Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Whirlwind Tour of Florida

Ya know that "I need a vacation from my vacation" phrase? Yeah, that. Here's the recap - the super short version...

Parental units/Ft. Myers...my favorite neighborhood. My dream is to live in a retirement community where you eat meals together in the dining room, go to arts and crafts classes anytime you want, drive a golf cart, and take bus trips to the mall. I kinda did it backwards though, because I lived in FL in my youth and now I'm in CA during my old age.

Brother-SIL/St. Cloud...another one of my favorite places. The Brother is in the bee business, which The Husband was brave enough to check out. Note the picture-from-a-distance that I took of The Bee Whisperer Wannabe.

The SIL is in the fabulous-clothes business, which is so much more "me" that I excused myself from the nature channel and drooled over some gorgeous shoes instead. Not only are these the most beautiful shoes EV.ER., but they're also in that magnificent hue of Gator Orange and Blue. Rumor has it that you can custom order any colors, but why would you?

While we were in the Central FL area, we also participated in AFSP's Out of the Darkness Walk. Ya know, because I don't do enough OOTD Walks from September through November in SoCal - I needed to travel 3000 miles to do another one.

Also while in my hometown 'hood, I got to play with my girlz. Seriously, the four of us have known each other since about 4th-5th grade (which was only a few years ago, mind you) all the way through college and beyond and the stories we've accumulated along the way are why the Mother's Curse was invented. The best one was, "I told them (referring to teenage daughters) they couldn't go to that concert and can you believe they snuck out and went anyway?!" Really, and that was shocking to you? Because we didn't do the same exact thing a million times? (Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, I'm referring to THEM, not ME, because, well, I was an angel and always followed the rules. Yup, sticking with that story.) So here we are circa 1979...
And here we are (minus the feathers) a mere 32 years later in 2011...
We practically look the same, right? Okay, well at least we still act like 17-yr-olds.

The rest of the whirlwind consisted of visiting the in-laws in New Port Richey, a Sherlock Holmes-esque adventure in Tarpon Springs (more on that later), and then back to visit my parental units and aunt/uncle in Ft. Myers. Finally, on our last day in the other Sunshine State, we relaxed on the beach. Fun was had by all!
Blinded by the light sun!