Last weekend, Jack and I escaped to Florida for four days and relished our time in the 70-degrees-and-foggy beach town we love on Anna Maria Island. It was creepy foggy half the time, but that didn’t stop us from walking around in flip-flops, visiting our favorite haunts, and eating everything in sight. It's one of those places where the songs "Guitars and Tiki Bars" and "Mother Ocean" immediately start playing on 'repeat' in your head.
See? Creepy fog!
A few highlights from the trip:
*We were not able to access our condo before check-in (as we had the first 6 times we visited), so we lunched at Starfish (a hole in the wall that serves the best seafood in the world) and then drove around the island to waste time. The steady drumming of the rain lulled us into comas. We pulled over in the grocery store parking lot to decide our next course of action…and both accidentally fell asleep in the car. Yes, napped in the Publix parking lot! Now, please tell me that’s not newsworthy!
* Visiting our usual “Green Bay Packer Bar” for the Superbowl. We always visit this bar for its great beer, coconut shrimp, and live music and wondered what it would be like to see a GB game there. Lucky for us, GB won the ticket to the Superbowl and the Packer Bar did not disappoint. The owners passed around yellow and green jello shots every time GB scored.
*Watching a huge storm roll in off the Gulf, while eating shrimp broiled in beer (sounds gross, was completely yummy). We dined at The Sandbar, which offers sweeping, panoramic views of the Gulf. Plus, you dine with your feet in the sand.
*Eating homemade mahi mahi that Jack whipped up in our condo kitchen. Feeling bold, he dumped a couple of shots of rum into a healthy (I mean, heart-clogging) scoop of butter and created “Butter Rum Mahi Mahi.” One of our best meals to date, it will surely be re-created. Like, this weekend.
*Going *back* to Starfish, this time for blackened grouper. We took our “to go” boxes back to our condo and ate our lunch in the heavenly atmosphere of our deck overlooking the bay. That fish was like eating a baby angel.
*Sitting by the pool, relaxing by catching up on work reading and flipping aimlessly through people's Facebook updates on my phone (hey, sometimes that is relaxing!). I saw my former neighbor's update that they were on the Island! I couldn't believe the coincidence; when you escape to a quieter island and learn that one of your neighbors was a mere 2 miles away!
*On our very last day, the fog cleared and temperature soared to 76 degrees. Naturally, Jack had to physically drag me from the beach and back into the rental car for our return trip back to the airport.
The trip was wonderful and I love that we can slip away for a few days to our favorite beach escape. While the weather wasn’t ideal, I still emerged rested, relaxed, and two pounds heavier from all the great eats!
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