A Trip to the Beach

I thought I would ring in 2013 without visiting the beach with my sweetie.  The new job has made my schedule very busy.  Busy is good, but it leaves very little time for my thoughts to form into coherent sentences for blogging-let alone vacation time.  However, the new job is actually the thing that brought me to the beach this year.  We have a store in Sarasota, they needed a little help in between store managers...so off to Sarasota I went. 

I've never been to Sarasota before.  It is a sweet little city.  Very easy to navigate, very easy.  However, there seem to be a lot of Yankees in this town.  I mean true Yankees-New York, Massachusetts type Yankees.  I'd be classified as a mid-westerner here...  I realized I've been in the South for a long time now.

I've had time to buy a new dress, buy new shoes, and relax a little.  (All at bargain prices of course!)  Peace and quiet.  Time all alone, until Saturday that is.  I arrived very late Tuesday night, went to the store on Thursday to work, grabbed dinner and came back to the hotel to enjoy the quiet.  Friday, same thing.  Saturday off to work, to the airport to get the husband, and then time to enjoy being on a sort of vacation with my sweetie.  I may work so much that it makes me so tired I could cry, but it is pretty cool that my boss flew my husband to FL so we could spend the holiday weekend together.  We went to St. Armand's to walk the circle and enjoy some of the cool little tourist boutiques.  Then we grabbed some dinner.  Sunday I didn't have to go to the store at all. We slept in.  It was soooo wonderful.  We ate a late breakfast/lunch.  We grabbed some snacks at the store....until FINALLY it was beach time.  Awesome!  It was a holiday weekend, so we paid $10 to park in a lot instead of parking for free in the public parking lot and the beach was full.  I freakin' love the beach.  I don't care how busy it is.  We stayed for about two hours before we decided it was time to go shower and grab dinner.  We dined at a cool little place called Walt's Seafood Market.  The waiter gave me an awesome recommendation, since seafood isn't this Ohioan's favorite food group.  I ate red snapper, blackened (read cajun spicy) and it was delicious!  Totally worth the money.  If you end up in Sarasota, make sure you eat there.  If you're there on a Sunday, sit outside at the Tikki bar and perhaps Jeremy will be your waiter.

Today, it was back to work at the store.  After work the husband and I headed to the outlet mall not far from the store.  I found super cute comfy shoes at a fabulous sale price. (Can you say Kenneth Cole Reaction for $30?)  I'm talking 8 hour retail shift shoes here.  Unheard of, I know.  After leaving the outlets we decided to head to the beach for one last walk.  It was pretty dark since the moon was hiding behind the clouds this evening.  We had a flashlight thanks to my always prepared Eagle scout Marine.  (No joke, he was an Eagle scout too.)  I could live at the beach...except for hurricane season I guess.  I don't have a great track record with the beach and hurricanes. 

Later this week the husband and I will celebrate 7 years of marriage.  It seems like yesterday we were starting our journey together.  I hope it always feels like it was yesterday.  (Yes, there are some days I get frustrated with him.  Like yesteray when he was throwing popcorn on the sand to attract the seagulls and people around us were staring.  I was giving him the death look.  He was laughing like a little boy, because that is what Marines do.  They do silly things that little boys do and their wives roll their eyes.)  That same Marine is sound asleep on the bed next to me lightly snoring now.  He looks so harmelss when he sleeps...until you accidentally scare him awake.  Whoops.  (I didn't really scare him awake just now, but I know you better be wary if you do.)  So in case I don't blog later in the week-I have a feeling when I get back home I won't have time anyhow, I Love my Marine and wouldn't change a minute of our story together.  I look forward to the next year together and hopefully many more after that. 

Seven years later this northern teacher (turned retail goddess) is still in Love with her sweet, southern Marine :)  Love always has a capital letter after falling in Love with you Bivins.