twodoebs

Kati and I are in the middle of reading "Marley and Me" by John Grogan (as an aside, we loved this book and would recommend it to anyone and everyone!). Here's a quote from that book:

We hadn't even reached our second wedding anniversary and already we were
feeling the grind of responsible, grown-up, married life. We needed to get away.
We needed a vacation, just the two of us, far from the obligations of our every
daily lives. I surprised Jenny one evening with two tickets to Ireland. We would
be gone for three weeks. There would be no itineraries, no guided tours, no
must-see destinations. Only a rental car, a road map, and a guide to
bed-and-breakfast inns along the way.

Obviously, doebette and I haven't gotten to our FIRST wedding aniversary yet, but we recently decided to take a similar vacation. And we couldn't go to Ireland, and we couldn't afford THREE weeks off work. But we COULD afford a week in Florida. We had TWO more minor deviations from the plans of John and Jenny Grogan: we replaced the map with a GPS and the bed-and-breakfast guide with phone numbers of friends and family.

SO, we flew into Tampa Monday and spend Monday night with JR and Denise. We played games and enjoyed lounging in JR's kick-ass couch.

Tuesday, we got up and let Jill--our GPS guide--show us to a lunch joint in a little beach town called Indian Rocks Beach. After lunch, we took an obligatory stroll along the beach that was just TOO cold to be comfortable.

Our next UNPLANNED stop was at The Florida Botanical Gardens at Pinewood Cultural Park in Largo, Florida. We enjoyed this diversion, both for its beauty and relaxing atmosphere, but also--and mostly--'cause it was free! Right next door was some crazy Old Economy wanna be joint that had restored buildings from Florida's past in what they called a living history museum, but that was . . . well, crazy (but IT was free, too, so we DID spend some time there!).

From there, we drove to Orlando, where we visited Susan and Scott. The two of them showed us around their very cute neighborhood, wowed us with their new house, and let us play with Stella to our [read: my] heart's content!

On our way out of Orlando, we took an obligatory stop by Disney and spent the day at Epcot. Soarin' was new since either of us were there and is very cool. Mission Space is also new since we've visited and sucked some type of genitalia too gross to be mentioned specifically on a public website.

We swung back to Tampa and had dinner with JR and Denise. More time was spent on his couch, as well.

Yesterday, we made our way back to Brooklyn. All around a great trip. Many thanks to JR, Denise, Susan, and Scott for their hospitality. G always says that the best way to take a trip is to stay with people you know 'cause you get to spend time with friends AND avoid hotel fees--we agree.