Touring Key West

The view of the port in Key West from the cruise ship.

Even with the overcast weather, Key West was a blast to explore. We had no excursions or tours booked. All we knew is that we wanted to visit Duval Street, grab some local seafood for lunch, and then make our way to the Southernmost Point. The typical tourist things.

Hammock Beach Resort

Vacationing at Hammock Beach Resort a few weekends ago was a retreat of a lifetime! It was luxurious, relaxing, fun with coworkers/friends, and all around an experience that exceeded my expectations.

Weekend Scenes

I'm still "weekending" today since it's a bank holiday and my company treated all employees and family to a little beach getaway over the weekend in Palm Coast, Florida.

Hurricane Irma Weekend

We spent the weekend bracing ourselves for Hurricane Irma. I got out of work early on Friday to get supplies and be fully prepared for the hurricane. Most of the weekend was spent securing our home, setting up a safe room, prepping food, doing laundry, and making sure all electronics were charged up in anticipation of losing power.

We spent all of Sunday indoors at home just waiting for the storm to hit.

Hurricane Irma devastated several Caribbean islands last week and made her way to Florida over the weekend. At the time of writing this on Friday night, the National Hurricane Center predicted Irma will hit Central Florida on Sunday with approximately 100 mph winds as a category 1 to 2 Hurricane.

Easter Weekend Getaway

We made our way over to Daytona Beach on Friday afternoon for a little weekend getaway. Not your typical Easter weekend but we both felt like some sunshine and relaxing were in order.

We checked into our hotel around 3pm and got settled admiring the ocean view from our room before heading out to explore.

 

We met up with some friends who were also visiting from Orlando and walked and walked (in the wrong direction) to go to a local Tiki Hut Beach Bar but finally made it there to grab a cold one. #Tourists.

After relaxing the feet for a bit, I browsed through some of the cute beach shops and even got a little airbrushed outfit for Lola.

In the evening we found this gem of a restaurant with the best rooftop seating area to hang out and enjoy the views.

Saturday morning was overcast so we had a slow but relaxing start to the day with some coffee and breakfast at the hotel. The sun started making her appearance so we decided to go for a 2-mile walk on the beach towards where all the shops and restaurants are.



 We stopped in Sloppy Joe's for a beverage and some coconut shrimp and then the heavens came pouring down so we were stuck there until the sun came out again.
 

Once the sun was out it turned into the most gorgeous day to walk around the Daytona beach boardwalk and just explore.

The last stop was at Ocean Deck for an early dinner and some live music. We were worn out with all the walking and a little too much sun so we went back to the hotel to call it a day.

I slept for almost 12 hours on Saturday night. Blame that on the comfy bed, blackout curtains, and of course all the sun we took in the day before. In fact I was looking like quite the lobster. 

On Sunday the weather was perfect to enjoy some sunshine by the pool before checking out of the hotel. We made one final stop for lunch at Ocean Deck before making the drive back home in the afternoon.

It was the perfect little getaway even though we didn't celebrate Easter but the relaxing, sunshine & change of scenery was just what the doctor ordered.

Joint the lovely Biana for her weekend linkup.

Wekiva Island

I wanted to share some local travel-related adventures even though our Wanderlust Wednesday linkup is not until the second Wednesday of each month. Consider this a save the date to get your travel posts ready for May 11th if you want to join Kerri, Kate, and myself.

I still can't believe it took me over 10 years of living in Central Florida before visiting Wekiva Island for the first time last year with Kate and our second in commands (that's a running joke we have not meant to be taken seriously). What a great day we had relaxing along the river. The water is cold but it's refreshing like spring water and there's a ton of amenities and activities to make it a fun day trip. Plus it's dog-friendly so you know I'm already sold.

Since our first trip to Wekiva Island we've gone back a few times to take my parents and then most recently my best friend last weekend. (recaps here and here).

If you're looking for a fun day outdoors, Wekiva Island offers canoeing/kayaking, paddleboarding, fishing, volleyball, boating and swimming. Additionally there's live music (on certain days), an on-site restaurant, and cabanas for rent if you want to have your personal space. I consider this a hidden treasure of Central Florida.

Wanderlust Wednesday: St. Augustine, Florida

I recapped our Easter weekend trip to St. Augustine a few weeks ago and talked about all the amazing restaurants we tried and some fun things we did but I didn't share too much details about the city itself and what makes this northern Florida city so enchanting.

St. Augustine has some fascinating history dating back to 1565 and claims to be the oldest city in the United States. Today it's a slow paced city with lots of gorgeous Spanish colonial architecture and historical sites to explore. The Castillo de San Marcos stone fortress from the 17th century being one of the more popular sites which overlooks the inlet. St. Augustine is also known for having some cute Bed & Breakfast Inns, quaint antique shopping, bakeries & coffee shops, and lots of history to be learned. I'll let the photos I snapped do the rest of the talking.

As you can tell it was an overcast day but that meant cooler temps to walk around outside and it made a nice setting to take photos of this beautiful historic town. Hope you enjoyed exploring St. Augustine through my camera lens!

Link-up Rules:

1. Follow Kerri, Kate and myself on Bloglovin

2. Link up your favorite travel recaps or travel related posts

3. Grab our Wanderlust Wednesdays button and link back to our blogs

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