Orlando City + New Travel Linkup

Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing weekend! Mine was the perfect mixture of both. 

On Friday night Kerri and I went to the Orlando City vs New England soccer game at the Citrus Bowl which was the first game for the both of us since Orlando City Soccer Club is fairly new. Thousands of people came out that night and it was a cool experience although neither one of us are huge soccer fans.

After the game we headed downtown to meet up with some friends and have a few beverages before heading home. 

Saturday was a relaxing day at home catching up on some blogging, food prepping and stuff around the house. 

On Sunday, K and I headed out to the east coast to finally get our first beach day of the year. The weather was perfect and it was a great day of lounging in the sun.

**Announcement**

Kate, Kerri and I are starting a new travel linkup this week which will run the second Wednesday of every month so get your travel posts ready for our new Wanderlust Wednesdays!! Feel free to link up new and old travel recaps or places on your destination wish list. Looking forward to sharing and reading your wanderlust adventures!

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Trinidad & Tobago Trip: Part 1

Last week Monday I flew into Trinidad which is where is spent the first part of my trip and also where my parents live. I got to accomplish everything I had planned with hardly any extra time to spare.

Monday:
We arrived around dinner time so my best friend and her husband picked us up from the airport and we went for dinner at Mandiero's Peri Peri Grill. That was my first time trying Portuguese flame-grilled food and it was excellent.

Tuesday:

We went the beach with friends to hang out and soak up some sunshine on my pale skin and then stopped at the lookout on the way home to catch some breathtaking views of Trinidad's north coast.

 Later that night (which was also St. Patrick's day) we went to a pizza restaurant for dinner to celebrate my best friend's birthday. After dinner we stopped off at one of the few Irish pubs on the island to have a couple drinks for St Patty's and to hang out for a bit before calling it a night.

Wednesday:

We went to lunch with my parents, visited family and did a few errands during the day. 

In the night, I had a fun blogger dinner meet-up with Kay and her friend Alicia. We went to Samurai for sushi and wine which was amazing! The food was awesome and the company was even better. We stopped off at a new bar called Buzz for a couple drinks after and had a blast chatting.

On Thursday morning, K and I headed over to Tobago with one of my girl friend's and her baby girl for the wedding of a lifetime but this post has become long enough so I will have to do a part two. 

Phew, I'm tired from all the traveling and need to catch up on some rest this week and not to mention blogging before I leave this weekend for a work trip...I know it's crazy!

Treasure Island Weekend Vacay

I'm grateful for the relaxing weekend spent beach-side with K and my parents and thankful that the rainy weather forecast turned out to be sunny and clear skies for the most part.

On Friday we drove out to Treasure Island, FL and stayed at a 2-bedroom condo with a beautiful view of the beach. My parents really wanted to check out Florida's west coast since we did a beach trip on the east coast last year.

 

On Friday night, we went out for some seafood dinner at Oyster Shuckers on St Pete Beach which was really good. The rest of the night was spent hanging out and relaxing at the condo.

Saturday was spent lounging at the pool. My in-laws also drove to spend the day with us so the 4 parents hung out and we all had lunch together at the resort. 

 

My MIL brought us some gifts which I'm sure will be put to good use. She knows us too well ;-)

 On Saturday night, we watched the sun go down from our balcony and then headed out to dinner at Sloppy Joe's restaurant on the beach to catch the end of the sunset. We loved the location of this restaurant and their seafood was really good. (We did not order sloppy joe's for dinner although they do have some on the menu).

On Sunday morning we had some coffee and breakfast with a beautiful view of the Gulf and then packed up to make the 2 hour drive back home.

It was the perfect little getaway and great way to end my parents trip to Florida. They leave today and back to reality for me.

Joining Biana for Weekending and Leeann for Monday Morning Gossip. 

