m going to leave you with these nice photos from the trip, and I’ll update you on all the thesis progress next week!
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor
