We hopped on a plane yesterday morning and a few hours later landed in Miami. Oh holy day, it is WARM here and so SUNNY. How I miss this weather in Minnesota already.
Andi and I wanted to take a quick trip before I return to work in a few weeks. Primarily because I won't have any vacation left (since I used it all during my maternity leave) and because it happens to be a "slow" time for Andi at work (aka: sandwiched between two major events he's producing) (husband: if you're reading this, I know there is never a "slow time" for you at work) so we set our sites on the Florida Keys. This is our first real vacation with Tory and we tossed around the idea of going to Mexico or somewhere more exotic like Nicaragua, but ultimately decided to play it safe and stay stateside. We've been to Florida a hundred times, but never to the Keys so that's where we settled on.
Tory did an awesome job on the 3 1/2 hour plane ride, sleeping almost the entire flight and never making a peep. As we got off the plane, all the passengers around us commented how good she was. A few people said they didn't even know she was there! I realize traveling with her won't always be so easy, so I'm thankful for every trip that goes as smoothly as this one. Everyone who knows my husband will be shocked to hear we actually checked bags this trip (I KNOW!) so I was able to bring things like real hairspray and plenty of clothing options. Traveling with a baby isn't hard, it's just different and sometimes doing things like checking bags makes for a smoother process. One other thing we learned on the journey: there's a "family" line at the airport which basically equals VIP. We skipped past 100 people in the Minneapolis airport security and breezed right to the beginning of the line. IT WAS AWESOME.
Tory, our perfect little travel buddy, turned into a travel tornado once we loaded into our rented Chrystler Town and Country mini van (definitely not the convertible we're used to renting on vacations ... although I have to admit, it's quite functional). From her car seat, Tory screamed bloody murder during our entire drive from Miami to Duck Key. We stopped about 30 minutes in and I fed her, changed her and soothed her and she still cried the rest of the way. Poor baby just HATES her car seat and there's nothing we can do to help it.
We're staying in Duck Key which is near Marathon, FL and about 60 miles north of Key West. Andi rented a villa for the week on the Hawks Cay resort property and it's got all the luxuries of a kitchen, living room, bedrooms, grill and patio with a pool, bar and marina nearby. Last night we went to the store and loaded up on groceries for the week so we're all set to relax and enjoy a few days in the sun with our little family of three.
Off to spend some time at the pool (under a shady umbrella for Tory, of course) and maybe do a little exploring, too.
So fun! We've debated doing something like this during my leave, but it doesn't sound as appealing when you also have a toddler to contend with :)
ReplyDelete