My mom bought a new retirement home this year, and it's about 20 minutes away from where her brother lives. She's so freakin' happy down there that I'm hoping she goes through with retirement next year. As much as I'll miss her, it's good to see her so happy. She deserves it. She spent every day of her vacation with her bro, and it was so nice to see them together.
Here's a pic of the new house. Isn't it gorgeous!? It's like twice the size of my house, and it was half the cost. Gotta love CT and it's crazy housing prices.
I flew out of LaGuardia, and besides actually having to hang around in the plane once we landed for an hour because they didn't have a gate open for us (yeah, that was fun), the rest of the flight down was uneventful (for which I am grateful). After picking up my rental car (a cute, little red Rio - I dig it!), I made my way to Cape Coral to visit with Annita. I had a fantastic time visiting with her and her family, and I'm so glad I got the chance to do so. Here we are at the Leaping Lizard Lounge, a little tiki hut bar I fell in love with:
I can't thank her and her husband, Guy, enough for their hospitality, and I have to give a special shout-out to her daughter, Katerina, for loaning me the use of her room for the night.
The next day, I made my way to my Uncle Barry's house in Harbour Heights. I ended up seeing my aunt and uncle quite a bit during the trip, which was a pleasant surprise. I hadn't visited with them in years, since I was a kid really, and it's an entirely different experience as an adult. I also got to visit with my cousin, Bobby, whom I haven't seen in 20 years. 20 years! The first two things he said to me were, "Wow, you've shrank!" meaning my weight loss (LOL) and, "You look NOTHING like your sister." Yeah, I get that a lot. Getting closer to family had become more and more important to me the older I get. I hope to see them all again soon.
On Monday, I ventured up to Sarasota to visit with a blog friend (and now a real-life friend!), Rebecca. I just gotta say that I am not an instant-click kinda girl when it comes to other women. I usually have to spend a little time with someone before I feel that. Becs is the exception to the rule. We talked and laughed for the few hours we had together, and it was awesome. She took me to a little diner for breakfast, drove me all over Sarasota, pointing out, well, EVERYTHING, since she grew up there, took me to the beach (which is incredible, people), and simply entertained me with stories of college and how she met her husband, among other things. I also got to meet her oldest daughter, the famous Lexie of the funky, cool glasses. I was lucky enough to get a wardrobe change during my visit, and let me tell you, that girl is a fashionista waiting to bust out of a 4-year-old body. I also got to meet sweet, little Laney, who is extremely smiley and raised the roof for me a little bit. And I got to meet Bec's husband, Paul, the man with the badge, who was in a pretty good mood despite working all night and taking care of the kids while Becs and I went out on our little joyride.
Here we are at the beach. I told her we look like a teeth-whitening commercial or something. Our teeth are crazy white!
Here's a shot of the white sugar beach. I seriously fell in love at first site here:
And last is a picture of yours truly on the beach. As you can see by what I'm wearing, it was a little cold. You can also see just how much weight I've lost over the past 7.5 months. Oh, yeah.
Aside from a little shopping and more driving, that was my trip in a nutshell. It was nice to get away, but I gotta admit, there's no place like home. Now if home were only a little warmer, I'd believe that statement 365 days out of the year.
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