Anniversary Weekend

The hubs and I decided to do an extended weekend get-a-way for our 1 year anniversary. We went to the B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L city of St. Augustine, FL.

We left on Friday afternoon (the Hubs left work a bit early) and made the 3 hour trek to St. Augustine. 

We stayed at a GORGEOUS bed & breakfast.

St. Augustine is really known for their B&B's. They aren't necessarily cheaper there, but WAY nice. We stayed downtown and within walking distance to anything cool.

Our room looked like this

 

With an ahhhhmazing 2 person Jacuzzi tub

Day 1: Friday Night
We arrived in St. Augustine ~5pm. Right in time for crazy downtown traffic. With St. Augustine being founded almost 450 years ago, the streets are very tiny... which means REALLY bad parking. It took us like 1/2 hour to find parking. Our B&B had happy hour from 5-7pm, which means we arrived just in time to indulge in appetizers and delicious cake. After we settled in, we ventured out for dinner.

We ate here.

We also got the most amazing HUGE chocolate cake, which we didn't eat till later.

Day 2: Saturday

We woke up to an amazing breakfast of poached eggs. The inn doesn't really have a "choice" in the breakfast entree, but you can have as many side items as you want (i.e., pastries, muffins, bagels, fruit, etc). We got a lot of side items and split them. You fill out a sheet the night before with a number next to each side item. Also the items changed daily. For instance, the first day was a apple muffin, the next day it was a blueberry muffin. So you never knew what you were going to get, so we always got like 1 of everything and then split it. One of us always ate it.


After breakfast, we bought tickets for the old town trolley, which just happened to be good for 3 days (the whole time we were there). We rode the trolley all the way through the first time so that we could figure out where everything was and decide where all we wanted to go.

We first did the history museum

Reuben thought maybe he'd trade in his new mountain bike for this one :)

This is an example of one of the first RV's. Sleeping bags were  in the back and the kitchen was off of the back end.

Then we visited the old jail house.

There was a rope attached at the top of this cage that they said they used to use hang the cage in the trees

We then walked down through all the little shops and got some lunch. Then we made our way to the new pirate museum they have in St. Augustine. I believe it is the largest in the world. They have over 600 authentic pirate artifacts including 1 of 2 (in the world) authentic pirate flags and the only in the world authentic pirate chest. It was pretty neat. They also had some hands on activities for kids. And Disney helped them build the exhibits so there is a section with pirate movies. They have the sword that Johnny Depp used in the Pirates movies there. They didn't allow any pictures in the museum, so I don't have any to share.

It rained everyday we were there from about 5-6 pm. Just in time for us to head back to the B&B and enjoy some happy hour.

Saturday night we did a moonlight sailboat cruise on the Schooner Freedom.

 It went from 8:45 to 10:15 pm (it gets dark early in Florida... even in the summer). It was really peaceful and romantic.

Us on the boat :)

After that, it was late, but we still hadn't eaten, so we made our way to some food. They had really cool seating outside at this restaurant.

Day 3: Sunday

Happy 1st Anniversary to us!!!!

We woke up to (again ahhhmazing) breakfast casserole and a bunch of side items (as we did everyday).

Doesn't this look delicious???

We started off at the fort. We wanted to do it early because it gets so hot in the afternoon and the fort has ABSOLUTELY no shade. It was still hot. And I got a little sunburned, but it was GORGEOUS.

All I have to say is - Back off ladies - he's mine!!! :)

View from on top of the fort looking in

On top of the fort

We went to an authentic Greek restaurant for lunch. The hummus was absolutely delicious and my Greek salad was yummy. All in all, a good choice.

We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Took a mini-nap. Then did the whole happy hour thing and ate some more. Are you catching the theme from this trip.... FOOD and EATING! We took a quick stroll across the bridge of lions before dinner. Sadly I forgot the camera, so no pictures  :(.

We got a recommendation for the a restaurant for dinner called the Raintree. It was really nice. We had reservations for 8:30.

Us before dinner

\

Our Margarita pizza. It had tomatoes and pesto and cheese. It was the most delicious thing that we ate in St. Augustine.

 

We split our entree. Lemon chicken with a buttery sauce and angel hair pasta. It was pretty good. I would have ordered something different, but the Hubs picked that entree and frankly I wasn't too hungry. Can you imagine why?

After dinner, we (of course) had to order dessert. We requested a dessert menu and the waitress came out with an Ipad. It had a video showing all the desserts on it - pretty cool huh? So this restaurant is known for their desserts. EVERYTHING looked good. But we ended up getting peanut butter dessert thing.

The best way I can describe it is ice cream surrounded by a cookie that is topped with crumbled peanut butter cups and then topped with fudge. Here is the picture. Trust me... it was to die for!!!!

Quick picture of us after dinner

Day 4: Monday

Checkout was at 11 am, so we still had time for one last breakfast - waffles.



View from our table - how beautiful is that?



A friend decided to join us for breakfast. He sat above the inn on top of the trees.



