Vacay Recap

Hey everyone!  We made it home safely last night, fell into bed and I slept like a baby!  We were both so tired from the hard day of driving!

We had a blast on our trip.  It all started when we went to Brian's parents 50th anniversary.  The next day we headed out to see what we could find to do.  We didn't have plans for 7 whole days, just deciding daily where to go and what to do. A little risky, but fun!  Then we would be in Key West for 5 glorious days!

The first day we drove to Arkansas to the Diamond Mine!  This is something we have been talking about doing for a while.  The kids were going to join us and then life happened and it didn't.  So, we decided to check it out.  I didn't find a diamond, but we had a good time and it is something that we want to do with the kids later!

It was cold, but bearable.  We bundled up and gave it our best effort!

We woke up to snow, didn't get quite far enough south, but drove out of it pretty quickly.  Next stop - New Orleans!  We had never been there, thought we'd check it out..... Booked our room for 2 nights, lots to see here.  (Funny aside - I asked the guy if we could stay 3 nights, he looked at me and said "Oh, honey... tomorrow starts Mardi Gras, you won't find a room for miles around).  So 2 nights it is.

We had a blast - walked the entire downtown area and explored and enjoyed.  Had some amazing food, good drinks and were exhausted!!!

After we left New Orleans, we took the ferry across the water and stayed the night in Panama City Beach!  We got there after dark, it rained HARD the next day, so there was a quick walk on the beach and we were out of there.  No photos.....  But, it was a nice stay.  The room was nice, the beach was even better and I got my feet in the sand.  Brian got in the water and was amazed at how cold it was.  54 degrees is pretty cool water!  He was freezing!

We drove most of the next day in the rain, finally decided to go to Siesta Key!  My dear friend, Denisa had been there and told us it was a can't miss.  She was right!  Talk about a wonderful beach!

There was no place to stay on Siesta Key, but we had a fantastic meal and time and then moved on to find somewhere to bed down for the night.  We found a place and the only room left was a suite, ok, if you are going to force me to stay here..... it wasn't the greatest room, but we were happy with it.  The only problem we had was that it was so stinkin' noisy.  It was on the first floor and I thought that was the reason.  We could hear people walking and talking on the sidewalk outside, we were woke up by the trash truck at 4:00 in the morning and could even hear the traffic from the road - quite a ways away.  We were prepared to complain and ask for some type of refund.  UNTIL..... Brian discovered that every window in the place was wide open.  We had no idea.  Brian was laughing so hard he couldn't hardly talk.  Trying to tell me what was funny was even more funny.  So no complaining from us, we were too stupid to know the windows were open.....

We decided to check out the other Keys.  Since we were staying in Key West, why not spend a couple of nights in the keys.  We can find out which one we like best this way.  Well, a long weekend and the Keys add up to not many rooms... I was afraid we were going to have to sleep in the car on the beach or something, but we found a GREAT room on Islamorada.  It was perfect.  The "beach" was beautiful.  Now, I say "beach" because the beaches there are different from what I was expecting.  They bring the sand in, they are small and we had a private beach just for our hotel.  We walked around and explored the town.

  Found a wonderful restaurant to eat at and enjoyed ourselves.  We got up and watched the sunrise - absolutely stunning.  I've already shared the photos, you've probably seen them and if not, just scroll down a little and you will see them.  Then we walked around the property and found some cute little friends.

Really colorful fish and the antenae you see sticking out are lobsters.  So cool!

Since rooms were pretty scarce on the Keys, we found one online for the next night and just booked it.  This was the only room that really sucked.  It was horrible.  But, beggars can't be choosy right?  However, the price we had to pay was unreal.

We were in Key West.  I've blogged about it quite a bit already, so read below if you haven't already to see all the fun times we had.

We loved every single minute of it!  I'm so glad we did this and now we are gearing up for the Fight of Our Lives.  I have created a separate page to explain what that means.  You can read about it if you want.  I don't want this page to become about that, I want it to stay the same.  So, head over there, it is listed at the top of this page, if you want to read about it.  I'll be blogging about that when I feel like sharing and have anything TO share.