Lowell Lemon
2500 Club Member
Awesome and enjoy your day!
The TSA Grand Prize Tour Experience!
- Thread starter ESABOE
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kevgib67
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You probably never will from someone being serious! Over the last decade I’ve been saying that Florida’s traffic is getting as bad as California’s . Then I visit my brother and his family in San Diego and decide Florida is close but not quite there yet.
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I want to take a second and say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts here at TSA. When we set up this giveaway we had the idea in mind that we wanted to do everything in our power to give back to this amazing community. Never did we know who the winners would be, or who would be coming to visit us at the farm, but we were so lucky to have you come to visit us Jen!
I was ecstatic to take you through the farm and show you all the facilities. Easily my favorite part though was getting to just chat reef and just soak up all the moments together. The moment you arrived to the moment we finished dinner I was smiling ear to ear.
This was such a joy, and thank you again for taking the time to engage, support, and be a part of this amazing community.
From all of us at TSA, congratulations and we cannot wait to see those corals you picked out in your tank at home! Talk about some killer picks too!!
Happy Reefing to all, and congrats again to all the winners!
-Blaine
I was ecstatic to take you through the farm and show you all the facilities. Easily my favorite part though was getting to just chat reef and just soak up all the moments together. The moment you arrived to the moment we finished dinner I was smiling ear to ear.
This was such a joy, and thank you again for taking the time to engage, support, and be a part of this amazing community.
From all of us at TSA, congratulations and we cannot wait to see those corals you picked out in your tank at home! Talk about some killer picks too!!
Happy Reefing to all, and congrats again to all the winners!
-Blaine
kevgib67
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Thank you so much for taking such good care of our Jennifer and giving her the time of her life. You are all awesome!
tbrown
Nominated Cronie Intern - Might be failing?
From Kevin, just expect it.
AlyciaMarie
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Wow! This is so awesome. TSA is a class act for sure!
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We love you Blaine and all of TSA!
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ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Ohhh, i wish we could have connected- we have gossiped about you for hours!
kevgib67
10K Club member
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Midwest Reefer
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I’m glad you didn’t you would have not liked me anymore!
OP
OP
ESABOE
2500 Club Member
My emojis don’t work inside of my posts!! And I only a few ae available to comment on a post.
OP
OP
ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Always love my lil Smorgasbord brothers!
OP
OP
ESABOE
2500 Club Member
This is the R2R community! We care for each other; support each other, whether that be in reefing or Everyday RL stuff!
I am blessed to have found this group of friends and being able to connect in RL with an LFS like TSA that I already love and shop at (online), it’s been more than one can absorb. However, I will simmer in this experience and post my thoughts on everything I saw once I get home,
Flight tomorrow night and will regroup and post over weekend!
OP
OP
ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Indeed!
tbrown
Nominated Cronie Intern - Might be failing?
Yeah, but she wouldn't have liked you any less either!
OP
OP
ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Blaine,
You are a true kindred spirit- things happen for a reason and winning this giveaway ended up being much much more,
Your enthusiasm and passion not only about your role at TSA, but your role as a reefer in your personal life was inspiring to watch!
Meeting your family and breaking bread together was the perfect way to end the day - just a bunch of reefing nerds talking about the hobby and the thought leaders who have inspired us and the new ones who are making us think differently about the responsibility of what is in those tanks.
TSA’s corals on the website look incredible- however, it pales in comparison to what i actually saw in the retail store and farm! These are NOT doctored up, filtered photos - you are getting extremely healthy, colorful, Chonky corals. And even though you see this all on a daily basis, you were as excited as me to see such beauty - so thank you,
And I will have the owner of my LFS place/glue them on my rockscape so they don’t get broken (which I do every time)!
As i mentioned, I will email you a pic of my scape so the team and maybe even Kevin can weigh in on proper placement/ he is a true artist!
Again, thank you for making me feel like. TSA family member- currently have my TSA Tshirt on in airport!
OP
OP
ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Sorry to make everyone wait for some actual content; I want to have photos to coincide with my posts and it’s been back-to-back events for the TSA team. Lots of airline miles racked up in the last two weeks! Pics coming soon!
In the meantime, here is where it started; well actually it started from the moment Blaine picked me up at the hotel. By the time this photo was taken, we had chatted for about an hour. In that time I knew not only was this going to be a rare occasion in my life with Blaine as my guide; but I had made a true-blue friend.
My smile is hiding many emotions - how surreal this moment actually was - I flew across the country to look at and take home corals?!?!
I was actually going to see the finest retail coral farm in the country?!?; and I was going to continue to meet people I had seen on my computer and get to fan-girl around them (Taras, Kevin, and already Blaine)?!?
Not to mention what it took for me to physically get there, standing in front of that farm! Most people thought I was a bit crazy to do it (ok, it was just my family); but nothing could have stopped me. I told the crew and especially Garrett the videographer, that due to my chemo treatment, there was a lot of fake stuff on my face and if my glued on eyebrows started to melt in the Florida humidity or my glued lashes and I started to look like Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd (look it up young ones); let me know and we can stop filming while I repair. Also, to move my walker out of the way for key shots so the focus stays on the corals, not this old broads mode of transportation. That all these wonderful young men who had just met me, were almost literally lifting me into and out of a truck because my legs don’t work in those situations.
So that smile holds the fact that my ego had already gone out the door (pun intended), and what was left was just the essence of being human and really connecting with people on a deep level. So it ended up being a blessing as the day was driven by those human connections and it continued throughout the entire trip.
In the meantime, here is where it started; well actually it started from the moment Blaine picked me up at the hotel. By the time this photo was taken, we had chatted for about an hour. In that time I knew not only was this going to be a rare occasion in my life with Blaine as my guide; but I had made a true-blue friend.
My smile is hiding many emotions - how surreal this moment actually was - I flew across the country to look at and take home corals?!?!
I was actually going to see the finest retail coral farm in the country?!?; and I was going to continue to meet people I had seen on my computer and get to fan-girl around them (Taras, Kevin, and already Blaine)?!?
Not to mention what it took for me to physically get there, standing in front of that farm! Most people thought I was a bit crazy to do it (ok, it was just my family); but nothing could have stopped me. I told the crew and especially Garrett the videographer, that due to my chemo treatment, there was a lot of fake stuff on my face and if my glued on eyebrows started to melt in the Florida humidity or my glued lashes and I started to look like Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd (look it up young ones); let me know and we can stop filming while I repair. Also, to move my walker out of the way for key shots so the focus stays on the corals, not this old broads mode of transportation. That all these wonderful young men who had just met me, were almost literally lifting me into and out of a truck because my legs don’t work in those situations.
So that smile holds the fact that my ego had already gone out the door (pun intended), and what was left was just the essence of being human and really connecting with people on a deep level. So it ended up being a blessing as the day was driven by those human connections and it continued throughout the entire trip.
OP
OP
ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Without further ado:
kevgib67
10K Club member
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Omg ( that’s oh my god for you older reefers) that brought a tear to my eye Jen, might be the 30 mg prednisone I’m on. What fantastic picks you made! Absolutely love those monti caps! I will be on the edge of my seat waiting to see all of them in your tank. I am so happy you got to have that experience and he was so great!
OP
OP
ESABOE
2500 Club Member
Thank you my dear friend and fellow Pred buddy.
The mother colony’s on those monti’s would take up most of my DT they were so huge and beautiful.
I’ll be showing the arrival, placement and progress of these TSA corals for sure.
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