You, you, you, & me & the sea- girls trip to FL

A few years ago, we took Jacob's girlfriend (at the time) on vacation with us to Florida. She posted an adorable picture of the two of them on the beach and captioned it, "you, me and the sea" and I loved the caption's whimsical wording. 

In the spirit of that phrase, I'm using it to describe our recent spring break trip that included not just a "you and me" but two additional "you's" ergo, "You, you, you  & me and the sea." (!) My sister and Alyssa's best friend joined us for a fun girls getaway to Miami, Florida. 

Canada's winter weather tends to last much longer than ours does and I knew my sister would love to get away to warmer weather. However, usually, just Alyssa and I travel on spring break. I booked our trip on the first day of the year and a few days later asked Alyssa what she thought about inviting my sister. If Alyssa was super opposed to it, I would keep the trip just for the two of us. Alyssa was just the absolute sweetest and said something like she loves our trips together but she knows how much my sister means to me and so she said she was great with me inviting my sister. Awww, my heart! My sister was thrilled with the invite and she bought a plane ticket within a minute of our phone conversation ending!! I told Alyssa that she could invite a friend (since we were changing things up this year!) so she invited her best friend and roommate Avery. 

Where to begin: just before the beginning of the trip, I suppose, is as good a place as any. A major stressor occurred. And yes, I can get stressed about little things but this was actually a big thing. Before I picked Alyssa (and her roommate) up for break, Alyssa texted me that she was sick and asked me to make an appointment for her. She said her throat felt awful. On the way home, Alyssa didn't talk at all- she wrote down that it hurt too much to talk. Oh dear. This was not good.

I got her an appointment the next day where she was tested for a litany of things that are going around. The test for strep came back positive which explained her sore throat. Also her temperature was close to 105 degrees!! 105 is considered a medical emergency. She wasn't there but she was close. My stars! The doctor said that Alyssa would feel, "100% after a dose of antibiotics" and added that she wouldn't be contagious anymore 24 hours after she took her first dose. The not contagious part was good because we were supposed to be on an airplane the next day, destination Miami, but we wouldn't leave for over 24 hours after Alyssa started the antibiotics (our flight was thankfully late in the day). 

The bad news was that Alyssa's throat still hurt twenty four hours after starting the antibiotics but she didn't have a fever anymore. So we were off! Once in Miami, Alyssa's throat continued to hurt. I did some reading about it online and according to The Google, one's throat should not be hurting beyond 48 hours of being on an antibiotic for strep. Alyssa's throat was hurting well beyond the 48 hours. I hated that she was suffering- she was actively trying to not talk much due to the pain. We ubered over to a CVS that had a Minute Clinic, hoping to get her on a stronger antibiotic to rid her of the strep and the accompanying sore throat. The NP at the Minute Clinic tested her for strep and it came back positive. I asked the NP if she could prescribe a stronger antibiotic. At this the NP said that unfortunately, Alyssa had been prescribed the strongest antibiotic for strep. Wellll, that was bad news.  The NP said she'd have to refer us to an urgent care since "treatment failure" was beyond the scope of the Minute Clinic. 

So we ubered to the urgent care that the NP recommended. The NP at the urgent care took a culture of the strep in an effort to find an antibiotic that wasn't resistant to the strain that Alyssa had (not sure if the words I'm using accurately describe what was relayed to me but I think it's close). The bad news is that it would take 48 hours for the results to come in. The NP prescribed a steroid to help with the throat pain that Alyssa was experiencing. 

That night, both Alyssa and I had trouble falling asleep. My sister and Avery were both asleep at one point but Alyssa and I were awake. I pointed to her throat and made a questioning face and Alyssa gave a thumbs up. I whispered, "your throat doesn't hurt?" and she said shook her head. The antibiotic that she was on had, in fact, become effective. It just took multiple doses and well past 48 hours of beginning the antibiotic. Crisis averted, FINALLY!! What an answer to prayer. The bad news vis a vis Miami was that we were not there long to begin with. By the time Alyssa's throat completely stopped hurting, we didn't have much longer in Miami :(.

Out of an overabundance of caution, due to Alyssa's sore throat/strep, we decided to not do any activities where we would be close to others lest she passed on her strep to anyone. With Avery and me being in close proximity to Alyssa when she was contagious for sure (before she started antibiotics) and not getting strep and then my sister being around Alyssa when we joined her in Miami and my sister not getting strep, we felt pretty confident that Alyssa was not a super spreader of strep but we still wanted to take precautions. So, we didn't go to the Everglades or even do a boat tour of Miami. Disappointing but the most important thing is that Alyssa recovered and we got to enjoy the beautiful sunshine (I'll talk more about the weather in a bit (you know that weather is going to be covered!!)) with each other and with two besties. 

We stayed in beautiful Miami Beach, because cheap flight from Cincy to Fort Lauderdale ($99 round trip though that didn't include a bag so that added to the cost of the flight). We stayed in Fort Lauderdale two times last year- Alyssa and I went there last year for spring break and then four of the five of us did a long weekend in FL before the school year started last summer. We liked Fort Lauderdale and will likely go there again but I wanted to go somewhere else and Miami is close to Fort Lauderdale. I hadn't been to Miami Beach since 2016 or 17.

Within Miami, there were a lot of options- the only thing I wanted to do was avoid South Beach which seems like it would be too wild n' crazy with spring breakers. (You know my wild n crazy is having a caffeinated beverage after 4:00 pm...) I found several hotel options in an area known as mid Beach and settled on the Radisson.

