Honey, I'm home!

Aaahhh!  What a great week I had on the "Suncoast" of Florida.  I was invited by my sister-in-law to join her in Florida for a week of R & R.  It was wonderful!  I told her I had to keep pinching myself that it was real.  The weather was for the most part great, the water was inviting, the food was awesome and I had great company. :-)

I started out by flying into Hotlanta aka Atlanta, Georgia to join my sister-in-law for the first leg of our trip.  She picked me up at the airport and we hit the road.  Eight hours later we found ourselves looking out at the Gulf of Mexico with the palm trees swaying and the salty breeze blowing on our face.  How refreshing!  I felt bad for her though, because she drove through some pretty bad monsoons downpours that took expert driving skills to get through.  But we made it and it was worth it!

After sleeping like a log, we awoke, got dressed and headed out to breakfast.  We ate at the "Blue Dolphin Cafe".  I just love it when you are in an area that restaurants have the words "Blue Dolphin" in the title.  You know you are in a tropical location with a name like that.  We then headed to the nearby Publix grocery store for food and supplies.  I just want to say this.  Everyone I met in Florida was so friendly!  I don't know if it is all of the vitamin D from all the sunshine, but at every store, restaurant, whatever, everyone went above and beyond what was expected of them to make sure you were a satisfied customer.  And I saw not one of the self-serve cash registers that are so prevalent in my neck-of-the-woods.  I have issues with those, but that is for another post...

My sister-in-law needs to go into the hospitality business, because she made sure I was comfortable and kept me entertained.  We shopped until we dropped, ate at some of the best restaurants and laughed until our faces hurt.  I also got a nice sunburn.  I cannot go out into the sun without a burn, so that was totally expected.  If I left Florida without a burn, that meant I either spent the entire time indoors or it was a bad week weather-wise.  At least now I do not look like I belong to the Cullen clan in the "Twilight" books. ;-)

We saw beautiful sunsets.

Listened to some great music.

Ate food that was (almost) too pretty to eat.

And spent time on the beach.

It was heaven!  But as much as I loved being there, I was also missing my family and anxious to get home.  Hubby was wonderful and assured me that everything was going smoothly back home and to relax.  I didn't doubt that he and Ryan could handle it by themselves, but I missed them.  My sister-in-law was missing her hubby, too.  We packed up and headed back to Atlanta for the final leg home.

I left my sister-in-law at the airport already missing her terribly, but with wonderful memories of our time together. She will never know how much I appreciated her hospitality and friendship that week.

After a week of sun and balmy temps, my hubby told me that Michigan was in for several days of rain and cool temperatures.  Was I crazy for coming back?  As the plane was circling around and making it's descent over the Motor City, I could not help but think how good it felt to be back home no matter what the weather.

Now I have to go and unpack.  I wish everyone to have love, friendship and sunshine.  And I'll leave with a quote by Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz".    "There is no place like home."

Thanks for looking in.