Florida Fun!

Two weekends ago I got to have a chance of pace and climate – in Tampa, Florida!

Back story: my soon-to-be father-in-law wanted to surprise my soon-to-be mother-in-law  by gathering her children (and soon-to-be daughter-in-law) for the weekend while the two of them were on vacation. [Side note: I think I just set a record for number of dashes used in one sentence.]

This meant that Connie (Peter’s sister), Peter and I got to be part of the super secret mission. This required taking time off work, but the deep sacrifice was worth it. Even though Colorado’s winter is much more mild than New York’s, I could use a little sand and sun.

The three children met up at the airport and had to pick up a rental car, which ended up being more difficult than it should have been. I’m not exactly sure why, since Connie was the adult, and I was the little kid who got tired of standing and sat on the floor. What we ended up getting was a 2016 convertible mustang – in yellow! For the same price as a regular car!

So now we’re in Tampa for the weekend, driving with the roof down in a yellow mustang. This is the way to start out a trip!

The surprise worked perfectly – we were sitting by the pool when Peter’s parents got back from a walk on the beach. The look of surprise and delight was priceless! During the course of the weekend, we also had the chance to surprise Peter’s grandparents and his cousin!

Spending time as a family was a nice change of pace from the craziness of daily life. Good discussions, good food, lots of laughter and plenty of sand and sun! We went to a Greek restaurant that included live music, belly dancing, napkin throwing and plate breaking! We walked on the beach, played mini golf, and Peter and I were crazy enough to go swimming (even though it was NOT warm enough for that!)

I could go into lots of detail with many stories, but I’ll wrap it up here with a few pictures instead 🙂

This is the campus of the University of Tampa. As Connie said “Why didn’t I go to college with a campus that has palm trees? Why did I go someplace where the air hurt my face?”