The Radisson was a great option for us! While not luxurious, that was completely fine because it meant it was not outrageously priced- I don't like to spend extravagantly when it's just two of us (especially when Donnie can't join us due to him being so busy at work- it seems inconsiderate to spend way more than necessary when he's busy at work). The only criteria I had for a place to stay at was it had to be on the ocean and our room had to have a balcony and a view. Done and done! We had no control over how busy the place was- I expected it to be way busier than it was and was pleased to see that it wasn't super crowded yet it was fully staffed.

The weather- it was amazing... though, the weather at home was amazing, too! It was for sure the nicest week southwest Ohio had had all year. But, Ohioians in our area were still over six hundred miles from the nearest ocean beach, so, we had the location advantage for sure!

Some pics...

In the air... It's my Diet Coke but my "hand model" was holding the can for a more lovely aesthetic 😍

I got this can of pop for free because...

...I'm kind of a big deal in the discount airline world :). Just kidding, sort of. I mean, I am an Allegiant credit card holder which gets me a free beverage each flight. 

The dirty window (not made dirty by us!) view was interesting- I took the pic because you could see the outline of Miami's skyline below. When I saw the photo, I realized the photo doesn't show the buildings and the light that is displayed near the horizon did not look like it does in the picture. There was no pinkish- orange light. Though that was interesting...

We ubered to our hotel-  it was about a 45 minute drive and I'm glad that I was not the one driving- lots of traffic.

The view from our balcony-

I loved how many palm trees there were on our hotel's property and the one next to ours.

One odd thing is that our balcony and our neighbor's were completely accessible to each other. We had to remember to always lock the balcony door when we left our room. You don't want to assume that the person in the room next to you is thinking about coming into your room- but since there was access to our balcony from the balcony next to ours, it would have not been smart to leave the door unlocked. 

My sister and I

One day, while lounging by the pool, I thought of how good a chocolate chip cookie sounded. I hadn't remembered seeing a bakery in the vicinity of our hotel when we'd gone walking to find restaurants. I did a search of bakeries near me and I saw that there was one close by. It was in a hotel that was very close to ours, the Fountainbleu. My sister and I decided to walk to the Fountainbleu to get a cookie since it was so close to us.

The Fountainbleu is an iconic, luxury hotel that boasts lots of "stars" having stayed there. It's a large hotel that even contains a night club (my worst nightmare of an "amenity" for a hotel!!). The hotel had a neat facade and the bakery was so cool (a bakery would be my favorite amenity for a hotel!). Here are a few pics:

Behind out big ol' Indiana heads is another fountain 

Inside the bakery- the display of gelatos rotated around- so fun, pretty and good (we each got a scoop of cookies n cream)

This adorable walking/biking path was behind all the hotels on the street. The ocean is to the left (not visible in the picture) and the hotels are all on the right. 

Each hotel had a door or gate that you used your room key to swipe to enter.

While our hotel did not have a nightclub (thankfully!) it did have a small butterfly sanctuary (SWOON!). Of course I saw butterflies all the time when I didn't have my Nikon with me but didn't when I did…

The butterfly sanctuary was full of flowers to attract butterflies

You can't really tell but this space is up a flight of stairs so you're (obviously) elevated a bit which makes the views more enjoyable (down the flight of stairs is the pool area)

This fake greenery back drop on this level cracked us up. We were surrounded by beautiful vegetation and they hung up plastic greenery for pics!

Poolside lunch dining every day!

I love this picture of Avery and Alyssa. I remember when Avery's mom told me she was expecting a baby (Avery!) and she hoped that if the baby was a girl, our girls would be friends (Alyssa was already born- obviously she's several months older than Avery). The girls did end up being friends- each other's first non family friend (Avery has an older sister as well!)- ever since they were old enough to interact with each other. Alyssa has vacationed with Avery's family several times and I was happy to bring Avery along on this trip. I can't believe that they are almost done with their first year of college and am so happy that they are roommates AND still besties since living in a small space with someone can change relationship dynamics. They both rushed and ended up at different sororities so next year will be quite different for them and they won't be roommates (sophomores live in sorority houses at OSU). But I think they will be friends for a long time despite them not rooming together next year :).

Out and about

We love us some Florida!

 At the beach...

Squawk this way...

Loving the blue hues...

As well as the white capped waves!

Wait, what?? One of the days the temperature was the same in southern Ohio as it was in SOUTHERN Florida (at the same time of day, too, not a comparison of a time in the morning and then one in the afternoon).

This view was my panacea from the pain of not escaping bad weather in Ohio!!

A couple of pics with my sister- never have I ever taken more selfies- and no, not going to enlargen these photos to the biggest size because, FIFTIES, el-oh-el. 

I forgot how much I like Miami as it had been several years since I'd been there before. Miami has a reputation as being a wild spring break place (and I'm sure many spots were!) but I am living proof that one can be staid and have a great time in Miami 😉. The biggest factor, is, of course, whom you're with. Staying at a not super busy resort helped a lot as well. Hope to make it back to Miami Beach soon... I'd probably check out a different hotel- not that I had any complaints with the one we stayed at except for the practically shared balcony but just to try something different (but not any with a nightclub in them!)

Linking up with Joanne for Talking about it Tuesday.