Friday, July 23, 2021

Summer of 2021- Florida

 Joey and I have had a pretty busy June and summer as of today! I am so thankful for a fun filled summer after this past school year. *insert awkward smile* It was...stressful to say. So much so that I got shingles back in May. Thankfully it was on my mid-section along my stomach and back. I hear you can get it on your face- which can make you go blind. Crazy! 

Anyways, June started off with a trip to west Florida! Some of this I already posted to the social medias, but something I didn't think about is that once those platforms are gone, so are all my posts. I wanted to make sure our adventures were documented, so back to blogging!  

So why Florida? Joey works for Orange Theory Fitness as the head of IT. The studios he supports are in Houston and west Florida. He needed to go to Florida to complete an audit of all the technology goods (AV and computers). Since he happened to be going when I was on break. I was able to go! I helped Joey with the audit of the computers that are used in the front desk. I made sure they were running at optimal speed and working correctly as well as checked the network speeds. 

----Something Joey and I learned during the pandemic is that we love working together. In March/April 2020 when schools were closed, but they still had no idea what teachers should do I used that time to help Joey with his work. At that time, he was rolling out tablets to put on the water rowers at all the Houston studios. I helped get the tablets ready and then while all the gyms were closed, we went to each studio and got them all set up. I really enjoyed working on something that was completely different than teaching and also being able to help/spend time with Joey-----

When the opportunity arose to help Joey again,  I said yes please!! 

I have only ever been to Disney World in Florida so I was excited to get to see other parts. 

We would visit studios during most of the day and the late afternoon/evening have time to explore. 

We visited Fort Myers and Naples first. 


We ate at the Village Pub- highly recommend! 
The pickles are complementary and delicious. Even prettier is the view that you get! 
The views from dinner! 



After dinner we headed to the beach to see the sunset. On the way to the water we saw a turtle nest! 😍

The sunset was gorgeous! 



I also discovered that Florida sand is SO much better than Galveston sand. In Galveston/Texas around us, the sand sticks to you and is gritty. It leaves me feeling gross. In Florida, I took my sandals off to walk in the sand and the sand brushed off no issues! It was a pleasant surprise! 

After Ft. Meyers and Naples area, we headed up to Gainesville. 
Joey and I were both surprised to see hills on the drive up there. After coming from all palm trees, it was so nice to see big oaks and normal trees. 

Gainesville is a college town. The University of Florida is there and it really reminded us of College Station here in Texas. One of the studios we visited was right next to the university so we got to see some buildings! 


I really liked the huge trees with the moss. 



After Gainesville, we headed to Tampa and St. Petersburg. St. Pete was our favorite stop! We stayed in a hotel that was on Central and you could walk to many different restaurants. 
Tampa was the first city we saw with a skyline! The weather was also the exact same as Houston. 

We drove by Tropicana Stadium. 

We got the most delicious Cuban sandwiches from Bodega. We highly recommend this place! 



We drove by the Don CeSar (built in 1928) a hotel visited by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Al Capone, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other rich/famous people in the Jazz Age.

The morning before our flight we walked St. Pete pier, it's at least 1.5 miles long. It has very pretty daytime views and at night we have been told you can see all the city lights. I recommend taking some water if you go during the day. 


We had delicious food, of course, during our visit. 
Naples/Ft. Meyers: The Village Pub
Gainesville: (it's a chain, but not in Texas) Bahama Breeze- I enjoyed my jerk shrimp bowl. 
Tampa/St. Petersburg: Olivia, On Swann, Bodega

Florida was a great start to our summer! I enjoyed helping Joey and also getting to go on adventures to new places for both of us!