floooorida

A couple weeks ago, my sister Melba asked if I'd like to accompany her on an all-expense paid trip to Florida that she was taking to attend a conference for her job. I had to think about it for maybe a second. 

The conference was in Tampa and we stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the beach.  It was gorgeous. I spent the weekend reading, eating and tanning by the pool. It was incredibly relaxing and sooo fun for me.  It's the first trip I've taken by myself since I started having children four years ago.  It was so wonderful to spend my days doing WHATEVER I wanted - I can't remember the last time I did that.  I also loved kicking it with Melba - when she was in classes during the day I kicked it on my own (being by myself . . .something I don't get to do very often - it was beautiful!) and when she was free we had fun together.  Seriously, it was an awesome weekend. I loved it. Here are some highlights. . . .

Our beautiful room - loved the down pillows and comforters. 

Melba and the hotel overlooking the Gulf of Mexico

The hotel had several restaurants on the grounds - we tried most of them. This one gave us each roses when we finished our meals. Nice touch.

This is how I spent most of my days - by the pool or on the beach reading. Ah! It was heaven! (A little side note - I started the first book in the Hunger Games series on the plane there and finished the last one on the plane back. I was hooked and it was awesome.)

The hotel was like a little community with tons of activities for it's guests. One day we took a water tour on these little paddlers.  

At another restaurant - enjoying my Diet Coke.

The weather was beautiful and so was the white sand beach.

Playing pool at the resort - we are both pretty bad so it was a looong game. . . but I came out victorious. Yup, yup. Went DOWN like Charlie Brown! Haha! Rematch Melba?

Enjoying the warm Florida night weather on the boulevard.

That's me. Reading in my hammock. On the beach. While sipping my Diet Coke. . . . Seriously? I know.

DEFINITELY one of the biggest highlights of my trip - eating at Bahama Breeze.  It a very popular restaurant that is only located in Florida and Las Vegas.  I had the Guava BBQ ribs - they were AMAZING.

Florida is one of those places I would probably never visit if it weren't for something like this.  I'm so happy I got to experience it in this way - THANK YOU MELBA! It was awesome! It was one of the most relaxing and fun weekends EVER! And big shout out to Wayne and my mother in law, Vai for taking over at home with the girls while I was gone. THANK YOU!