Our excursion to the Sunshine State

I love traveling to Florida. That familiar smell that greets you when you step off the plane brings back so many memories for me. It’s like a mixture of humidity and salt air that just melts the stress away. Florida lived up to its knickname and delivered a week of hot, sunny weather. This was such a relaxing trip for us and couldn’t have come at a better time. The particulars of this move are elevating my stress to almost unbearable levels. There are details to coordinate, paperwork to be completed, temporary residence visas to be acquired, Dayven needs a work visa, Wyatt needs a passport, we have to go on our house-hunting trip and of course, sell our current house. Yes, a week in Cedar Key was just what we needed to put things in perspective.

My cell phone doesn’t work on the island (can you believe that?) so it was a nice escape from my life. I just temporarily forgot the chaos that was going on back in Nashville and switched myself to “island time”. We sat on the balcony pondering life, drank wine, feasted on my mom’s homemade crab cakes, shrimp, crab bisque and grouper. We went for nice long walks, cruised around the island in the golf cart, went out to dinner with my Grandma and even took a dip in the pool. There is nothing better than sitting on the balcony, looking out at the water and chatting with my mom. It’s moments like this that really make me wish my parents lived in the same town as me. Of course, since this was Wyatt's first visit to Cedar Key outside my belly, many of my mom's girlfriends stopped by to meet him.

We spent our last night in St. Pete Beach so we could hang out with my brother, Josh, who lives there. We stayed in a hotel not far from him. We had dinner at a small beachside restaurant that was welcoming of the food bomb that seems to explode under Wyatt's high chair during every meal. We walked on the beach and dipped our toes in the ocean. It was fun to see Josh’s house and check out where he works. We all had brunch on Saturday before heading to the airport to come home. Back to reality now…