The MOST Amazing Place in Miami!

I had an entire blog planned for today – even thought about it for most of the weekend, and then… we went out to dinner last night.  Now let me preface this by saying that if you’ve met me (or read any of these blog posts) you know I like pizza.  Wait, that’s not right.  I LOVE pizza.  I’m obsessed with it.  I could eat it for every meal (and have), and snack times.  And I don’t discriminate either, I’ll eat cardboard from the freezer section pizza, I’ll eat Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, etc., and I’ll eat gourmet pizza.  I just can’t tell you enough how much I have a passion for pizza.

So, when Christopher was looking through various Groupon offers yesterday afternoon and found one for a place called Cafe Babbo that served pizza, I was in.  Any opportunity to eat pizza is A-OKAY in my book.  As we were walking there, we started to see it off in the distance.  It didn’t look like much at first.  A cool white building with pretty garden-style lights dangling over the front patio that had a couple of picnic tables along with regular small dining tables.  And then we walked in.

We go to Disney a LOT back home, and one of our favorite spots at Epcot is a small cozy bar at the back of Italy called Tutto Gusto.  This place felt like that.  It had an authentic Italian vibe, and everyone that worked there was Italian too, which was so cool.  They had this cute Fiat INSIDE the restaurant:

They had a brick oven for the pizzas:

And the Chef (who was a VERY cool dude, but unfortunately I did not get his name, so he will be henceforth named “Chef”) prepares the pizza right there in front of you behind the bar.  Oh, and they had Christopher’s favorite Italian beer on tap, La Rossa, which he has ONLY ever seen at Epcot.

La Rossa and Moscato

We ordered a pizza called Diavalo – the description said “spicy salami” and my lovely husband figured that was the closest thing to what I’d eat because they didn’t have pepperoni listed on the menu. I thought it would be perfect because Christopher loves spicy food.  Holy cow, was this thing spicy!! In an amazing way though.  I couldn’t stop eating it, even though my mouth was on fire, because it was so good.  After we’d wrapped up our dinner eating and ordered a second round of drinks, the little bar/restaurant started to get busy, and this new guy walked in who we later found out worked there.  Suddenly, Chef says to the friend, “Watch this” – and then he proceeded to slice a banana thinly the long way – we were mesmerized.  As I wondered what he was going to do with the banana, he pulled out a jar of Nutella and popped it in the oven to warm it.  The fellow coworker had brought in the banana, and they added it to the (already on the menu) Nutella calzone.  I was mesmerized.

Ignore the lime and tomato LOL

Chef THEN told me to come back behind the counter to watch this amazing creation cook in the oven.  As I watched it rise, my mouth started to water.

The finished product. DROOL!

And then when I went outside to take more pictures of the place, a sweet surprise was waiting for me.  The guy who worked there that had brought the banana had given us each a nice big piece of his Nutella Banana calzone.  And OH MY GOD.  We are bringing a banana with us next time so he will make us the same thing, it was amazing!!

Every single person that worked at this little bar/restaurant was so friendly and lovely!  And we found out they’d only been open a MONTH!! Well let me tell you, they will definitely be open for at least the next month, if we have anything to do with it.

They told us they have a BREAKFAST menu including a breakfast pizza and frittata.  They also have an extensive coffee selection including espresso drinks. We will be back as often as we possibly can!!

Mr. Babbo, I presume?

Please, go to their Facebook page, and LIKE them!! And then come visit us and we will take you. 🙂

Stay tuned for my blog on Thursday, I have a super fun and special blog planned, you won’t want to miss it!

Two AWESOME places in Wynwood/Miami!

A couple weeks ago, we found these two places down a side street in Wynwood, and I’ve been saving them up for a special Thursday blog posting – and today is the day!  They are completely opposite, and we went to both when it was dead (because we are old and Miamians party later than us) but we still LOVED them!

The first place we went that night was Cafeina Wynwood – and we went during happy hour.  It is an AWESOME lounge-y type place.  We sat outside in these ultra-cool couches, while munching on Happy Hour priced apps – empanadas, stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, boneless baby back ribs, etc, all for $5 each!  They were sooo delicious.  We definitely want to go back one night after happy hour when there are other people there to get the vibe.  It was just a really really cool place.

