My Florida Vacation

Hello again! How’s your day going so far? I hope you enjoyed my interview with Gina this morning! I’m trying hard to channel her strength and stay away from leftover Halloween candy today; how about you?
I wanted to share a quick recap of my Florida vacation. I arrived there late last Tuesday and flew home to DC last night. I’m glad to be back, but I sure do miss the Florida weather! It was mid-70s all week and gorgeous. It’s freezing here!

The trip didn’t start off great because I got braces on my top teeth Monday, the day before I left (ughhh!). I could hardly eat anything Tuesday, and I was starved by the time I made it to Atlanta airport for my 3-hour layover. I used an app my friend Monica told me about – Gate Guru – to find a restaurant at ATL. (You can search food options by Terminal and read reviews. It’s a great app!) I ended up at Cafe Intermezzo and ordered double soup (I was starved) and I also enjoyed two glasses of wine. It really hit the spot!

When I got to Daytona my granny came running to greet me. I hadn’t seen her since Christmas and let me tell ya, I really missed her! I didn’t realize just how much until I saw her smiling face! I could have cried!

I lived with my granny (yes, I call her granny) after college and she’s so dear to me. You can see just how excited we were to see each other in the photo below. Cheesin’ (braces and all)!

Wednesday morning the sun was shining and my teeth felt a lot better. Below you can see the view from granny’s condo. Isn’t it gorgeous? That’s the ocean off in the distance!

We had dinner by the sea the first night at a little place called Racing’s North Turn. They have live music and good food. It was beautiful! What a wonderful view!

Here’s granny looking beautiful:

Even though my teeth felt better, I still wanted to be cautious about what I ate. I really wanted the crab legs or steamed shrimp but chewing anything was a risk I didn’t want to take so I opted for Lobster Ravioli. I didn’t love the sauce (I didn’t eat most of it) and I could hardly eat the bread, but the pasta itself was delish! It definitely hit the spot!

I ended the first night with a dip in the pool. Granny’s condo has this indoor pool, which is heated, a jaccuzzi, and two outdoor pools – talk about nice!

Thursday was Halloween and we had plans to go to Bingo that night. (Granny is an avid Bingo and Mah Jongg player.) I suggested we dress up and she was all for it, so we went shopping for a costume.

I loved our bacon and egg costume because we were a duo! But then, Granny said we had to have face paint! If we were going to dress-up, we had to do it “right!” I was a little nervous about the face paint to be honest, but I figured what the heck! And sure, enough, we had a blast putting it on!

Everyone at Bingo loved our costume, but sadly, we didn’t win the costume contest (we felt totally gipped as we were the only ones with face paint!), but on the upside, I got bingo and won $25! Woo hoo!

The next day we went to one of my favorite places, Crabby Joes, a restaurant situated on this pier overlooking the water. It’s beautiful and the food is great! I got the fish fry.

We walked around the beach for awhile after lunch and then headed to Cow Lick’s for ice cream. It was so. so. good! I got cappuccino flavor and granny got rum raisin.

I headed down to the pool for a little R&R when we got home. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was disappearing but it was still nice. I took a nap!

After a few hours, I asked granny to give me a ride across town to CrossFit Diehard, a CrossFit box in Daytona. I called ahead and spoke with the owner, Barry about dropping in for a class and he was really nice. Plus, the drop-in fee is only $10! I hadn’t worked out since Monday so I was a little rusty, but I enjoyed the class. They fit a lot in – foam rolling techniques and a quick rowing exercise, plus a warm-up, plus “diane,” a benchmark workout I’m familiar with. The people were really, really nice, too.

It was fun to scope out another box, too. I really loved all the playful stuff they had written on the white boards and on the walls. And these life-size image of the Rock? I have no idea what that’s used for but I think it’s awesome nonetheless! I also loved seeing “What is Rich doing?” written on the wall. It was all very motivating!

It rained most of the day Saturday which was disappointing since that was the day I planned to spend at the pool. I ended up at the indoor pool and reading a true crime novel (they’re my favorite but I do’nt read them too often anymore since I always want to be on my computer instead). It was really great to disconnect from technology for the day and spend time at th epool, though. After awhile we headed out to eat and to chruch, and then capped the night with a delicious rum cocktail!

All and all, I had an amazing, very relaxing trip to Florida and I really enjoyed seeing my granny! I got a lot done blogging-wise, and felt a renewed sense of commitment to my blog. I even posted to Facebook about it, asking friends to sign-up for my newsletter. That took a lot of guts, but my granny gave me confidence!

What do you do when you visit family?

Have you ever done a CrossFit drop-in class?