{Originally posted March 6, 2016 @thethingaboutchange.wordpress.com}
In the fashion of every good single young woman, I travel when I get weeks off from work. If you don’t, you really aren’t doing it right. My opinion, of course.
This year for midwinter break I took a straight up vacation. None of that typical adventure/culture stuff I pick. (Don’t worry, that will come for me during my Spring break.)
Midwinter break could NOT have arrived at a better time, when it was freezing in New York and NOT in my final destination, which was Florida.
My flight was at 9 am from Newark, which meant I had to leave my house at 5:45 am. Pathetic. Wish I wasn’t too stingy to call a cab sometimes.
That said. I caught all the trains at just the right time to still have time to pick up bagels at Penn Station, although I did not have time to get them with cream cheese. Oh. And did I mention, it was 5* that morning. Sigh. So. Many layers to wear.
Newark was surprisingly full I thought. Also, of note, the convayor belt for the luggage wasn’t working. I left my bag in this pile and took this picture to document it’s last sighting. It’s the blue one in front.
This was the security line before the security line. They were so busy I was put on the prechecked security line and didn’t even have to take off my shoes. Handy. But a wee bit inconsistent.
Following this I did some airport hustling as my plane was boarding by the time I got through the lines… and then waited an hour and a half to take off because our plane was awaiting luggage that couldn’t be found due to the luggage mess inside. You guessed it, we departed without it and mine was of the lucky 1/3 to arrive the following day via a personal delivery guy. Hooray for staying with friends! The only thing I ended up buying was contact solution.
When I landed I was greeted with happy hugs and Florida orange juice and spent the evening at the state fair. Some of our group thought it was odd to have a fair day in February. It made perfect sense to me though, I had obviously tele-ported to summer.
Me and Malachi. My favorite one year old!
The first 3 days of my vacation I practiced being a stay at home mom with my friends from high school. He works from home and she cares for her 14 month old while expecting baby number 2 (which has since been born- eeee! 🙂 ). So. Our days fell into a pleasant routine of a late breakfast and playing in the living room between naps, during which mommy and I petted the dog and sat out on the covered porch. P.S. Gideon is my favorite dog. But this is what happens when I try to take selfies with him. You’d think he’d be more cooperative, I only spent hours petting him.
An evening walk with the fam bam. My how we have changed since 8th grade! 🙂
This pleasantness lasted until Wednesday, at which point my parents and their friends arrived from Indiana and picked me up on their way from the airport my grandpa’s house in Sarasota. We spent Thursday at the beach before picking up my sisters at the airport that night. Obvious win.
Friday we went to Orlando to hang out in Disney Springs and see Cirque du Soleil. Which was so fun to watch with my sisters!
Dad and Dan, with toys from their ‘era.’
Our Orlando group, sisters, parents, and aunt and uncle (aka family friends).
Saturday we went shopping, ate food, and played put-put. I thought for sure I was winning for a while there.. not so.
Sunday – Briana’s boyfriend was picked up from the airport to join in on the fun. Here’s my dad and my grandpa playing shuffle board before we walked the beach. Florida does not disappoint.
They are so funny… errr… goofy.
That time at the beach when my feet looked 100 years old.
We were very serious about documenting the sunset… errr.. ourselves.
These kids. Acting like our whole walk was about getting cute pictures of them from every angle. Obviously, we fell for it.
Monday morning was perfect. Beach side breakfast and one last beachy walk before heading home. It was hard for me to leave knowing my family would still be in Florida for the week, enjoying the sunshine. To make it worse, I left knowing this one would be getting engaged on the beach that week without me there to watch. Sometimes being a grown up and going to work means you miss out on the best moments. Sigh.
And then I came home. Uneventfully, with all my luggage, a kiss of sunshine on my skin, and pleasant sense of accomplishment of having filled my midwinter break to its max.
A Pañuelo World 
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