June is a busy month for me this year! First up, is a trip to Orlando with my friend Liz to attend the 2025 National Conference for Surgical Technology. We decided to drive so that we didn’t have to rent a car. We did not stay at the conference hotel. My friend Dina was super awesome and offered for us to stay at her house. We made it to our destination to scope the place out and to check in. We had to find the free parking garage and figure out the path to walk to the hotel. Otherwise parking would have been $35 a day. We were pros at navigating the garages and walking to the hotel by the end of the weekend. Once we checked in, they told us about a welcoming reception (that we didn’t know about) and gave us a free drink coupon. Also while there we ran into someone from Southern Pines NC and actually she was one of my preceptors when I was in school. Small world. After our drink, we headed to Dina’s for a taco dinner.

We made it to the conference and attended our morning sessions. For lunch we went to Blaze Pizza in Disney Springs. It was delicious and wait for it….decently priced! We had quite the gap in our day, so after lunch we went to Walmart, bought swimsuits, and snuck into the hotel pool/lazy river and enjoyed our afternoon until our next sessions.

After our sessions we went back to Dina’s and got ready for our Miami Vice themed opening night party. We had an ok time. The food was good but there were no drinks other than warm water. They had a bar but soft drinks were $8 and adult drinks were $20!! We ran into a lady who had some free drink coupons and she was kind enough to give us one. We enjoyed our drink, danced a little and then headed home.

I ran into my friend Charlotte while there! It was great to see here and chat for a bit. We went to several more sessions and explored Disney Springs a little.

Dina planned me a surprise birthday dinner with some of my friends that I used to work with in Florida. It was great to be able to catch up with them and have some laughs.

For my birthday, we drove over to the Brevard Zoo after our sessions. We had seen an advertisement for kayaking with giraffes and zebras and found out that we wouldn’t be that far away. So….we made a day of it. We got there and went straight to the kayaking. It was short and sweet but we had an enjoyable time. Afterwards, we walked around the rest of the zoo until they closed. It is one of the nest zoos I’ve ever been to. We even got to go into the kangaroo enclosure!

Liz and I had a great time. Hoping we get to do it again. Also, thanks to Dina for bringing such an awesome host! We drove a total of 1,472 miles over 5 days. First of three road trips for me this month is in the books.