Well, long time no blog!
Blake managed to arrange for us to stay in this absolutely amazing house near the beach in St. Petersburg, Florida. We had almost 6,000 sq. feet, 5 bedrooms and a pool all to ourselves for 14 days and it was the BEST break from the van. The first night we got there I think we were both a little overwhelmed. Honestly I've never even really spent time in a house that big so I felt like a kid let loose in a hotel. We planned on hot tubbing and making an awesome dinner but 4 months of travel caught up to us and we ended up ordering pizza, drinking wine and posting up on the couch.
As embarrassing as it is thats sort of where we stayed the first few days. We love traveling but having that much space to yourself is almost too good to pass up. Every morning there Blake would wake up and do yoga on the back patio while I slept until I couldn't sleep anymore - we would make breakfast, walk the dogs, work out and then lay out until it was time to make dinner.
We made the best dinners while we were there! I want to share the recipes because after my performance last week I think I deserve my own cooking show. We had this huge kitchen and I really took advantage - meaning I made a mess that would lead you to think I had made dinner for 40 people instead of two - but totally worth it. We had homemade asian potstickers and fried rice, buffalo chicken pizza, greek potstickers (way better than it sounds), black bean guacamole burgers and fresh homemade pasta. This was all inspired by a Chopped marathon that I started watching the second day we were there and didn't stop watching until Blake said he really couldn't take it anymore. Enough with all that boring stuff! We just really soaked up the time we had there to ourselves.
Don't worry though - we didn't waste a house that big on just ourselves. We invited some of our friends out and thankfully they took us up on it! One of the guys got there a little early and I forced him and Blake to play cocktail chopped with me. I was all hyped up on my success from the nights before but it turns out that mixing drinks is way harder and we all failed. Blake made something gross out of butter almond ice cream, vodka and a hot cookie - good in theory, TERRIBLE in real life. We hung out and putzed around until the rest of the gang got there and then it was party time!
We got in a good hang day with paddleboarding, and then ended the night with a really great dinner at home. The next day we hit the beach and a really fun bar called the Toasted Monkey for the afternoon. We got a little bit of the run around before deciding on dinner but it was just so fun to be out with everyone that it didn't matter.
The next day was we a little bit of a hangover day. We had big plans to maybe do a sunset cruise or dolphin watching but lack of planning and spring break in Florida don't go together so we missed it but had the best day ever anyway! We played yard games and took too many pictures. The only thing we really wanted to do was make it to the rooftop bar in downtown St. Pete for the sunset and we were all so glad we did! It turned out to be such a beautiful night followed by a seafood dinner and a classic living room dance party.
We were pretty sad to say bye to our friends and I have to admit that the first few days back in the van were a little rough but - movin' on!! This week we're exploring the Keys and the Everglades! Cross your fingers that I don't get eaten by a croc!
See you on the flip side!
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