After checking out, we decided to head to the beach. It was something I wanted to do while we were in town, but we just never had time. We didn't swim, but we walked the shore for about an hour and a half.

We also stopped at the light house. We considered climbing 200 and something steps to the top, but they wanted 9.50 a person and I really didn't want to pay $19 for us to do it. So maybe next time.

After we left the beach we headed here

And shopped and shopped and then shopped some more. We didn't buy much. But it was a great end to a fabulous weekend.


We arrived back in Tallahassee about 9 pm.... Already thinking of planning our next trip to St. Augustine. We didn't get a chance to look at everything, so we saved some things for our next trip.

Month Catchup....

So I've been busy.... to say the least. So this is my month catchup!

• We celebrated Bella's 1st birthday on June 22nd! Can't believe she is already a year old! She was the 2nd puppy of a litter of 9. Here they all are!

A close- up of her only a few days old :)

My little sister took care of her her when we were on our honeymoon. She was sooo cute when she was little (still is, of course).

This is what she looks like now! All grown up.... *sniff sniff*



Bella's birthday sundae!



 

• I started a huge experiment at work.... It had me in the lab for exactly 3 weeks and 5 days! Wowowow! I was exhausted after that. And unfortunately, the data did not turn out as I had planned and I lost a few animals.... so I started another batch this past weekend, so yup... I'll be in lab everyday again for the next 3 or so weeks. But you know what, as exhausting as work can be when I have experiments like this, I LOVE IT. I love the feeling of accomplishment and productivity.
• My paper was officially accepted as a manuscript and is on pubmed. YAHHHH... here's the link.
• My labmate and I (plus a few people from our collaborating lab) went to the National Neurotrauma conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. It was the best conference!!!! The talks were good, the food was delicious AND free, the hotel was nice!

We stayed here!

The Westin Diplomat

The VIEW from our room!!!

They had a fancy dinner one of the nights. Which was A BLAST. It was a beautiful, formal sit down dinner. Everything was lab themed. The decor on the tables were test tubes and glass beakers. The also had rodent stuffed animals on each tables. It was pretty neat. The waitors wore lab coats. I was impressed to say the least.

Picture of my salad

DESSERT!!!!!

Just in case you can't tell (phone = terrible picture quality) - the dessert was served in petri dishes (or as we call them cell culture dishes) and the brownie had a picture of a NEURON on it. How cool is that!!!????

After dinner there was an "after party." They had a DJ (who had all his DJ stuff in a hummer) and a photo booth.

Me and my labmate dressed up for the photo booth!

DJ with his hummer (he's the one in the lab coat) and the dance floor

All in all... A good time :)

• The conference had its own professional photographer, so when the pictures are up on the website, I will post a few of them. They will be MUCH better quality. Plus, I know she got a picture of me and my labmate with our BEAUTIFUL poster. And no, I am not being conceited.... it really is that beautiful.  :)
• This past weekend I went to a bachelorette party for a friend of mine. I had so much fun. :) We went to "the garden where I guess they grow the olives" *heck yes, I just pulled out some old school DC TALK!* for dinner. Then we went back to her place so she could open all her gifts. We also made her try on every single gift lol. All in all = great time :)

Bella Update 6/20/11

On Thursday Reub took Bells over to a friends house with a MAJOR flea infestation... Although we keep her very current on flea meds, she still got infested. By Thursday night they were crawling all over her. We ended up giving her a flea bath and then putting flea medicine on her. I felt so bad for her. She had AT LEAST 50 fleas on her. They were crawling on her head and in her ears. It was pitiful.

Anyways, we think we may have overdosed her from all the chemicals. By Friday night she was throwing up sick and not eating. She threw up all day on Saturday. We ended up putting her in the bathroom while we were gone, so that if she did throw up it was on the tile floor instead of carpet *cleaning up throw up on carpet = NO FUN!*

She looks so pitiful.

So Saturday afternoon, I just held her in my lap and prayed for her and rubbed her belly and head. She was content just to let me pet her.

But by Sunday she was feeling all better. We considered taking her to the animal hospital but we decided to wait when she started perking up. She's doing good now. No throwing up. She's been eating and playing with her toys.

I really don't like it when she's sick.



C-2-5K Wk 5

So today we *my friend Mollz n' Me* start week 5 of the couch to 5K running program. So far so good.... but at the end of this week - they want us to run for 20 MINUTES!! yah, okay... I soooooo cannot do that. First of all, to anybody who knows me... Knows that I am N-O-T a runner. I have worked up to running at 5 min increments, and even that has been hard for me. No laughs, I'm serious. Not sure what we are going to come Friday when we are just supposed to hop on the track and "jog for 20 mins!!!" We went from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. Seems like a bit of a jump right????? So this is a 9 week program that we are definitely going to have to make longer!



Michigan!

The hubs and I just back from Michigan this week. Wow. What a trip! It was really nice to leave everyday life and hang out with family.

