Hello again!

My mom and I are still soaking up the Florida sunshine, although we’ll be heading home the end of this week. I just wanted to check in to let you all know that we survived our tenth half marathon!  It was a little challenging for me, but I’ll talk more about that in a full race recap later on.

Yesterday, my mom and I decided to explore Caladesi Island, which was consistently voted one of America’s best beaches. While we were originally planning on renting kayaks to get to the island, we chickened out when we got to the water and realized how windy (and far away) it was. So, we took the ferry instead, which probably worked out better, considering neither of us is very experienced at kayaking!

After reaching, the island, we decided to explore some of the nature trails. We were a little nervous though after reading this sign-

Especially because we were both in flip-flops since we had been planning on kayaking! Thankfully, there were no encounters with rattlesnakes.

The trails were gorgeous and we had a great time exploring, and soaking up the sunshine and 70 degree temps.

It was like living in a post card! It was so peaceful and quiet too. There were a few people visiting, but I’m sure it was nothing compared to how busy it must get during the summer months. After hiking around for an hour, we had a little lunch and then changed into our suits to sunbathe on the beach for a little. The suits were somewhat unnecessary though, because the wind kept things cool enough that I didn’t want to take off my long-sleeve shirt! It still felt wonderful and so relaxing though to just lay against the sand dune, listening to the waves.

My mom certainly relaxed – she fell asleep and woke up to my alarm an hour later (set to remind us to catch the ferry back).

The view from the ferry on the way back!

When we got back, we tried to find a place to grab a coffee before heading home. We ended up driving to this place I found on my phone after searching “coffee shops” on Google Maps. It was called ‘9th Espresso Bar’. Well, after finally finding it, it turned out to be more of a bar and less of a coffee shop! Not exactly what we were looking for.  Disappointed, we decided to just head back and to keep our eyes open for coffee places along the way. We actually saw a cafe and pulled in to their parking lot, only to discover it was closed on Mondays. Foiled again. So after a couple failed attempts, we just headed home.

Despite the coffee snafus, it was such a gorgeous day. I could certainly get used to this kind of weather and incredible scenery! Going back to the northeast this week is going to be rough.

Hope you’re having a wonderful week! (I also realized I forgot to announce the winner of the Gigabody giveaway in my last post! Patty G. was the winner, and was emailed earlier this week. Congrats Patty!)