The second place we went to was SHOTS – guess what they served?!  They had a very small selection of fun cocktails, but the menu was 99% shots.  Here is a small sample of their huge menu outside:

Menu Wall – this is only HALF!

They have shots for every taste bud on your tongue!  Of course you have to be careful, I wanted to try a LOT of them, but well, they are SHOTS…  My favorites were the Harry Potter and the Camp Fire, which get lit on fire (denoted in the menu by a flame symbol):

FIRE!!

And the bartender was really knowledgeable in trying to help us decide which shots to try based on what we liked.  Oh, and there were a bunch of hats on the wall for you to try on.  Here’s an awesome picture of my cousin Louis with the best hat we could find:

ain’t he a cutie?!

The BEST part, is we were there at Happy Hour, so everything was half priced.  This place was so cool we can’t wait to go again!!

I know my posts lately have been a bit smaller than usual, but I assure you, I will be back to my normal “wordy” self on Monday!! Stay tuned!

Wynwood Art Walk!

While in Miami, we are staying in Wynwood, an ultra-cool, ultra-hip arts district, right outside of Midtown and the Design District.  This past Saturday we had an awesome day with my cousin Louis walking around Midtown and the Design District.  The Design District is home to all the top designers that make me drool even though I could NEVER afford them!  Here are some awesome pics from earlier in the day:

a cool sculpture outside of an even cooler furniture gallery

a beautiful mural in the Design District

Some type of cooking oil found in a cafe in the Design District, I’m obsessed with the bottle!

Oh, and while we were at Midtown, we got Maddie a new comfy bed – think she likes it??  I know it looks small for her, but she likes it all cuddly and snuggly…

That night we had big plans!  Every second Saturday of the month, Wynwood hosts this amazing Art Walk.  All of the galleries open their doors at night, and there is a big area set up with food trucks and local art vendors as well.  It’s kind of like going to an Art Festival at night, and not just seeing the local crafters, but these crazy amazing pieces of gallery art as well.  There is this one space called Wynwood Walls and Wynwood Doors that we walked through, where they let local artists do giant murals on the walls of the buildings and these huge garage doors, just for this event!  The talent we saw was unreal!! Here is a taste:

Wynwood Wall spilling onto the pavement

entrance into the Wynwood Doors

gorgeous city mural on a wall in the Wynwood Doors area

Wynwood Door mural

Wynwood Door mural

Wynwood Door mural

The artwork was just insane.  I wasn’t sure if we were allowed to take pictures inside the actual galleries or not, but I didn’t just to be safe.  There were some awesome pieces that we saw, all on sale for thousands of dollars!  Oh, to be an artist in Miami…..

I know this is a short post, so forgive me by enjoying the awesome pictures!  And it’s been awhile since I’ve said it, so don’t forget to “like” my Facebook page!!  Stay tuned for Thursday’s post!  No idea what it’s about yet, but knowing Miami, it will be awesome 🙂

Bienvenido A Miami!

We have been in Miami now for a few days, and there isn’t too much excitement to report.  We haven’t been here long enough to share a “regular Thursday” post with a list and whatnot, so instead, I’m going to share with you what we did last night.  I think it makes for a good read.

My cousin Louis goes to school out here in Miami, at FIU, and lives about 5-10 minutes away by car, which is AWESOME!  When I was 11 or 12 I used to change his diapers, and if you’d told me then that 20 years later we would be hanging out in Miami, I would have told you “duh! What other logical conclusion could you make?!”  So last night he took us to Lincoln Road, which is this really cool outdoor mall with lots of restaurants, bars, regular stores, and designer stores, where skirts are over $2000. (I literally saw a skirt that was priced at $2,100. WHAT?!) We had to park about half a mile away though, because parking anywhere near there will cost you close to $40, and we paid $8 – way better.  The issue wasn’t that we walked so far.  Well, it wouldn’t have been…  Let me explain.

