Quick Florida Vacay

So I decided a few weeks ago to go to Florida. By myself. Well, not completely. I'd be traveling by myself down there, but staying with my grandparents who live just south of Tampa. It was just before college spring breaks were starting and it was probably going to be tough to get on flights. If I could make it down there, I just needed to rent a car. And let me tell you - those car rental places are not stupid. They totally jack up their prices in prime areas in prime times. I ended up finding a good deal on a car and that sealed the deal for me - I was heading to Florida!

Baby and me by the "famous" tree

My grandparents live just east of Bradenton, Fl in Ellenton. Its a nice little community and they live in a retirement park with lots of other people their age. They are complete socialites. I was able to do lots of fun things in my 3 days in Florida. We always go to breakfast on the beach on Holmes Beach on Anna Marie Island. Its a cute little cafe, right on the beach, and they have all you can eat pancakes. Yummy!!! I have to go there every time I go to visit. Every year we have gone, we always take pictures in this tree. I'm not even sure what its called, but its a cool tree in the parking lot and my grandpa always makes us stop and pose for pictures under the tree. I had to take a "baby bump" picture of me and the baby under the tree. I don't have much of a bump here, but I know that someday our little baby will pose under that same tree! It was so absolutely wonderful, I don't think I've ever had better weather down there. 85 degrees with a great breeze of the gulf and abundant sunshine! I relaxed on the beach all day Friday. What a perfect day.

Foggy sunset on the gulf! 

I spent all day Saturday enjoying the pool at my granparent's place. I knew the beach was going to be a little crazy on a Saturday, and the pool was just wonderful because I could actually swim. The gulf was quite chilly and I only stuck my toes in to say that I stuck my toes in! Saturday night for dinner we went back to Anna Marie Island and ate at the Beach House, another restaurant right on the gulf. The sunset started out perfect and then the sea fog rolled in. I must say, out of all my years visiting them, I have never had a sunset ruined by fog. But there's always a first for everything, right? Again, I couldn't resist another baby bump picture right on the gulf with the waves. Here we are at 18 weeks, slowly but surely, we are getting more noticeable!

I really loved going to Florida, even it was only for 3 days, and I had to travel by myself. I just love being able to pick up and go places just because I feel like it. I know things will be different when the baby comes, but I really hope that we can still have spontaneous trips and go places with our sweet babe. I just feel like time can goes so fast and there are so many opportunities we pass up every day. I don't want to pass up too many opportunities. We are lucky to have travel benefits and if things fall into place and travel can happen, I want to try and do it - no matter what. I know priorities will change and our kids will have activities, and we are going to be plenty busy running off to all those things, but I really want them to have that same care-free and spontaneous aura about them. Life is too short to always be planned and serious right?

California October 2012

I am convinced that California in October is amazing. I don't have much to compare it to since I've only been to California in October, but it is pretty spectacular this time of year. Jordan and I are lucky enough to have gone for the past 2 years to Monterey, CA to celebrate our anniversary. Last year's trip was bittersweet because when we got back he left for 2 months for military training, but this year's trip was unplanned until about 3 weeks before and it was such an amazing, relaxing vacation, just the two of us!

We started out early Monday morning expecting to get to California by about noon pacific time. Then we looked at our chances to get on the flights. Not so good. We weren't even sure we could get out of Kalamazoo at that point. We ended up getting out to Detroit just fine and then we were stuck. We weren't sure whether to take our chances on a direct flight to San Francisco (SFO) that was oversold by 5, or take a sure flight later in the day out of New York City at JFK. We were a little tired and decided to skip the direct flight and head to New York. That was quite an adventure in itself too. We had to fly to LaGuardia in NYC, take a bus across the city to JFK to catch our flight. What could we say, we wanted some adventure to start off our trip!

After our detour to NYC for the day, we ended up getting to SFO just fine! Instead of a 4 hour flight though, we had a 6 hour flight coast to coast! It was such a long flight. Can't really complain too much though, we were on our way to California! We got our rental car and headed down the coast to Monterey. I was quite happy with myself for being able to use my credit card reward points for our rental car, which was completely free! (thanks to my nurse extern who reminded me I probably had some points!). We were so hungry we decided to try and find food around San Francisco. We ended up driving through a really cool part of town south of the city, through some really fancy neighborhoods that I'm sure we weren't suppose to be in. It was cool though to see the different houses and the way people live in different cities.

Monterey Marriott

Just a short hour or so later and we were in Monterey. We checked in to our hotel the Monterey Marriott. Jordan earned reward points for staying in Macon, GA for 6 months and we were able to use points for 2 nights and only paid for 1 night! Jordan also earned the title of "platinum-elite member" at Marriott, so we were treated like royalty there. We got upgraded to their largest suite (for free), with 2 balconies,  and got a bottle of wine delivered to our room. We also got free breakfast at their buffet each morning too (normally $20 a person!). We made out like bandits there. It was so cool to have all those things happen over our anniversary.

Lollapalooza on our anniversary

We woke up on our anniversary and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast! We headed out for some whale watching that morning and had a great time for a second year in a row with the Princess Monterey Whale Watching Tours. We had the most amazing weather. It was seriously a perfect day. After our whale watching and lunch on fisherman's wharf, we headed down south of Monterey to the area of Big Sur, where an awesome mountain range meets the ocean! We drove around and saw the Giant Redwoods, stopped at roadside pull offs and really enjoyed some of the best sights in our country! We ended our trip south of Monterey at Point Lobos State Reserve, where we hiked around and watched a glorious sunset with sea lions serenading the scene. We went back downtown Monterey for dinner at Lollapalooza. It was soo good! We loved it so much, we actually went back the next day! They had the best local wines and Jordan loved their drinks and food too!

Jordan on Carmel Beach

On Wednesday we really just did whatever came our way. We went on the 17-mile-drive through Pebble Beach on a super warm fall day and just took in every sight and sound we could. That region is just wonderful. It is beautiful and breathtaking. There is so much to do and even though it can get touristy, it doesn't feel like your in the middle of hundreds of other visitors. There is one of the best aquariums in the country in Monterey, and even though we haven't had the chance to go there, we know it would live up to the greatness. Everything else in Monterey has. We spent time in Carmel. When I speak of Monterey being wonderful, I tend to lump Carmel into that same sentiment. Carmel is a boutique-y little town that sits right on the ocean. The beach there is amazing and butts up to the famed Pebble Beach Golf Course. They have great shopping and great food in town. Oh and Clint Eastwood lives there! That is super cool!

This year we didn't go wine tasting like we did last year and I'm a little sad about that. The wine in that area is so good! I know we'll be back again so next year that will be on our must do list! We had the best weather ever and the best vacation. Seriously. Monterey is beautiful and there is never a lack of things to do. We CANNOT wait to go back!