Girls Beach Weekend Getaway

Another trip you say? My answer is YES. Because why not? This one was inspired by a sale on plane tickets to Florida and a couple of fun ladies who are always up for adventure. 3 nights on the beach with a roundtrip direct flight for only $400 each? Sign me up!

With all the craziness in the news recently about crashing planes and drama on the runways, I was happy to see my plane intact and ready to take us on the 3hr flight to Ft Lauderdale. I was even more happy to arrive in one piece and not upside down!

I found us a cute little studio with a kitchen just a block from the beach. We arrived with enough to time to freshen up and walk around in search of dinner and snacks.

It wasn't far to walk to the pier where we found many pelican friends to take pictures of!

After this we grabbed some yummy dinner then rested for a bit at our room. We had heard there was a free outdoor concert that night so when the sun started to set we grabbed the shuttle and headed back to the main beach area where we lived with some great classic rock on the beach! 

After awhile we were alerted to the amazing moonrise happening so we wondered down to the waterside and watched the red moon riding up slowly over the waves. Then we enjoyed a night time beach walk as we headed back to our room to share a bottle of wine and relax.

The next morning we gathered up our beach gear and filled our drinks then schlepped everything down to the water's edge for way too many hours in the sun!

I think we were there for somewhere between 5-7 hours? Who's counting? Anywho...we failed on the sunscreen reapplication as you can see from my lobster skin! That however did not stop us from returning the next day for our last afternoon of beach vibes. We were much more diligent with our sunscreen 

We ate at some great places, did some shopping, and polished off an impressive amount of Tito's. For our last evening there, we enjoyed a sunset beach stroll and I honestly think we walked all the way from Pompano Beach to Ft Lauderdale beach! 

There were tons of these Portuguese man o' wars washed up on the shore! Thankfully their stinging tendrils were mostly missing but we still watched very carefully where we stepped.

The last day there we woke up at the ungodly hour of 4am to get dressed and meet our Uber to the airport for our 7am flight. By 10am we were landing back in Buffalo! Home sweet home.

Jacob's First Band Concert

My littlest little started learning to play the clarinet this school and after just a few short months of instruction he participated in his first band concert this week! The 4th and 5th graders played a few short songs, then the middle school band played a couple nice songs, then the high school band did an amazing job on a couple more complicated songs and the concert ended with all grades playing the ending together!

We are very proud of him for doing so well to learn this instrument, and being able to get thru his fear and anxiety of everything involved with the performance. He has another one in May that we are looking forward too, and just maybe he'll stick with the clarinet for 5th grade!

A Winter Break Family Getaway

Here in western NY the kids get a week off of school in February, and one week off in April. Of course everybody gets a bit stir crazy being all cooped up during the winter....so I planned a short and sweet little getaway just a few hours away in NE Pennsylvania to the Pocono Mountains! We've never been to that area before and I found a great bargain on a resort condo with an indoor pool and hot tub....needless to say I booked it because why not?

Of course the day we left it was snowing like crazy, and this snow followed us allll the way past the Pennsylvania border. My poor little car was so covered in salt when we got there, we actually had to find a car wash to rinse off so I could see out the windows!

The condo we got was super clean and very roomy--2 bedrooms plus a loft, full kitchen, 2 full bathrooms, and dining room and a living room with a fireplace. There was also a patio but we didn't really use that due to the cold weather. There was even a washer and dryer! Oh and one of the bathrooms had a jacuzzi tub which was quite nice!

Because of who I am as a person, I planned meals and brought supplies to cook dinner each night, as well as for breakfasts, snacks, and most lunches. We did get out to a great diner for one lunch and it was delicious!

Mostly we just relaxed in the condo and took advantage of the pool. The kids had fun swimming. One afternoon Nick and I got out to a local flea market and had a look around. We also all got to enjoy an "ice cream social" one afternoon for the resort where we all got sundaes.

We headed home Sunday morning and thanks to the much improved weather we made it home and unloaded by 2pm. Cuddles was happy to see us again! Now the boys are back to school, and Jacob has his FIRST ever band concert next week. We are very excited to see that! Stay tuned...