We were at Marshall’s the other night and I saw a super hot sweater dress that was from EXPRESS for $15!! I had to get it, and it looked really good on me.  Louis had warned us to wear comfy shoes, but Christopher convinced me that my cute sparkly sandals didn’t look good with the dress, so I put on my nude pumps, brand name “Comfort Plus” thinking they would work just fine.  What I didn’t realize is that I haven’t worn heels in QUITE a long time.  I mean, there isn’t much need for heels when it’s freezing in Boston or Raleigh, and in St. Pete Beach, well that’s flip flop city by design!  So, my feet complained.  Loudly.  By the time we got to Lincoln Road Mall I had huge blisters on my pinkie toes (the shoes are apparently too tight) and the bottoms of my feet were crying out for mercy.

After an AMAZING dinner at Shake Shack – the only affordable place to eat in South Beach, which was fine with me because I LOVE Shake Shack – I decided, I needed to find new shoes, or it would be a VERY quick night, including an Uber ride back to the car, suggested by the lovely Christopher.  So, into the stores we went.  Store after store, looking for cute sparkly flip flops (I didn’t even care if they matched my dress), at an affordable price.  After about three stores, we’d found nothing, and I saw the Skechers store.  I have a pair of black Skechers sneakers that I LOVE and have had forever, so I thought, even if it was a bit pricey, I know it would be worth it.  I ended up getting the cutest pair of silver Bob’s (like Tom’s but they are by Skechers) and the inside had a furry lining.  Perfect – my blisters were now being caressed by angelic clouds of love.  We bought them, I cut the tags, and on my feet they went.  At this point, who cares if they look stupid with my hot dress, I was COMFORTABLE.

We found this really cool bar called The Abbey Brewing Company on the way back to the car.  They don’t actually brew on site, but they do brew their own beers at a facility in Cape Canaveral.  The drinks were a bit pricey, but we were in Miami Beach, so we let it slide.  Christopher found himself a stout brewed by them, called Father Theodore’s Stout.  He had to order it because his grandfather’s name was Teddy.  It was definitely a sign! Speaking of signs, check out their amazing sign in the front window:

The Abbey Brewing Co.

So we had a pretty great night, even though most of it was spent searching for a pair of mercy shoes.  I’d just like to reiterate how awesome it is that Louis lives so close. That kid is so cool. 🙂

To Be Honest….

Today is the day we head SOUTH!  We are going to Miami this afternoon, wooohooo!  Christopher and I packed everything up on Saturday in St. Pete Beach, and this past weekend we have stayed at my dad’s house in Ocoee.  The place we booked in Miami wasn’t ready until today, and we had some people we needed to see in Orlando, so it worked out very well!  Now that we are about to embark on MONTH FOUR of our journey, I thought I’d look back and talk about a couple things from each city that we did NOT like.

BOSTON – In Boston, there wasn’t much to NOT love honestly.  However, we were staying in the South End, so there were times that people (late at night) would be walking down our street after a night of drinking and get a little rowdy, waking us up with the dogs, and no one wants to wake up sleeping dogs with noises.  They always think we are under attack and start barking.  Also in Boston, everything was so expensive.  Even the grocery store closest to us was like a Trader Joe’s at Whole Foods prices.  It felt like our wallets were crying by the time we left!  And of course, the cold – it was so cold for October!  I haven’t been that cold that early in the year since we lived in Minnesota when I was a kid.  NO THANK YOU!

RALEIGH – Driving around the outskirts of Raleigh is really easy during the day, like when you need to go to the shopping center in Cary or to the airport.  At night however, it can be pretty scary.  For some reason, none of the highways have street lights – and the roads are curvy.  I absolutely despised having to drive at night, it felt like we were in a horror movie!  And even though our house was REALLY cute, they are revitalizing the neighborhood we were staying in, so there was construction right across the street every day!  AND our neighbor was re-doing their driveway.  Which meant lots of weird noises, and of course the dogs interpreted every one of them to mean we were under attack.  Lots of barking every day.

