Weekending- home sweet home after a few days away

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

Alyssa and I arrived home on Saturday early afternoon after spending several days for a pre spring break getaway to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Our school is now on spring break (we aren’t going anywhere- the pre spring break trip was our only travel). We went to Florida the week before spring break because flights were significantly cheaper and with Alyssa being a senior and being into the fourth quarter of her senior year, attendance is not as important as it was.

How was Florida? So many things... warm mainly!! (The very best thing about it!)

We stayed at the B Ocean Resort. I was sold on the resort because it was only one of two resorts that have a private beach (at least that’s what my research indicated... it’s possible I missed some) in Fort Lauderdale. FL has a reputation for being a major destination for the Party Hearty college spring break crowd. After spending a few days in FL during a time when many colleges are on spring break, I can attest with certainty that the reputation is a reality. We saw SO MANY drunk college (/college age looking people) students when we walked to dinner and to do shopping. I’m not sure that I’ve ever made a better hotel choice in my life!! Having a private beach where we did not have to worry about the college kids was clutch! 

There is a Ritz Carlton much closer to the bars/ restaurants than we were. While undoubtedly the Ritz is more upscale (it sure costs a lot more) than where we stayed, I would not have stayed there had the price been the same. 

I lifted this picture from internet. The hotel in the forefront of this picture is the Ritz. Towards the bottom left of the picture, there is a building with an orange awning. That is a restaurant/ bar where at dinner time, dozens of college students sat around the bar drinking concoctions out of 40 or so ounce specialty drink cups. Alyssa and I ate dinner there one evening. It was loud and filled with the young and that was at 6:00 pm. That hotel is waaaay too close to the bars for my liking! 

Back to our place... it was on the same street as the bars and restaurants, just further away. It was comprised of four buildings and one them was built to look like a boat!! That is the building where we stayed. It is the only one that has ocean front rooms with balconies. 

The hotel has a rich history with numerous famous people having stayed there. According to its website, Joe DiMiaggio and Marilyn Monroe all stayed here (though it went by a different name then). 

I loved how it was fairly close to the restaurants and shops but not right there. 

We mainly went to the beach, got into the ocean when we could (one whole day there were riptide warnings so we didn’t go in the ocean), went to restaurants for dinner and relaxed. Here are a few pictures:

The public beach area was pretty nice- it had numerous basketball courts

as well as this work out area

Ice cream three nights in a row for the win!

My beach baby! Alyssa loves everything about the beach and I was so grateful to spend her last high school spring break with her at her happy place. The beach is her happy place that is. One evening, we were walking in the area where all the bars/ drunk college kids were. I remarked that I wondered if she would go on beach spring break trips with her friends when she was in college. Alyssa quipped, “If I do, it won’t be in Fort Lauderdale.” So the trip was a win-win-win- I got to spend time with her, we got to spend time at the ocean and Alyssa got to see FL and realize it is not a place that she wants to go to when she’s in college. YES! (Though I realize all bets could be off if friends invite her, etc. But I am glad that as of right now, she has no desire to party there for spring break.)

On our last full day, Friday, it rained almost the entirety of the day. It was pouring at lunch time so we picked up salads from the lobby of our hotel and went to the balcony to eat them. 

I mentioned this in my last post- we realized that right outside our balcony and on a part of the private beach of our hotel, workers were constructing temporary structures for an upcoming music festival. This work extended to a portion of the public beach as well. It was 80% annoying (the forklifts' beeping was the antithesis of the calm that I wanted to hear while relaxing on the beach) and 20% impressive. Just in the days that we were there, we saw a lot of progress. When we walked to restaurants, we walked past some of the building structures.

I took this from the balcony of the room turning to my left.

And here is the same view as work progressed.

This was looking straight out our balcony. Over a few days, there was noticeable change.

On our way to our hotel from the airport we passed by a site that I recognized from the only other time that I was in Fort Lauderdale. That was in 2018 and Abby and I were in Fort Lauderdale for a dance competition. We stayed in an Airbnb with a group of other dancers and moms that was near the convention center (where the competition was held). This church is called Church by the Sea and I remembered it so clearly from 2018.

Such a good time!

From our rental, we could walk to the convention center which was great but we had to walk over a drawbridge. For us land locked mid westerners, not only are drawbridges a novelty but walking near one as the bridge was moving up was truly a unique sight!

A couple of nights, we drove over to the public beach and ate at the same restaurant/ bars that Alyssa and I did on our trip.

Outside of one restaurant, a guy asked Abby if she wanted to hold this bird. How bizarre!!

Anyway, I enjoyed seeing some of the same sights with Alyssa as I did with Abby (no bird holding for Alyssa though on the trip with her 😆) in Fort Lauderdale.

Speaking of Abby, Donnie picked her up from school on Thursday to begin her spring break. It was great to see her on Saturday when we arrived home. We had an early flight on Saturday back to Cincy. I was worried that we may be delayed as storms were predicted for Friday and Saturday morning. Thankfully, the plane took off right at 8:00 am and even with stopping for a quick lunch in West Chester, Alyssa and I were home by 1:00 pm. When we arrived home, we got caught up with Donnie and Abby, the girls hung out for a while, I messed around with some photos on my Nikon and then we headed to our favorite Mexican place for dinner. Both girls stayed in and we played Pictionary together after dinner and watched some TV. Abby was heading out on her own spring break trip on Sunday morning so it was great to spend time with her.