And What is Lost Can Never Be Found

Longing for Florida favorites -- the beach, old friends, Tampa Theatre, my mom, Dunedin Brewery -- I left early in the morning (so early, in fact, that I forgot the entire camera bag, stock full of technological wonders!) on the eleventh of September. First destination: Gainesville. With my best friend, K., heading to Rome the following Saturday, I had limited time with her, so I spent time enjoying her teaching (while I also pilfered through her desk -- something you are never allowed to do as a student, but because she's my BFF I had free reign!). We later shared a Publix sub, tangelos, and Raisinets over the shortest lunch ever, and then I departed for Tampa.

A collection of friends were to meet at Fly Bar in downtown Tampa before a planned trip to the theatre. They came, we ate, we laughed -- it was such an enjoyable, light-hearted, and fun time. So fun, in fact, that we decided to skip the theatre, and instead stop by The Hub, and then later walk about UT's campus (M. and I feeling great bouts of nostalgia the entire time). The entire day was truly lovely -- from starting in my best friend's classroom, to ending in my other best friend's guest room -- and a perfect beginning to this short vacation.

The next morning, A. and I made our way south to Pass-A-Grille Beach in St. Petersburg. A. made reservations at the cutest little inn on the beach, and before the afternoon really started, we were on the beach, telling stories, sipping drinks, and playing in the clear, gorgeous water. We spent two full days in this beautiful place -- each day rotating between the sun and water (enjoying the rain showers, too), and each night washing the sand off our bodies to make our way to a waterside restaurant.(We tried conch fritters for the first time! A+!) Pass-A-Grille is quiet and peaceful. I like it here. (:

On Friday morning, A. and I headed back home and I met my mom for a mother-daughter day. We had lunch at Panera, and then headed to her favorite place for pedicures. With freshly painted toes, we then did something sort of unexpected. Apparently my mom and her childhood best friend sometimes spend their days together hanging out at the "Kitty Kabana," the local pet shelter for cats. My mom has termed this place the "Cat House" and was very excited for me to meet Chubby Hugs - a 25lb cat that literally gives you hugs. All these animals were so sweet and it actually was fun spending time there loving on them. Later that day, we headed back home to have dinner cooked by my mom's boyfriend, D. Yummy stir fry! My brother and his girlfriend hung out with us, too, and after stuffing my face with chocolate covered mint Oreos, I succumbed to the best night's rest on the most comfortable air mattress.

Saturday morning, after fresh NY-style Bagels, I left my family and headed toward the Orlando area to meet up with my close friend, S. We first ate at Ethos, a vegan restaurant. Afterward, we went to Enzian Theater, an independent theatre where you can order food and drinks while watching your independent film! S.'s beau, B. met us there before The Queen of Versailles started, so we grabbed a drink and got cozy. After the movie, there was some shoe shopping, and then we headed back to S.'s house for quality time (J. met us there, too!).

What I realized most about this trip is the lack of hugs in my life on a daily basis. Every person I met -- albeit, it may have been a while since our last visit -- greeted me with a comforting squeeze. In non-vacation life, this usually occurs only with my husband -- and those his hugs are great, it was wonderful getting multiple hugs like this each day. Anybody want to hug me more?

Oh yeah, this sunrise was pretty sweet on my drive back to South Carolina. (:

I have been up for 22-hours.

Jonathan will be home from work pretty soon and then we are headed up to Charlotte for the beginning of our adventure! The only thing left to pack are our passports, and the only thing left to do is shower. It's actually unbelievable; I look grungy as all get out, sitting around the house in my underwear for the better part of the morning until I remembered I had to drop off some important paperwork to Human Resources which is about 10-min away from the house. I quickly put on a 4-yr old grey dress, slipped on some grey flip flops and bolted out the door, driving in an almost haze as my stomach grumbled from lack of sleep (Does that ever happen to you? If you work night shift it would!..or at least it does for me.). When I got to HR there were a bunch of firetrucks everywhere but I ignored them, flipped into a parking space, and practically jogged to the door (paperwork had to be in by noon; it was 11:55). I signed in and they told me the bad news - the elevator wasn't working. No problem, I practically ran up four flights of stairs and was impressed with myself that I wasn't out of breath. Handed in my paperwork to the appropriate person at 11:57 and ran back down to check out. As I was exiting the door into the -blistering- 96F heat, a woman commented on how beautiful I look in my dress. [Do you see these bags on my face? The smeared makeup? The sort of lost look in my eyes that happens after a grueling 12-hour shift and then hurriedly packing last minute items before a huge trip?] I smiled and continued almost running to my car.

Just checked in with the weather. It's still snowing/miserable in Yellowstone right now, but I have a feeling God is going to bless us while we're there! On June 3rd, which is as far as the forecast goes, we're looking at "mostly sunny" skies, high of 56 and low of 35. We might be dipping ourselves into the hot springs after all!

Some photos from Flickr to see what we will be adventuring in for the next two weeks:















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You say it's FREE?!

I don't know how well you guys know me, but I am a super planner when it comes to bigger trips. You should have seen the itinerary for our Washington trip last summer! I'm not saying that I don't like spontaneity, but I'm telling you, I have been on one too many trips that are uncoordinated, unplanned, and you waste precious vacation time trying to figure out what to do. There have been a few times this last year that we went on trips and I relinquished my power-trippin' abilities to others, and well, I came up feeling disappointed. You never know if you'll ever be able to visit the area you are vacationing at again, so it's only best to be prepared.

On this note, I wanted to share very exciting news regarding our Chicago trip! As a short update (I realize I never actually told you all that we are making the trip), David's very generous uncle gave us Delta SkyMiles as a wedding gift. We were able to book a 7-day vacation to Chicago (a city we have been wanting to visit for quite a while, and conveniently enough Amanda (David's sister) attends Moody in Chicago and a good friend of ours, Robert, just moved there this May!) for a grand total of $20 (which were taxes and fees that couldn't be paid with using the SkyMiles). Given that we will have free lodging, thanks to the lovely Robert, this has enabled us to possibly spend a little bit more money on things that we would normally be timid about. Can we say SAILING?! Actually that idea came to me last night, but before that we were talking about renting a car to see stuff outside the city...until we realized there isn't much outside the city, but that's a different post in itself.

Last week I checked out a great deal of books from our amazing library, one of them being Fodor's Chicago 2009 (btw, I am huge advocate of Fodor's - you may not be able to plan your entire trip with them, but they are definitely super informative and help guide how you should plan). Last night I stayed up until about 2:30am reading this delightful book, making a list the whole time of things we'd like to do. Best yet, the book has a section of FREE things to do in Chicago! This is especially wonderful, because the first thing I noticed when I did my initial planning for the trip is that their museums just are not as cheap as other cities (NYC, DC for example). Of course you have to attend on certain days and certain hours, but we can surely plan our itinerary around that, right?

The main places not mentioned in the book as having free days were Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, and Adler Planetarium -- those are the main things you want to see in Chitown! So, my next step was to check out CityPass to see if the pricing was worth it. While going from site to site, calculating the whole time, I realized something big. As it turns out, all three have free admission days each month and it just so happens it's during our stay! We might have missed Lollapalooza, Blues Festival, and Jazz Festival, but free museums are almost worth it!

At this rate, we are going to be spending next to nothing on our vacation, aside from food, entertainment, (but even a lot of the popular ones have free second showings) and if the possibility of renting a car. How exciting!

When this planning is complete, I'll share our tentative itinerary with you all -- not that you care!