Welcome to Miami

The day after David's birthday my Lutheran Stud and I hopped on a red-eye flight to Florida where were met up with some dear friends who used to live in Colorado. The flight was long and exhausting. Did I mention that we arrived at 6am on a Sunday morning only to find the airport almost completely deserted? Coffee. Why wasn't a coffee shop open when I needed it? Then we had to wait until 10am for a ride to pick us up to take us to church. During that time Starbucks did end up opening, but I was seriously still a zombie after not sleeping on the plane or in the airport. Not to worry though, after church we found another Starbucks, but it was also lunch time. The fine gentleman at the restaurant we popped into gifted us margaritas and the margaritas kept coming. I didn't know how to handle that. Coffee or margarita? Or both?  After checking into our condo, finally, we decided to explore Miami just a bit and ended up at a lovely Turkish restaurant complete with belly dancing and a guy who offered us some free "mary jane" when he found out we were from Colorado. The view from our condo was beautiful! We could even spy on the people in the pool or the lack there of. We did end up meeting some interesting guys in the hot tub that were on a vacation from France. Once our husbands entered the conversation we knew things were not going to end anytime soon. Politics and religion were soon the topic of conversation. It didn't take long before Mandy and I got hungry so we took off leaving our husbands for another hour or so before they arrived back in our condo. We decided, since it was late, to just get a small meal of Mexican food from the restaurant we went to when we first arrived. We had a coupon for free guacamole so it totally made sense, right? Well, as it turns out when we sent our husbands to pick up dinner it seemed to take quite a long time before they returned. We were starting to fall asleep to Hart of Dixie. Somehow while our husbands were waiting to pick up our food they were given free shots of tequila while they waited and then they got to talking to the hostess and owner of the restaurant over more tequila shots. Our food finally arrived minus the guac. Mandy and I still aren't sure what happened there. I guess it was free tequila or free guac. Hmmm. . . . Our mornings were filled with coffee and getting ready for the day while our lovely husbands searched for fun things for us to do or maybe they were checking email and working on vacation. Who knows?

     

Beach time was all I really cared about after such a snowy, cold winter and spring that we had. One day we packed a cooler full of drinks and snacks and stayed at the beach pretty much all day. We even had time to get buried in the sand and take a nap. The sun in Florida is definitely easier to handle than Colorado's sun. It must be an altitude thing.

Our husbands did and a little snorkeling and picked up a bunch of sea shells for us. I brought a bunch home for the kids. 

We walked down the beach and ran into and nude beach. Yikes! It wasn't too far off from Trump Towers.

After a long day at the beach we were famished. We found this cute little restaurant in a little strip mall. The food did not disappoint. Here's dinner!

We sat outside and walked along the dock while we waited for our meal. The dock was shared by some other restaurants nearby. It was just our luck when we walked by a little bar and outside were two ladies taking in a little hookah. They were quite friendly and offered up some of their hookah to us. Strawberries and champagne was their flavor and it was quite interesting. After that little pit stop  it was time for dinner.

  

Our waiter, Nick, was great! He's from Serbia and for some reason he really liked us. Just as were were about to leave he showed up with a couple desserts and orangecello shots on the house! How could we refuse? Then our friendly husbands began talking to people at the table next to us and we found out that one of the guys owns a cigar company in Nicaragua. Guess what happened next? Yes! They gave our husbands cigars.

For our last full day in Miami we headed to South beach to do a little exploring. We walked through some old hotels and saw some pretty cool architecture. 

Our trip to Miami couldn't have come at a more perfect time. After being stuck inside or freezing cold outside doing chores we were ready for some warmer weather.

Past Summer Travels

One would think that after moving into a new home you would want to get settled and learn how things work around your new place, but that's not us.  We spent most of our last summer traveling. Here's a small peek into the rest of last summer's travels since this summer is already here. Yikes!

After returning home from South Dakota we had a few weeks to get some unpacking done. It's all kind a blur since we really weren't home long enough before we packed up our big van again and headed west. We went just about as far west as one could go, to Seattle. Our families still live in the state of Washington and it had been a few years since we were able to get back there. It was time to catch up with family and old friends and to see all the crazy, new changes around town. Oh, Seattle. Wait. Did I mention there was a small detour in plans when we arrived in Seattle? My lovely Lutheran Stud and I took off for Chicago almost as soon as we arrived in Seattle. That's right we dropped the kids off and headed to the airport. You see, we have dear friends that had recently moved to Naperville. My husband was asked to preach at the installation service. We couldn't resist, so we went. It was a quick trip, but we had a lot of fun catching up, and staying up late like we were teenagers again.

No worries, though! We left our children in good hands and they had a blast hanging out with their cousins and eating ice cream everyday. When we returned we decided to do some touristy things since my children didn't actually grow up in Seattle. When I was young my parents would take us all over the place. It was pretty normal for us to hop on a ferry and explore some part of Washington state. My kids, however, had never been on a ferry boat. Can you believe it? I had to make that happen, so off we went. They thought it was a little strange that an entire car could fit on a boat and then be shuttled around the lake.