ST. PETE BEACH – Our biggest complaint in St. Pete Beach was the neighbors.  The building we were staying in was all condos, but they appeared to all be rented out by a vacation rental company, which meant lots of new neighbors constantly.  And lots of them had dogs, and they would walk their dogs behind the building (because walking them in the street isn’t an option, lol) but that meant (to Buster and Maddie) that we were under attack!!  And then we had ONE neighbor in particular…. *sigh*  Our front door and their front door shared a little entry way outside, so every time they entered and exited, we could hear them slamming the door.  It sounded like someone slammed OUR door.  And they had a lot of visitors, which we wouldn’t have minded, except that every time someone came to their front door, the woman would say “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii” so loudly it sounded like she was saying it to us.  I wish I could record my impression of it and put it on my blog, but just imagine it high-pitched and OBNOXIOUS and you will be close.

Even though we’ve had all those annoyances, this adventure has still been amazing, and all of the cities we’ve been to have each had so much charm and personality that it’s been worth it dealing with the crap.

I’d like to say a special thanks to all of you, for reading this blog.  I truly feel that if it weren’t for my mission to blog about the experiences we have, we wouldn’t be so determined to experience so much in each city!!  In a way, you guys are all as much a part of this as we are!! So thanks. 🙂

Happy New Year!

I don’t really believe in resolutions.  No, it’s not because I think I’m perfect or because I feel I have nothing to work on.  I definitely know that’s not true.  I don’t believe in them, because resolutions create excuses by being resolutions.  Gyms which are flooded starting January 1st, drop back down to normal membership by mid-February, sometimes even earlier than that.  Diets are forgotten, good deeds go undone, and bad habits return.  How many of YOU have successfully completed a resolution?  Meaning you turned a “resolution” into a “lifestyle change” – I’m guessing not many of us.  I know I never have.

I stopped listing resolutions a long time ago because of this belief.  Instead, I have wishes for myself.  Wishes are more forgiving and less judgmental, which is something we all need a little bit more of in our lives.  Well, this year is going to be a little different.  Because I am fulfilling a lifelong dream of mine to travel and have an adventure, I have wishes instead for YOU.  And don’t worry if you don’t complete my wishes, I will still love and cherish you no matter what.

1. I wish for you to find your passion – not a hobby, or a new career even.  Just something you can fill a portion of your life with that gives you unwavering joy.  We spend so much of our lives doing things we need to do, or don’t really want to do, it’s time to spend some time doing things you LOVE to do.

2. I wish for you to travel – I’m not saying you need to go on an adventure like us.  But you could go on a weekend cruise, or even just to a local hotel for the weekend using hotwire or priceline.  Or come visit ME in the next several months.  I just wish for you to get away from it all for a minute or two.

3. I wish for you to LOVE – whether you have a spouse or partner, children, pets, extended family, or friends, I wish for you to love them all.  It’s so true that the more love you give, the more love you will receive.  I know some of you had a rough year in 2014.  Lean on those closest to you to help you through 2015.  The only way we will survive is with each other.

And that will wrap up my New Year’s Blog!  I have so many more wishes for you all personally, just know I am praying them for you.

This weekend we transition to Miami through Orlando (we actually go down to Miami on Monday) so stay tuned for an exciting blog I have planned on Monday morning!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERY ONE.  I HOPE YOUR 2015 WILL BE AS FULL OF LOVE AND LIGHT AS MINE.

It Was A Happy Holiday!

I had such an amazing time this past week (since we last spoke) that I couldn’t POSSIBLY share all of it with you.  If I did, this blog would be 13,000 words, and “ain’t nobody got time for that!”  Instead, I would like to share with you some of the highlights of our holiday.

From last week’s post, you know that on Christmas Day, we spend time with my mother’s family and play a fun little game.  Well this year, the “fun” was beyond every other year.  First of all, my Aunt Denise (my father’s sister) was in town, and so for the first time in a long time, I got to see two of my favorite aunties at the same time!

Auntie Denise, Me, Auntie Mich

It’s a pretty rare sighting, and as you can see, it’s one that makes me a very happy girl!

