Spring Break Spring Semester: Sun, Sand, and Spikeball: A Spring Break to Remember
“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
By: Hong Bing Tang March 30, 2025
03/10/2025 to 03/16/2025
Introduction:
Hey people. I hope you all had a good week enjoying the beautiful weather. Most of our guys’ team headed down to Florida for Spring break this week! We were down in Fort Lauderdale for 4 days! While we were down there, we spent a lot of time at the beach, playing in the water, playing SpikeBall, we ran a lot and ate a lot of food. Let’s get into what happened over spring break!
A Chill Day:
Since we were not flying down to Fort Lauderdale until Sunday night most of us guys headed down to the Metro Detroit area on Saturday night to spend time with our families and friends. For those guys that were not from the area, they too spent the night in the area but at Joey’s or Clay’s house. On Sunday morning all the guys flying in the evening headed to my hometown to the Hanson’s long run loop which is one of my favorite routes due to the hills! With the loop having nearly 700 ft of elevation in 12 miles it is no easy route. We quickly got rolling on the hills but the weather was really nice with it being around upper 30s with no wind and the sun shining. Soon enough we had completed the infamous section of the route known as the “Seven Sister” with each sister representing a hill on a 1 mile stretch about 3 miles from the finish. After the run, a couple of us headed to Leos to get some grub. At this point is was already 12pm and soon enough we would be up in the air.
After chilling at my house for a couple of hours with Blake, we finally headed to the airport. For being spring break, the airport was not super busy but at the same time we did have a flight at 7:30pm which is a little bit on the later side. After wandering around the delta terminal at Detroit, which is a very large airport, it was finally time to board. Aiden and I were sitting next to each other on the flight, and we were both in an exit row which was really nice since there was no one in the middle seat and there was no seat in front of me, so I had a ton of leg room. I was feeling quite tired after a long day plus long run, so I slept for nearly the whole plane ride.
We got to Fort Lauderdale at around 10:30pm after a smooth flight and quickly rushed to the house. Most of us were starving when we arrived but luckily Carson had arrived earlier in the day and had bought us groceries, so we fired up the grill and ate some hot dogs. After that late dinner, we all chilled and relaxed at the pools chatting alongside each other. At this point it was pretty late so most of us headed to bed.
The Beach:
After sleeping well, we got up a little early to get our run over with. Let me say jumping from 30 degrees to mid 70s is always a struggle so the run was quite a slog. To make things worse, running in fort lauderdale is awful and we had to stop many times in order to wait for cars while trying to cross the street. However we only had a 50 minute run luckily so it went by quick. After the run most of us quickly showered and ate breakfast before our group split up. Half the group wanted to got to the college beach and half our group wanted to go to the chill beach. I decided to go to the chill beach and we set up fort and played some spikeball and frisbee. While doing these activities, we were able to meet a dude from Ohio State who played spikeball with us. After spending a decent amount of time at the beach we decided to head to Taco Bell to get some food, this taco bell was special since it was a cantina so it had alcohol which I thought was interesting. However since it was on the main strip, the inflation was crazy. Luckily taco bell was holding a 7 dollar delux box that was protected from the Fort Lauderdale tax which was what I got. After eating our delicous lunch we met back up with the rest of our crew along with other women teammates that were also at Fort lauderdale. We played in the waves and bodied surfed in the warm salty water. After around 5pm, we decided to head home and make some food before relaxing for the rest of the night.
Most days followed what happened on the first day with us waking up to run, then eating, then ubering to the beach and spending around 3-4 hours there before going back home to eat food and then relaxing for the trip. However with each passing day, the time we woke up and ran started to get later and later and some days we were not out of the house until 1pm. Even with most of our day gone from running. It was still nice to have no commitments, things to worry about or time to wake up.
Other Random Things:
Other than the pretty routine like days, there of course was some variation. For example, on Tuesday night I got super sick with the flu and was bed written most of the day on Wednesday. This was quite sad since I had wasted a day of our trip having to sleep and not feel super well but things like this happen that is out of our control, so it is best not to regret them happening.
On the plus side I got to try something new on this trip. Carson, Nick, Colin, and I went to Cracker barrel to eat dinner on Wednesday night. I had never been to cracker barrel before, and Nick was hyping it up a lot so I had to give it a try. Nick had told us that the place was 6 miles away but it turned to be way further than that and took nearly 30 minutes to get there. After we got there we quickly sat down and browsed through the menu. Carson described the food as being old person white food and sure enough it was! I decided to get the chicken and dumplings since that was what Nick and Colin were getting along with a side of Fries, Pinto Beans, and Mac and Cheese. Honestly the food was pretty okay with the chicken and dumplings not having a whole lot of flavors and the sides being okay. However, the plus side for Cracker Barrel was the value. The means had a crazy amount of food for a very good price which I was satisfied about.
Back Home:
Soon enough our trip ended so fast. Since we had gotten really cheap plane tickets our flight departed at 6:00am on Friday mornings so we had a very early morning and left the house at 3:30 to get the airport at 4am. Since it was so early, some of the guys did not even go to bed! We arrived at the airport so early not even TSA was there which was funny. What was nice though was that since the flight was so early, the plane was completely empty and so Aiden and I once again did not have anyone in the middle seat. Of course since I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, I slept on the plane on the way home. Although I woke up conveniently right when the sun was rising and got a beautiful picture of the sunrise while we were up in the air. After another hour we quickly arrived at the airport and headed home. Overall it was really good trip and I was super happy to be able to be in nice weather, hang out with the boys, and just be happy with doing nothing and relaxing.
Conclusion:
Spring break flew by, but it was the perfect reset—good weather, good company, and a break from all responsibilities. Now, with a little extra sun (and maybe some extra Taco Bell), it’s time to get back to reality, refreshed and ready for what’s next!
Goals Update!
Journaling: No Journaling during Break
Reading: Started the David and Goliath Book and got around 50 pages in.
Phone usage: An average of 2 hours and 26 minutes. Spent a lot of time on my phone while I was sick and also when we got home from the trip.
Future: Did taxes and invested when I got home for spring break
Get in Touch
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