While visiting my mom on Monday she said “Ya know, you’ve been in 4 cities in the last 4 days. Did you realize that?” Wow, I really had been in 4 cities and I covered close to 550 miles over those four days. I started in Winter Park, FL (Day 1), went to Vero Beach, FL, then to St Petersburg, FL (Day 2), back to Vero Beach, FL (Day 3), and then finally ended up in Port Orange, FL (Day 4). It was a fun filled weekend of driving, flying, boating, swimming, and sunning. It was a great, although temporary, distraction from all the sadness in my life that I truly appreciated.
So what did I do over these 4 days? Let me break it down for you!
Day 1: My first day included going to work for 4 hours (in Winter Park, FL) and then heading down to Vero Beach, FL. The rest of the day was spent grabbing lunch, doing a little shopping, and then relaxing on the couch. We had an early wake up call scheduled for the next morning and after a very long week I was looking forward to turning in early. The recent stress also decided to turn into a cold, so I wasn’t feeling so hot either.
Day 2: Why did we have an early wake up call scheduled for Saturday morning of a holiday weekend? To fly to St Petersburg, FL of course! The friend I went to visit just recently got his pilot’s license and was really hoping to get me over my fear of flying so that we could put that license to good use. We planned this trip to St Pete with the hopes of it going really well (on my part) but planned for all sorts of Meghan freak outs. I’m afraid of flying, I’m afraid of heights, and I’m really not a fan of small spaces. This trip wrapped all four of those fears into one 1.5 hour adventure.
After flying around above Vero Beach for a little while we decided I was doing okay and started our flight to St Pete. There were a lot of airport along the way so if I decided it was just too much or I needed a break we had plenty of options before we reached the left coast. So how did it go? Great! It wasn’t nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be and we are already making plans for our next trip up!
When we got to St Pete we had lunch at the airport restaurant, called “The Hangar,” and then wandered around Downtown St Pete for awhile. We checked out the Farmer’s Market, a Corvette show, and walked on the pier before heading back to the airport. It was a VERY hot day and we needed to get out of town before the baseball game started and we got stuck there.
The flight back was a little bumpier than the ride there, but I still survived. I may have “EEK”d a few times, but all in all I did well. Starting and ending the flight with views of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean was a pretty good treat!
Day 3: Sunday was spent on the water on a friends boat. A few of us, including my tiny furry friend Morley, headed south from Vero Beach to a little island in the inlet. On weekends boats gather at these islands just to hang out and had fun. You anchor the boat in about 3 feet of water so you can just jump off the boat and hang out. Morley had a great time swimming, exploring the island, and meeting EVERYONE there. He is quite the social butterfly!
After a couple hours at the island we took a nice slow ride back up to Vero Beach. A long day in the sun meant a big tasty dinner, movie on the couch, and another early night. One day I’m flying across the state and the next I’m on a boat going down the inter-coastal – how cool is that?!
Day 4: Through everything that has gone on the last 2 weeks I hadn’t seen my mom. She wasn’t able to come over when Pepper got sick because my grandfather was having some health issues of his own. As much as I was missing my mom and wanting to see her, I was also dreading going to her house. I ALWAYS brought Pepper with me when I would go and my mom’s dog Ozzie was her best friend. The thought of going there along was just heart breaking. I knew I had to do it eventually and decided Memorial Day was the best time to do it. Starting out with just a day trip, and not a whole weekend visit, sounded like the perfect plan.
I got up fairly early on Monday morning and made the drive up to my mom’s. Unfortunately I got there, made a pit-stop at the bathroom, and then sat down on the floor with Ozzie and bawled. It was pretty awful. Fortunately the rest of the day was much better. My mom and I had a chance to hang out for a little white, then a bunch of us went to the pool for a few hours, and then we came back to the house to grill some burgers and have dinner. My mom even surprised me and made one of my favorite desserts!
I enjoyed spending the day with family and even though it was hard, it was a step that needed to be taken. I can’t avoid my mom’s house forever right? It was a great way to end a nice long holiday weekend (tears and all).
So did you do anything fun for Memorial Day weekend? Did you do any traveling?