So the game this year was very fun, there were a LOT of great gifts going on and lots of “stealing” to make it fun, but I think in the end everyone ended up with something they actually wanted, which isn’t always the case.  Christopher made off with a huge Hillshire Farm box that includes summer sausage (OUR FAVORITE!!), cheese, crackers, and a cute cheese cutter.  I ended up with an awesome pair of bluetooth headphones!  I like to watch TV while I work, and we have a roku, which is cool because I can plug headphones into the remote so that Christopher doesn’t have to hear my shows while HE works and talks on the phone.  But my normal headphones are ear buds, which are fine for short periods, but after awhile they get gross and painful, so I’m super happy about these headphones!  Plus, I wanted to get a bluetooth headset for my phone for when I DO talk on it, and they work for that as well.  We totally won the day!

After the game, and people were leaving, Christopher and I decided to stay longer with my Uncle Ben, Aunt Hillary, and cousins Louis and Tommy, because we don’t get to see them very often, and who doesn’t love to overextend their welcome on Christmas Day?!  It was great though, they had gotten Settlers of Catan, but didn’t know how to play it, and we were more than happy to show them.

isn’t it beautiful?!

We actually have the travel version with us, and still have yet to play it!  After that rousing game, which Louis won (beginner’s luck!!) they introduced us to the AMAZING WORLD of Munchkins (which we bought on the way home, love Amazon!).  I can’t wait to play that game, but it’s a minimum of 3 players, so we need people to come visit! 🙂

The day after Christmas, my dad and his girlfriend Lyn got us all tickets for a boat tour of Dora Canal off of Lake Dora (in Mount Dora, notice a theme?) but we stopped on the way to have a really lovely picnic / bbq.  After we were done eating, we noticed this beautiful fellow:

Hello there!

We discussed what the peacock’s call sounded like, and Joe, Lyn’s son, told us what it was, so I tried it, but it didn’t quite work.  So, thanks to technology, I pulled up some videos of peacocks calling, and he came right up to us looking for his friends.  It was unbelievable!  To see the video, visit my Facebook page!

The boat tour was pretty fantastic as well.  Lots of birds and beautiful homes, but unfortunately there were no gators that day.  It was pretty high traffic since it was the day after Christmas, so they were probably hiding.  But we saw tons of Anhingas – or snake birds.  We drove right under this one:

pretty bird!

It was a wonderful Christmas, with lots of good times with the family!  I hope YOUR holiday was just as family-filled and enjoyable!

Stay tuned Thursday for my New Year’s Day Special!

It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Seriously, my favorite time of the year is Christmas.  It’s not even about the gifts I receive, it’s about spending time with my family and close friends and getting to share the joy with those I love.  This year is the BIGGEST reminder of just that.  It’s hard to remember that it’s not even about all the cute traditions.

THINGS I MISS THIS CHRISTMAS, BECAUSE OF BEING ON THE ROAD:

1. Decorating a Christmas Tree – I’ve already talked about this.  It’s one of my all-time favorite traditions.  In fact, at home I have 3 or 4 trees (I forget).  One big huge one, and a few smaller ones.  I love taking out all the ornaments and hanging them on the tree, because they force me to remember how each one came to us, and the love and joy we share in our family.  Plus, it always confused the dogs as to why we had to move around our furniture for a month.  (Why are dogs so cute when they are confused?!)

2. One word: DISNEY – When I was in high school, I used to sing every year in the Candlelight Processional at Epcot.  Our high school was always one of the top schools picked, so I would get to participate for multiple days throughout the season, and honestly, it was always the best part of my year.  After Christopher and I got serious, we became Disney passholders, and every year, going back to Disney at Christmas time is our favorite.  We watch the Candlelight Processional, we go experience the Osborne Family Lights at Hollywood Studios, and we just plain enjoy Disney all decorated for Christmas.  In our first year with no Disney at all, this is the hardest Disney tradition to forego.

3. Work Christmas Festivities – Last year was my first Christmas with Xulon Press, and this year, I’m a contracted employee.  So all the fun festivities I enjoyed last year, I’m watching from afar this year.  The annual Christmas Party with Secret Santa gifts, the ugly sweater contest, the Christmas Cookie Bake-off, and so much more.  It’s just not the same this year without my work family.