We landed in Bremerton where we played around until it was time to hop onto another ferry and return to Seattle. The kids has so much fun that we might have to try that again sometime. After Seattle we headed to Yakima to see more family. We spent a lot time with cousins we haven't seen in a long time. Things are a little slower paced on the east side of the Cascade mountains. We did a lot of visiting and relaxing, and the kids ran around and played. The last time we saw our three youngest cousins they were just tiny. They were pretty much babies. It was so fun to see the kids all playing so well together at all their different ages. The older girls were too cool to stick around, so they took off and got their nails done and did fun girly things. After some time in Yakima, we had to make the long trek back to Colorado because we had another trip coming in which we needed to get laundry done and then pack again. Oh my!


It's a rough life when you return from a fun week of visiting family only to be home for a week or two and leave for a few days to the mountains where you get to stay in a fancy condo and go swimming inside and outside in the same pool.  Dr. Peter Scaer, from Concordia Theological Seminary was the keynote speaker for the Rocky Mountain District Church Workers' conference. When he wasn't on a tangent he spoke on life issues and marriage. It was a great conference and we really enjoyed what he had to say.  During Dr. Scaer's free time in between sessions he could be found in the swimming pool. It was so nice of him to swim with my children so I didn't have to get in. I'm sort of like a cat when it comes to swimming. What could be more fun than swimming in a pool with mountain views? We had a blast in Breckenridge, but we were also ready to come home. After all, when does school get done with all of these vacations? Our children enjoyed quite the break from their schoolwork, so it was only fair that we get home so they could get something done. My Lutheran Stud and I, however, didn't have school work, so we decided to hop and on a plane to meet our new goddaughter, Hope. Isn't she a doll? We spent some time at the Concordia University campus in Irvine and then rode on an itty bitty ferry to get to Balboa Island.  Balboa is a beautiful place to visit. I highly recommend vacationing there. There are cute little shops and homes everywhere. There's also not shortage of places to eat and that includes a ton of ice cream shops!
We couldn't visit California without spending a little time at the beach, so my stalker friend, Rachel and her husband Adam were kind enough to hang out with us for the day. The boys went spearfishing while Rachel and I got to hang out in the sand and catch up with each other.

Sometimes I dream about living in California because I love their beaches so much. A girl can dream or have friends that live there and visit often. Hmm. . .

Living in Colorado really makes me miss the ocean and sunsets like this, but I really love the sun and the Colorado mountains too. I guess you can't have it all. All the traveling had to come to an end at some point and Newport Beach seemed like a great place to end our vacation. We loved the little hotel where we stayed. If you visit Newport be sure to look up the Newport Beach Hotel. Their hospitality was wonderful and you just walk outside and you're right on the beach!

Warmer, Citrusy Weather

We woke up Friday morning and it was just a short walk to Mills Ave where Starbucks was filled with "Dawg" fans.  Obviously, the barista did now attend the University of Washington, so she did not know the proper spelling of the word "dawg."

The Huskies were selected to play in the Cactus Bowl which was to be played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ. Knowing that Arizona has warmer weather than Denver we thought it would be fun to take a quick trip to Arizona and catch our alma mater play a little football.

We grabbed our coffee and took a little stroll around Arizona State University (ASU). They have oranges just growing on campus. How cool is that? ASU just happened to be the university in which I wanted to attend. I applied and was accepted, however, out-of-state tuition was not something my parents were willing to pay, so I settled on the University of Washington and after walking around the campus it was a choice I'm glad I made. ;)

The campus was pretty and green, but I just wonder what it would be like in the spring or summer. It was not however, as beautiful as the University of Washington, which has views of the lake and mountains.

As we walked around we found the stadium where the Huskies would be playing that evening. We took a little peek inside and saw many people there preparing for the evening festivities.

Then, from afar we saw a little mountain(?) that many people seemed to be hiking, so we decided to hike it too. Three wiseman were still on their way to bring gifts to Jesus.

From the top we could see our hotel and the city of Phoenix.

Along another side you could see Sun Devil Stadium. The blue skies were beautiful, especially since we had left a snowstorm, in Denver, behind.

Cruising

After our outing at the USS Midway we drove across a super long bridge to Coronado Island. We heard that Hell Week might be going on at the naval base near the beach we wanted to visit.

Things were hopping at the beach. We couldn't see anything happening at the base, but we did see

several different aircrafts fly overhead. Some flew surprisingly low, which was kind of awesome.We had to get some sun on our last full day of vacation, right? We stayed until we got hungry. Then we were off to explore Coronado Island and all its cute little shops.

Also, since we were in California I had to get my In-n-Out Burger fix and this definitely hit the spot.

Among other activities our hotel also had a nightly cruise around the bay. We hopped onto the cruise just before the sun was setting and the evening couldn't have been more perfect.

From afar we could see Mission Beach and the old roller coaster at Belmont Park.

This is the view as we headed back to the hotel.

We cruised around for a couple rounds listening to the live musician and drinking fruity, girly drinks. Okay, maybe I had the girly drink and my Lutheran Stud had a beer. :)

There's something calming about being at sea when the evening is quiet. It's refreshing and the perfect way to wrap up our time in San Diego. We don't have plans to return at the moment, but I think it will rate high on our list when we plan another trip.