Escape!

Post-Christmas winter was a bit blah around here, severely lacking in events to anticipate, motivation to better ourselves, warmth, etc.--in short, there was no trip to Hawaii in February this year to make cold, dark winter bearable. By the end of January we were borderline depressed, by mid-February we began to despair that the sun would ever make its appearance again...and that fear was only partly caused by working from dark-in-the-morning until dark-at-night.

The solution? Florida. Specifically, Miami, where we aired out our pasty legs and cranked up Will Smith while driving down the coast to South Beach. I'm pretty surprised that you couldn't hear my ginormous sigh of relief all the way across the country.

We got in on Friday, where we ended the evening watching TV in bed and started Saturday morning the same way (we don't have a TV in our bedroom, if you can't tell. I do love hotels). Then we hit the beach, walking a bit along the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk and then sitting and reading for hours by the pool and on the beach. Luuuuuuuurrved it. Here is me with a real Florida orange that we bought at the grocery store.

Saturday night we hit South Beach for dinner. After strolling around a bit, we ate at a good Cuban restaurant. I was not dressed for South Beach. And by that I mean, unlike everyone around me, I was actually dressed. In clothes. My skirt was not short enough, my shirt not tight enough (and basically not non-existent enough), I felt positively prudish. Oh, well.

Sunday it was a bit rainy and cloudy, and we determined by the pinkish hue of my skin that I'd had enough sun for one weekend, so we drove down to the Everglades and the Semanole Reservation, where we went on a buggy tour and looked at alligators. My favorite part was watching bright pink flamingos fly out of the swamp along the road.

I think a weekend in the sun was just what the doctor ordered. This is the last week in session before Congress goes out for two weeks, during which time my goal is to find my desk underneath the stacks of paper on it. It could be scary to see what is lying under there...