Days 1 & 2 in Florida!

Thursday we made it to Florida by 3pm local time! Can you see the excitement in our faces?!?!?  

My little sister, Wendi, picked us up from the airport and we headed to Clearwater Beach!  

This place holds a special place in our hearts, Kyle and I spent our first 6 days of married life here…AKA our honeymoon!

It was windy and only about 60 degrees, which is quite nice compared to Iowa..but I think on the water it makes it much colder!

We still wanted to at least get our toes wet! 

Kyle says it’s a “little” cold! ;)     

Defiantly brought back LOTS of memories being in our honeymoon spot…it’s been almost 5 years! I sure do love this guy! 
After getting out feet wet we walked around for a little bit. This guy was doing some street entertainment…he was actually really quite good!   

We walked down Pier 60!  

Live statue! He was funny…a kid walked up to him and then he moved and it scared the kid! I’m sure I would have jumped too!! 

After Clearwater we drove through Tampa and stopped at a Fro-Yo place…berryism! 

Happiness in a cup is right!! :) 

I got peanut butter chocolate fro-yo and topped it with green M&Ms , mini chocolate chips, Oreo pieces, and green & white sprinkles! MMMMmmm good!!! 

Wendi loved it too!!  

After our Fro-Yo stop Wendi drove us around Tampa. We say the Bay and LOTS of SUPER nice houses.
Then she remembered her friend of hers told her about Derek Jeter building a house on Davis Island in Tampa. So I looked it up on my phone and we drove by it….all 30,800 sq ft!! Sheesh!!

It was so big I couldn’t get it all in the shot! Kyle made it though! ;)

Here is a picture I found on the internet…this place is HUGE!! 

Wendi drove us through downtown and we saw where Kyle and I will be boarding our cruise ship for our November “Thanksgiving cruise”!!!  

We headed back to Lakeland and went out to eat at Olive Garden.  

It was extra fun because this is where Wendi spends about 30+ hours/week…AKA her job! ;) 

Everything was SUPER good and it was fun that Wendi had the “DL” on everything!! And the other bonus is that we got a discount too!!

After our late supper we went back to Wendi’s apartment, chatted a bit, and hit the hay! It was a long, but fun first day in Florida!
Day 2 in Florida was a little less beach than day 1, but a little more of something else I love…shopping! :)
We headed to Orlando to hit the shops! Kyle was especially excited because they had an Under Armour Outlet! Pretty much everything he wears for running is Under Armour. We hit up Kyle’s choice first and got a TON of stuff!! He is stocked up for running season in Iowa now!
We stopped at a few other places and then wanted to get on the road to my Granpa’s house.

On the way Kyle and I had two new “trys’!! The first was Chick-Fil-A! I ordered the original chicken sandwich with the waffle fries and Kyle got the chicken strips…both were great! 

After Chick-Fil-A, I knew right where we were headed next. I had read abut it many times on Meghann’s blog and knew the next time I was down here I wanted to try it! Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt! 

To say that this place is great is a HUGE understatement!! You take a cup and and pick a flavor of fro-yo you want, there are 12+ choices!      

Then you add on whatever toppings you want!! 

Just look at all these choices! I was like a kid in a candy store! ;)

We all went for the chocolate! And added pretty much any topping that went well with chocolate….cookie dough bites, mini pb cups, brownies, mini caramel cups, crushed Oreos, cheesecake bites, gummy bears, crushed Reeses PB cups, mini chocolate chips…….

AAAAHHH-MAZING

Then you put your creation on the scale and pay by weight! The 3 of ours came to $19….I think we all had a tad too much! ;) And we couldn’t finish them! But it was still SUPER good and SO fun!!
Next time we all want to try a more fruity kind and definitely get less!!
After our fro-yo experience we headed south to my Grandpa’s house near West Palm Beach. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive straight down the Florida Turnpike.
And of course, what was the first thing he wanted to do when we got there….eat! Ugh….the three of us will still STUFFED from our two new “trys”!
But we went along with him and he was excited to go to this new place he said that had just opened….Golden Corral. I think all old/retired people like buffets! It ended up being ok though. Kyle, Wendi, & I just ate pretty light after our afternoon filled with food!
It was a pretty low key night and we hit the hay early, but that was ok with us! We don’t want to be tired on vaca!