Surprising Mom + First Few Days in Florida

The cat is finally out of the bag!  My brother and I had been planning on surprising my mom for a couple months now and now that it’s finally here, I feel like I don’t have to hide!  It was very quiet over here for a couple weeks due to this trip.  With having a ton of stuff to wrap up at work before leaving, I really cherished my time at home to pack and rest.  My mom also reads my blog and I was too scared I’d accidentally allude to the fact that I’d be ‘out of town.’

On Saturday, I spent the day driving down to Tampa.  My brother’s flight got in at 8:30pm, so it was nice being able to take my time and not feel like I had to rush down there.

I give major props to my dad for distracting my mom all day, especially the late hours just before the surprise.  My mom is someone who likes to be in bed at 8pm, so keeping my mom out until 10pm was quite the task.  She said she was thinking “uhhh why are we still out?!” but she went along with my dad’s plans.  They were out at a bar in downtown Dunedin, and we just walked in, tapped her on the shoulder, and said ‘excuse me?’ She turned around and freaked out.  She saw me first, totally not realizing my brother was standing right next to me.  Once she realized my brother was there too, she freaked out all over again.  It was like having 2 surprises right in a row.

Since we got home late Saturday, we had a slow Sunday morning catching up over coffee.

Later that day, we went to the Orioles/Phillies game.  The Phillies spring training is down here in Clearwater, and with us being big Os fans, going to the game was a no-brainer.

First things first – drinks.  I haven’t been into beer lately, and in the heat, and margarita sounded perfect.  When does a margarita not sound perfect though?

We shared grouper nuggets and Philly fries – SO GOOD.

Later that day, my dad and I went walking along the Dunedin Causeway.  The views are always so beautiful.

I have no pictures from Monday, but we went to a couple thrift stores since I am looking for a couple pieces of furniture for my apartment.  My mom found a coffee table for me for $25, so it’s been on my list to hit up a bunch of places while I am here.  The consignment deals here blow the Charlotte ones out of the water, so I plan on making the most of it.

After some shopping, we went to the beach for the afternoon.  It’s been 80 every day!

On Tuesday, I woke up early and took Winston to the dog beach on Honeymoon Island.  I LOVE taking him when we are here because he has so much fun.

It’s posted that dogs must remain on leash, but we were the only ones there so I let him run around a little bit.  He loves chasing the waves and seagulls!

Winston takes his seagull hunts very seriously…

After the dog park and a couple more thrift store/Home Goods trips, my brother and I went to the beach.

We spent a good portion of it walking the coast line and listening to Bill Burr’s podcast.  Bill Burr is freaking hilarious.

 

I’ll be back later this week to finish the recap…my mom and I are off to check out more furniture stores 🙂

Hope you all are having a great week!