A Week in Paradise

Last week a couple of girlfriends and I returned from a week on the far eastern island of Antigua! This was my first trip to this end of the Caribbean Sea and it was just what the doctor ordered.

We had rented a small but cozy beach house that was right on it's own stretch of sand in a quiet bay facing the sunset. It had a huge porch and patio to enjoy the evenings on, as well as lots of windows to feel the ocean breeze all night long. Parts were a bit rustic like an outdoor shower and no hot water...but all is forgivable with the views and privacy that we had!

We had a direct flight from Toronto and after landing, getting our rental car, and finding the beach house we had just enough time to find some dinner at a roadside shack (these would quickly become our favorite and preferred method of eating!). After filling our stomachs with some yummy food (shawarma--first of many) we arrived back to the beach house just in time to witness our first of several breathtaking sunsets.

These little guys were skittering along our patio and private beach.

Each morning we enjoyed sleeping until the breeze and the sun woke us up, then we took our time coming alive with coffee and morning breezes. Once we agreed on which beaches we would discover that day, we all got ready and packed up the car with what we needed for a day of fun on the island!

Most of our time felt like it was spent putting on sunscreen. There was only a couple of days where we slacked on reapplication resulting in some extra pinkness. My aloe was there to the rescue and all was well.

We visited a different beach every morning and every afternoon--there is no shortage there! Our favorite ones were on our side of the island (southwestern) away from the main city and super tourists. If a beach started getting too crowded we would just pack up and head off to another one--after grabbing some food and drinks of course.

Evenings were spent at the house after sunset-o'clock it was bug-spray-o'clock, then dinner! We brought most of our creature comfort foods from home, and added what we could from local markets and grocery stores. We did try one of the "notorious" black Antiguan pineapples....rumored to be the sweetest in the world. I strongly disagree with this sentiment. Our $11 pineapple was tiny and tasted like a less-than-ripe typical American pineapple. Oh well! Those avocados though...those were legendary and we enjoyed many bowls of homemade guacamole to go with our quesadillas and chips.

From our private beach we saw many yachts, sailboats, and cruise ships passing by.

One of the yummiest shack meals I had--jerk chicken, rice and beans, and potato salad. Delish!

And a first for me--beach cows! They each wore a little cowbell and were all just hanging out for awhile right on the beach we were at. One curious little guy got super close to the water until an extra aggressive wave scared him back! He noticed me and started slowly coming closer until he lost interest and rejoined his friends.

One of the days we ventured up to the NE corner of the island to check out Devil's Bridge. This natural formation was on a cliff side facing the Atlantic and the ocean was extra choppy.

Some of the days an odd storm would roll through and we would have to scramble to cover our beach things. We failed a couple of times and returned to the house to replace our soaked towels before heading back out. This visit we were treated to a surprise rainbow over the hills behind our house.

Our last full day on the island we spent all day on a boat excursion for snorkeling and exploring. We passed this neat rock that they call Tortoise rock, but we all thought it looked more like a frog head so we named it Kermit rock.

We spent a couple of hours on Laviscount Island where they have a small refuge for tortoises and birds. We got to feed these sweet guys some carrots then took a short nature walk around to see the sights before being treated to a delicious lunch.

After lunch we stopped at a small area called Hell's Gate where we had the option to swim to shore and explore the rocks, or just snorkel. We opted to snorkel and had a fun time seeing the reef and the fish.

After that they took us out to another reef area where got to snorkel for longer in some deeper water.

After a full day of fun, we put our leftovers together for one last hodge podge dinner at the beach house and enjoyed our final sunset of the trip.

Thankfully our flight didn't leave the next day until 4pm so we had a lazy morning to drink coffee and pack up before bidding farewell to the beach house and hunting down lunch in the city then turning in the rental car. Our flight home was uneventful however the influenza virus managed to find me at some point and I was stricken ill the next day requiring me to call in sick to work as well as cancel my first craft show of the season! Most unfortunate.