Not going to lie, the last real vacation I had was for our honeymoon. And even that, I wouldn't call that a real vacation. I was soooo exhausted after the wedding... I'm pretty sure I could have slept for a month!

So here is the quick catch-up *and by quick I mean not so quick*

We left Friday morning early. And after a good half hour of fiddling with Tom tom... (oh how I hate technology sometimes), we were on our way. Bella was ahhhmazing in the car. She mostly slept. I actually felt bad for her. Everytime we would start up again, she would sigh. Almost like "here we go again!"

But we packed lunches, so we ate a little picnic lunch at a rest area. We arrived at his sister's house at 11:30pm. They were already up North at his parent's, so we crashed there by ourselves. Their cat and Bella had a bit of a run in when we accidentally locked them into the same room together... Oops. A couple hisses later, Reubs was digging under the bed to find the cat lol.

Saturday started out fairly early, with a quick trip to Star.bucks of course :) Then off to my sissy's house in Northern Michigan (about a 4.5 h drive). We went there to shower... We could have gone straight to Hub's parents, but there were 16+ adults plus children and 1 shower (yes, I said ONE shower!). The open house was good. My dad and stepmom were there. The food was GREAT as per usual.

Sunday started early for me. I wanted to be one of the first in the shower before church. It was a little hectic getting ready, but we all made it to church. Graduation was good. Teary-eyed for some. We calculated it out - Reuben's Mom has had someone in school for 30 years. Ryan (the oldest) went into kindergarten in '81 and the youngest Bekah just graduated in '11. Crazy to think huh.



All the siblings. From top: Ryan, Rachel, Rick, Riley, Rock, Reuben, Randy, and Rebekah.



Sunday evening ended in a girls night, in which we want and saw a movie and made a quick trip to Wal.mart to find fake tatoos to scare "our boys" into thinking that we were wild and crazy. lol. We all packed in my Sis's Yukon XL - 9 of us in total. Reuben's Mom, his 2 sister's, and the rest of my 5 sister-in-laws. It was fun. Makes me wish we could do that stuff more often. I got a tatoo on my neck, below my ear and on top of left boobie.. haha. Reuben's initials. lol. Mom's only request was that we not all get "tramp stamps" because she was afraid "Dad might not find it for a while." hehe.

By Monday a lot of the in-laws started to leave.... the guys all went golfing for most of the day. I did pretty much nothing. Then a bon-fire that night!

Tuesday was just us. I took Bella boo and her Mom for a walk. They were soooo cute together. I didn't leash either one of them. They were really good though. They pretty much stayed with me. Except when Sophie decided while I was running that she would run through the water-filled ditch! But as soon as I called to her she came back to the road and beside me. Her feet were soaking wet and muddy. Took a couple of pictures of them together. Was never able to get one of them both looking at the camera.



Giving each other kisses.



True meaning of "the best of friends" - when you chew sticks together.



Sophie (left), Bella (right)

Sophie (left), Bella (right)

Don't they look a lot a like? The whole time we were there everybody kept getting confused on which one was which.

That night we drove over to Charlevoix (about an 1 h drive) to have dinner with his bro Riley and his wife. His bro Randy came too (and his wife after work). It was fun. I hadn't seen their new house yet. And their little soon Isaac, who is adorable, was very excited about giving me a tour.

We went to my Dad's on Wednesday night. Went to eat with him and then just chilled. But before I left, my MIL gave us the second part of Xmas present. It was monogrammed triffle dish! I love it!

Hard to see the monogram.

Met my Gram and Grandpa for lunch (Mom's parents) on Thursday and then took Bella out to meet their 7 year old golden retriever named Bailey that they recently adopted. She was neglected for most of her life, so Gram told me she doesn't usually play with other dogs. But Gram had to hold her collar when she saw Bella because she was sooooo excited. It was so cute to see them play. We went and looked at my Dad's new addition to his building - it's really nice. He even has a full gym (small, but all the equipment) including a shower - TRES JEALOUS! We also went and saw my Dad's parents. Dad grilled out some ahhhhhmazing asparagus for dinner. I'm sure we had other items as well, but the asparagus is worth remembering. The first day we got back, I went and bought some and made the Hubs grill it like my Dad does lol.

Friday wasn't too interesting. Worked out at my Dad's gym with my stepmom. Got overheated because the airconditioning is not up and running yet in the building. 

Went for a run before we left on Saturday with Reuby. *I am training for a 5K with my friend Mollz. We are usually the couch-to-5K program. Highly recommend it * I have the app downloaded on my phone. I'm not used to runnning outside in the heat or up and down hills. I usually run on an inside track at the gym. And its flat. I definitely threw up when we got back. Wowowow - my body totally was not happy with me.

We met a friend for dinner in the Detroit area for an early dinner. It was soooo good to see them. *Stole this picture from her - check out her blog.*





The ride home on Sunday pretty much sucked.... But again, Bella was good. Caught a couple cute pictures of her.

 I think Reubs said it best on face.book "home sweet home."