"Owen"-fying Miami!

I've been extremely lucky to have a set of parents that are amazingly supportive of anything that I've ever decided to do. All throughout my high school career, my parents never once missed a performance that I was involved in. Band concerts, choir competitions, speech performances - it didn't matter where or when it was, they found a way to get there an support me. This even continued into college when I decided to join the UNI Panther Marching Band. I always knew that I could count on them to be in the stands, cheering me on.

This support has held true even when my adventures have taken me outside of domestic borders. When I studied abroad in Spain, they came to visit for a week and a half, during which we explored Oviedo and the amazingly beautiful city of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast. Last year, while I was teaching in Seoul, they flew across the Pacific (13-hour plane ride and all) and stayed for another 10 days. During this time, we covered as much of Seoul as we could, along with Jeju Island. Needless to say, they are willing to use my experiences as an excuse to help them travel as well!

Now that I'm down here in South Florida, my parents saw another opportunity to get out of Iowa and take a bit of a vacation for themselves. They arrived here in Florida May 24th and returned back to Iowa yesterday morning (June 2nd). Highlights of their most recent 10 day excursion included:

- Going out to eat for lunch at Hurricane Alley with Cathy
- Exploring West Palm Beach and checking out my service site, The Lord's Place
- Zooming up to Jupiter and spending some time on the beach
- Grabbing some Thai cuisine at Rice with Skeeter, Erin, Kevin, and Phetsada
- Enjoying some froyo (frozen yogurt) for the first time (for the parents that is)
- Spending some time by the pool at their hotel, taking in some rays, and enjoying the water
- Watching The Great Gatsby on the big screen (very well done film!)
- The parentals taking advantage of the Cruise Capitol of the World and escaping to the Bahamas and Key West for a 5-day cruise
- Attending a Marlins baseball game (which they beat the Mets 5-1, making my Marlins record a perfect 2-0!)
- Taking a city bus tour of Miami and learning some pretty interesting facts about the South Beach area of Miami
- Visiting the Holocaust Memorial in Miami and being blown away with emotion



All in all, it was a great trip! It's always great to see my parents and know that they are continually behind me no matter what I do. Thanks for everything that you have done for me and will continue to do for me going forward!

Until the next vacation...