Let the Long Weekend Begin

I couldn't be more excited about this 3-day weekend. Labor day weekend last year was spent with friends at a beach condo lounging on Florida's west coast.  This year I've opted for a go-with-the-flow kind of weekend with hopefully lots of R&R.

 

So what's been going on with me this week? 

Well our bank account got compromised. That's always fun, right? On Sunday, I went online to check our balance to see what damage was done over the weekend and also figure out a budget for the upcoming week. I noticed a charge on our account that didn't look familiar but since K and I share the account, I don't always know what's being spent 100% of the time. K didn't seem to recognize the charge but I went along with my day thinking I was just going crazy and forgetting something. A few hours later, I signed back into my account so I can rack my brain a little more about this charge but instead I saw some more charges being racked up over the past few hours. We hadn't even left the house on Sunday. Something was definitely wrong because both of our cards were safely in our wallets! We called the bank to report the charges and found out someone an hour away was swiping our card away on a little shopping spree...that would be a fake card with our info. The most recent charge was $85 at a sushi restaurant but got declined because they had pretty much drained the account. This person has some f#ing nerve! Anyways, our bank was really helpful and worked with us and we should be getting back the money in a week or so. Thankfully! It's really quite scary how easily these people can just hijack your bank account and access your money.

On to some better things and joining Amanda and Lauren for their Friday Linkups.

Oh technology! Ordering lunch and paying the tab via an iPad at Carmel Cafe. This almost eliminates communicating with a server except for ordering drinks/water and the server running the food to your table. Not sure how I feel about technology replacing jobs but I do like seeing photos of menu items to help with the ordering process.

Outfits that transition from work to happy hour. I actually wore this several weeks ago when I met up with Kate and Pam for happy hour.

I caved and bought the Alex and Ani bracelet of the month. The seahorse bangle was calling my name and I wanted to get the $5 discount before they discontinued the offer. Having an A&A store a few blocks from my office is proving to be trouble.

Favorite funny: 
I am guilty of this and having zero patience on the road.

Happy hour beer is calling my name so 5pm needs to hurry it up! Two of my favorite beers this week are Sea Dog Blueberry and Kona Island Lager.

Enjoy the long weekend!!!

Tradewinds Island Resorts on St Pete Beach

If you're ever looking for a relaxing beach getaway, I have the perfect place to recommend. St Pete Beach is one of my favorite beaches on the west coast of Florida and Tradewinds is a beachfront resort that offers lots of great amenities including beach & water sports, pools, beach cabanas, mini golf, paddleboats, spas, and several restaurants to choose from. They have two different properties along the same beach for either an adults-only or family-friendly vacation. The resort is also pet-friendly so your fur-babies are welcome to join the fun.

 

I've stayed at Tradewinds on three different occasions; the first time was many years ago for a friend's beach wedding, then K and I went for a "mini-moon" after our wedding in 2012 and most recently we stayed 3 nights this past June for my company's annual vacation. I posted a trip recap but I wanted to share more details about the resort itself.

This isn't a sponsored post of any sort. I just truly love this resort as a vacation spot.

The Guy Harvey Outpost is one of the two properties with a great restaurant onsite called the RumFish Grill. The restaurant has a fine dining side and a sports restaurant/bar side along with a huge aquarium and a Guy Harvey store.

We stayed at the Island Grand property, which I failed to get many photos of. The rooms came equipped with a mini kitchen and were comfortable (a little older but good enough for the price). Our balcony overlooked the paddle boat river. Typically I would choose a beach view but my company organized this trip and I had no say in the matter.

We spent our days lounging in the beach cabanas, which you have to book the night before as they fill up quickly. When the beach got too hot (June in Florida), we headed to the pool area to cool off. I didn't opt to do any water sports on this trip but I did go down the huge water slide on the beach.

Finally many beach cocktails were had at Salty's Tiki bar.The mojitos were the best!

And here's me in vacation mode....

As the Tradewinds resort slogan goes, Just Let Go.....