FLORIDA 2012



Me and my love

So here I am, ready to post about mine and Jason's trip down to FLORIDA...this isn't really us, but I thought it was a good representation of how I felt we looked while hanging out in Palm Beach :)

My lovely mama was kind, and OH-SO-BRAVE-ENOUGH to come stay at our home and take care of our boys so I could have a getaway with my honey.  This was definitely the longest time we've spent away from our kids by 1 day, so that meant I had to plan for that 1 extra day, too :)

We left early on Saturday the 4th and were up in the air by 8am.  I prefer flying early so we have more time to play, of course!!  We had a stop-over in Atlanta so it wasn't a straight flight to W Palm Beach, but to me, part of the whole traveling experience is the time spent in the airport terminals.  I love it!  Part of the whole memory of the vacation to me, are the smells, the food, and of course the frisking that TSA agents get off on!

Although I am an anxious person when it comes to flying, I really do enjoy it; especially the take-off!  What can I say, I have a need for speed!  I would have loved to be a racecar driver (think exotic imports racing, not the whole ugly NASCAR thing, lol)  Maybe someday, right?  For now I'll enjoy driving Jason's Z~

We got into WPB around 4pm on Saturday and to my surprise it was cloudy and (gasp!) raining!!  In Florida, seriously??  Oh well, was gonna make the most of it, it's not everyday I got to fly down to Florida with my sweetie, raining or not!  We attempted to rent a convertible while down there, but turns out everyone thought the same thing and we were outta luck.  Our choices were either a mini-van (NOT!) or a Crown Vic...seriously?!!  The lesser of 2 evils; ok, we'll go with the Crown Vic!  And a black one at that, that I could handle! lol

our hotel as we were leaving :(

It was rather humilliating, to say the least, to pull up into the WPB ritzy Ritz-Carlton in our Crown Vic when there were a plethora of fancy-shmancy cars everywhere, and there we were in our Crown Vic, ha!  Not to mention they only offered valet services for parking so we could't avoid being seen!  I'm sure the unlucky fellow who had to go and round up the car for us was less than thrilled!! lol  But at least we had some wheels so we could go and check out W Palm Beach and the surrounding areas...including the KEYS!  It was a smooth ride with couch-like seats, so can't change what already is, we just made it the butt-end of a lot of jokes down there to keep us laughing :)  We got a kick out of assuming people thought, at first-glance, that we were cops...until they realized we were just some random people driving around in a cop car trying to trip people out!


Gotta love the Crown Vic!!





We ate at a FABULOUSLY rich, luxurious restaurant in our hotel, the Angle Restaurant.  They serve a la carte, so you get the idea on the amount of our tab!  Luckily the company was paying, so I had no reservations other than our scheduled time for seating :)  They served the food in a most ornate way and upon ordering a "salad", of what I thought would be a mixture of greens among other things, wasn't even really a salad at all!  At least not a typical salad that I'm used to and I was pleasantly surprised that it was what it was!  We had these donut holes for dessert that consisted of Nutella in the middle and 2 dipping sauces of coffee and banana...yumm!  The only thing that would have made the dessert perfect would have been MORE Nutella inside :-P 

We went back to our room and opened our sliding glass door that led to the patio, and let the sounds of the majestic waves rolling up onto the beach soothe our souls :)  We sat out on that patio and just soaked up everything that was around us at the moment and I could have stayed out there all night listening to the sounds of the ocean...I was so grateful for that moment in time to enjoy one of God's most lovely creations, and what better setting than to enjoy it with my dear husband!!



A view to a kill...the view from our room!


So Sunday we took our sweet time getting out of bed, and enjoyed the sweet sounds of the ocean, yet again.  Once we finally dragged our butts outta bed, we headed over to the fitness center they had on site...overlooking THE BEACH!!  Too bad I was just short enough to get the full view of the ocean :(

I sure enjoyed working out at the same time as Jason; I wish we had a pass to a gym somewhere back home, but I just can't justify the cost for us to go...so for now I will just enjoy that day that we WERE able to workout together :)

self-portrait while cruisin' in the Crown Vic!

Then it was time to hit the road and drive down to the Keys!  Jason has a lot of good memories as a kid hanging out down there so he was excited to show me the area.  The only downer was it was CLOUDY, yuck!!  I guess it was a GOOD THING?? we didn't  have our convertible :(  Jason wanted to take me to this place called Pennecamp State Park where you can snorkel and do all sorts of other things...which would have been great on a sunny day!  Somehow the idea of snorkeling on a rainy, dreary day just seemed too COLD.  So we passed on that one and just decided to find a place to eat, instead. 