HOWEVER – THINGS I STILL GET TO EXPERIENCE, DESPITE BEING ON THE ROAD:

1. Seeing our parents – Christopher and I both get to see our parents, even though his family lives in Chicago.  They have a place in Bonita Springs, and are coming up to see us tomorrow night, and going with us to my dad’s for Christmas Eve.  And we are still spending the night with my dad on Christmas Eve, a long-standing tradition since I first moved out of the house, and only broken when spending Christmas in Chicago with Christopher’s family.  This year, my grandmother and Aunt Denise will also be spending the night Christmas eve, so it’s a BONUS.

2. Christmas Day White Elephant – Every year (again, with the exceptions only being those years we spend in Chicago), on Christmas Day, we go and visit my mom’s family.  We have good food, enjoy each other’s company, and the best of the best, we play a White Elephant game.  We all buy a gift (or gifts) totaling $20 or less, and draw numbers, and well, you probably know the rest.  There are a few fun inside jokes that always take place within my family, making it so much more fun.  I just love spending time with them.

3. Seeing my babies (niece and nephew) – Even though on Christmas they will be in New Orleans, celebrating with my sister-in-law’s family, while we are in town shortly after New Year’s, we are going to be doing another family Christmas, so we can give the kids their gifts.  And actually, this past Friday, I saw both Lara AND Jackson, when I drove up to watch Lara’s second Christmas Program (yes, I saw the first too).  Any time spent with those two makes me a very happy girl.

So, yes.  I’m missing quite a bit this Christmas.  But not enough to ruin it for us.  Actually, it’s making Christopher and I appreciate the Christmas traditions we CAN honor that much more.  I wish only the best for YOU this Holiday Season, and hope that you too can enjoy the most important holiday traditions this year.

This week, there will be no post on Thursday as I spend time with my family.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Pre-Christmas Christmas!

We are one week away from my favorite holiday of the year, Christmas!  And nothing can stop Christopher and I from celebrating!  No, we may not have any Christmas trees up this year, and we may not have strung up any lights or put out any of my cute decorations, but that doesn’t mean our Christmas spirit is gone.  This past weekend I found not one, but TWO ways for us to pre-celebrate the most wonderful time of the year!

Friday and Saturday we spent in Orlando to see family and a couple of friends, and then Saturday night, we convinced my dad, his girlfriend and her daughter, to come back with us to St. Pete Beach to watch a lighted boat parade!  We drove 2 miles from our condo to Pass-a-grille Way, had some hot dogs and burgers, listened to Christmas music, and waited.  We had missed the first pass, and after we confirmed the boats would be coming back around a second time, we decided to wait the hour and a half to see the second pass.  There were only about 10 boats, but man were they lit up!!

Sunday morning, we woke up and relaxed a bit before attacking our day.  That’s the best part about St. Pete Beach.  It’s surprisingly relaxing!  After going out and getting lunch, we headed down to Corey Avenue (downtown St. Pete Beach, where the Craft Show was mentioned in this post) to catch the Christmas parade!  There was even a small band of accordions playing Christmas music before the parade began!  Here are some of my favorite pics from the parade:

Yes, it was THAT much fun.  Pretty amazing for a small town parade! 🙂  And since we had taken the Trolley down to Corey Avenue and it was $2 per person per ride, we decided to walk the 2 miles back home.  Which turned into this:

ICE CREAM!!!

And look at this awesome Tip Jar they had:

It says: “Every time you don’t tip a Unicorn dies…”  Of COURSE we tipped! 🙂

Anywho, it was a great weekend with lots of Christmas festivities.  We are definitely ready for some Christmas Family Fun now!! 🙂

Stay tuned for my post on Monday and don’t forget to like my Facebook page!

Aspects of An Adventure

While at the holiday luncheon for the office building I used to (and still kind of, in a contract-employee-kind-of-way) work at, I got to spend time with some of my favorite people, my old coworkers.  Again, they are still kind of my coworkers, because I’m a contracted employee of the company, so it’s hard to describe what they are exactly to me.  I call them my “work family”.  Anyways, they had tons of questions for me, and helped me to realize that there are aspects of this adventure I hadn’t yet discussed in this blog that might be interesting.  You be the judge!

