Day 1 in Florida!

Thursday we made it to Florida by 3pm local time! Can you see the excitement in our faces?!?!?  

My little sister, Wendi, picked us up from the airport and we headed to Clearwater Beach!  

This place holds a special place in our hearts, Kyle and I spent our first 6 days of married life here…AKA our honeymoon!

It was windy and only about 60 degrees, which is quite nice compared to Iowa..but I think on the water it makes it much colder!

We still wanted to at least get our toes wet! 

Kyle says it’s a “little” cold! ;)     

Defiantly brought back LOTS of memories being in our honeymoon spot…it’s been almost 5 years! I sure do love this guy! 

After getting out feet wet we walked around for a little bit. This guy was doing some street entertainment…he was actually really quite good!   

We walked down Pier 60!  

Live statue! He was funny…a kid walked up to him and then he moved and it scared the kid! I’m sure I would have jumped too!! 

We walked down and shopped in all the fun little souvenir shops! Ever seen “tubeflops” before? lol 

Ha ha, not sure they are quite my style! 

After Clearwater we drove through Tampa and stopped at a Fro-Yo place…berryism! 

Happiness in a cap is right!! :) 

I got peanut butter chocolate fro-yo and topped it with green M&Ms , mini chocolate chips, Oreo pieces, and green & white sprinkles! MMMMmmm good!!! 

Wendi loved it too!!  

After our Fro-Yo stop Wendi drove us around Tampa. We say the Bay and LOTS of SUPER nice houses.

Then she remembered her friend of hers told her about Derek Jeter building a house on Davis Island in Tampa. So I looked it up on my phone and we drove by it….all 30,800 sq ft!! Sheesh!!

It was so big I couldn’t get it all in the shot! Kyle made it though! ;)

Here is a picture I found on the internet…this place is HUGE!! 

Wendi drove us through downtown and we saw where Kyle and I will be boarding our cruise ship for our November “Thanksgiving cruise”!!!  

 

We headed back to Lakeland and went out to eat at Olive Garden.  

It was extra fun because this is where Wendi spends about 30+ hours/week…AKA her job! ;) 

I tried the free sample of wine. I’m not much of a wine-o, but I did like this, it was called Moscato. It was a sweet wine.   

Wendi knew just the appetizer, Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta - Oven-baked smoked mozzarella, provolone, parmesan and romano cheese. Served with Tuscan bread. I just think it’s fun to say fonduta! ;) 

Kyle and Wendi both got salad, but I opted for soup. I got Chicken & Gnocchi which is a creamy soup with chicken and dumplings.  

By this time I was about FULL! But we still had our entrees coming! I ordered the Tour of Italy! A little bit of everything. Homemade lasagna, lightly breaded chicken parmesan and creamy fettuccine alfredo. The majority of this ended up in a to-go box!

Everything was SUPER good and it was fun that Wendi had the “DL” on everything!! And the other bonus is that we got a discount too!!

After our late supper we went back to Wendi’s apartment, chatted a bit, and hit the hay! It was a long, but fun first day in Florida!

note: you can obviously tell from all these food pictures I’m not staying OP while I’m down here. But I do plan on getting some running in. I’m not going to stress over the food. I’m going to enjoy myself while I”m here and get right back to work when I get home. Oh and I didn’t win the sister challenge before I left. I was stuck around 161 all week. Once again, not going to let it get me down.

Later friends! :)