He also remembered a place called The Green Turtle...so thanks to the handy GPS devices on most phones, we were able to find it...but it didn't look very appealing.  There didn't seem to be anyone there to eat, which is usually the first sign that you might wanna pass that one up!  Or it may have been that the sun wasn't out and shining, which always seems to make even the diviest of dives look more appealing!  So we decided to pack that and kept on driving to find a place that looked "alive"! lol

We spied a place called The Fish House that looked NOT like Salmonella poisoning so we figured we'd give it a try...as long as they had a mean key lime pie to boot!  This particular restaurant catches the fish they sell in their market and also to the surrounding area restaurants, too.  We got to sit outside, YES!  Outside!!  By the ocean, nontheless...and we even got to be entertained by some nurse sharks, a lone lemon shark, some gulls, and a pelican feeding in this little inlet from the ocean that is built around the inside of the outside eating area of the restaurant.  Of course my thought was how much the boys would LOVE to see what we were seeing, being the mom that I am ;) 

view of the ocean from the fish house restaurant (see, cloudy!!) but still beautiful~

the fish house property at night!

sharks!



funny pelican, competing with the sharks for some grub!





We did find that they had a pretty darn good key lime pie with cashews in the crust, so what did we do?  We bought the whole danged pie and took it back to the hotel...it was superbowl Sunday, afterall!  I guess in the adventure of going to a destination  is part of the fun and you don't always realize how far you went to get there!  So we def had a long drive back but I was able to catch a glimpse of that dirty, fascinating place called MIAMI~ It went whizzing right by and all I got were a few fuzzy pictures of the many, many lights in that town...a part of me wanted to check it out and see what all the hype is about but I suppose a part of me thought that I might actually enjoy the city-life of Miami and maybe it was better just to let it pass right on by ...:)



yep that's Miami



So we made it to the last 1/2 hour of the game and we basically just showed up to show our faces to those people who had put the superbowl party...I was more happy that we spent a little too much time in the Keys, though!  So we happily headed back to our room, changed, a decided to take a walk on the beach...ahhh, the LIFE!! 

Our hotel was literally right on the beach so we had it all to ourselves as it was windy out, but what's not to love about your hair being blown around by the sea air??!  Not to mention we had the ridiculous luxury of all of the multi-million dollar houses to walk by and "ooh and ahhh" over, then go right into a conversation about how ridiculous it was for ANYBODY to have to have something like these homes...even though  I'm sure if we were given the chance to have one for FREE, we'd totally jump at the chance for a beachfront property, no doubt!! LoL  I have to wonder whose houses of the rich and famous we were literally walking right in the backyards of!! 

our walk on the beach...taken in the dark with my basic camera, but still looks cool~

So that night was indeed, a magical night that I will always remember, it was also the last night before I would wake up the next morning to the horrible news I was hoping I'd never have to hear.  That next day was a cloudy and rainy day; it rained bucket-loads that only added to the difficulty of the news I'd received that morning.  That morning I learned that one of our sweet kitties had died in a most tragic way.  If you missed that post and want to read more, click here on this Charlie link.

Luckily our 4th and final day in Florida turned out to be better than the previous day had been.  I was extremely sad but also didn't want to let it spoil our last day there, and luckily the sun decided to come out for a visit so I could feel its healing warmth while Jason was in his last seminar meeting.  After he was done we went down to sit on the beach on some chairs and just relax and take it all in, one last time.  Wow, the ocean is peaceful...even when the waves are crashing against the shore, it's still a wonderfully calming sound.  I now know why Jason has wanted to move down there all these years, so I told him I'm officially sold on the idea of retiring there when the kids are grown and have their own families and lives...we laughed it up taking pics of ourselves on the beach and got overtaken by the seagulls by my ever-willingness to give the birds a piece of the pie, so-to-speak :)

feeding the gulls...you feed 1, you feed them all! :/

looking south

beautiful pelican overhead...ahhh, I LOVE Florida!

And then, just like that, it was time to head to the airport...so long Palm Beach, it was nice to FINALLY make you're aquaintance...I hope we get to come back and visit you VERY, VERY, SOON; and bring the WHOLE FAMILY next time. 



beautiful florida sunset @the airport





and jason enjoying that beautiful sunset...



...and might I add one of my fave new (new for me, anyways) rapper's FLO RIDA.  This video I put on here is the one song that I love, that reminds me of our getaway...nothing like music to take you away to another place when life can get monotonous, especially when his stage name is the place in where you're vacay'n and it pulls those memories all together perfectly  ;)