First of all, we are “mobile living” – and have limited space.  I know I talked about this a little bit in previous posts – the idea that when we buy something new, we have to get rid of somthing.  Well, while we were in Raleigh, we got the idea to get two plastic drawer organizers with fabric bins.  We are using these to store clothes we wear all the time so they are more easily accessible as soon as we get to where we are going, and pack them nice and full before moving each time.  HOWEVER, because they take up space in the van, I decided it was time to go through my clothes, scarves and miscellaneous items I brought and downsize.  Now that we’ve been on the road for over two months now, I have a pretty good idea of what I will want to and NOT want to wear.  Also, now that the coldest cities are behind us, I won’t need quite as many warm items.  (Don’t worry though, I still have a bunch of scarves, boot socks, gloves, hats, etc. So I still look cute when it’s chilly, which it has been!)  The problem I had though, is that I didn’t want to just get RID of these items. I would still want them at the end of the year. I just don’t need them right now.  So I packed everything we wouldn’t need into my smallest suitcase, and packed that into Christopher’s largest suitcase.  And begged my dad to give it a home while we are out and about since we can’t access our Pod, to which he most graciously agreed.  Yep, we are down two suitcases, and will have more room in the van than ever before when we leave St. Pete Beach!! Hooray!!

The second aspect is the actual moving, in and out.  I usually mention it very briefly, but maybe you want to know more about this… Well, I’ll tell you.  After only 3 moves (including the one to Boston), we now have it down to a science.  Moving out goes like this: Christopher and I both pack up everything we can into the suitcases, plastic tubs, drawer organizers (previously mentioned), and various bag organizers. We do this usually a day or two before. Then, the night before the move, Christopher packs up the car like a highly trained Tetris guru, while I clean up.  Sweep / Vacuum, make sure the dishes are done, wipe down counters, basic stuff.  Even though we pay a cleaning fee with Airbnb.com, we have dogs, so we like to try and leave it as close to how we got it as we can.  Then we mount the bicycle rack back onto the hitch, put the bikes on, tie them down and lock them up. In Raleigh, this all took us less than one hour!    The next morning, we wake up (usually before the crack of dawn) pack up any remaining items in leftover bags, shove them wherever there is room in the van, get the dogs in the car and hit the road.  And when we get to our destination, it’s exactly as you would imagine.  Unload, unpack, relax and enjoy!

The third and final aspect is (drum roll please!) what will we do when we get more stuff?  We are visiting cities that for the most part, I have either never been to, or have never lived in.  So obviously, we are going to want SOUVENIRS! But realistically, it would be impossible to get rid of an item for a souvenir.  In one of our plastic tubs, we have a very small box, and in that box is a car top carrier that we can put on if we ever have too many things.  Hopefully that won’t happen and we will continue to downsize throughout the year, but just in case!  And what kind of souvenirs are we looking for, pray tell?  Well, in each city, I’m trying to get one item of “touristy” clothing.  In Boston, I got that zip-up Harvard sweater, and in Raleigh I got a t-shirt.  Christopher doesn’t care about that as much as I do, but I’m a girl and I love clothes so you do the math.  But the REAL souvenir that we are looking for in each city is a Christmas ornament with the city’s name on it.  That way, when this is all over, we can have a small tree with each of the ornaments so that at least once a year we can look back and reflect on this amazing adventure.  And I love having multiple trees, and this way Christopher can’t argue with how many I get, so it’s a win-win all around.

So there you have it.  And since this blog didn’t have as many pictures as more recent ones, here are some of the pups enjoying our place in St. Pete Beach:

I love Buster’s face!

Maddie loves to lay against the sliding glass door.

Buster pretending to be bashful. What a cutie!

I ask her all the time: Why are you so cute?!

Stay tuned for Thursday’s post to hear all about how we enjoyed the Christmas festivities of St. Pete Beach this past weekend!