Sequins and Sea Breezes

Islamorada {Part 2}

6/08/2016

Happy Humpday friends! It's so hard for me to believe that our little vacation to Islamorada has not only come and gone but has been over for over a week now. Part of me feels like it didn't even happen and the other part of me feels like we were just on our way. You spend so much time planning, packing and preparing and then you blink and it's over. I promised last week that I would share my part 2 of our Islamorada trip so in proper fashion I'm linking up with my travel buddy; Kerri as well as Kate and Emily for their last Wanderlust Wednesday link up to recap part 2.

We left off with drinks and dinner on the beach at Cheeca lodge Saturday night so let's pick right up with Sunday morning brunch. You all know how much I love brunch so we decided to head over to Lorelei Cabana Bar for an early morning brunch with $2 mimosas.

After brunch at Lorelei's we headed south to Bahia Honda State Park for some fun in the sun on one of the prettiest beaches in the Keys. Located about an hour from Islamorada, Bahia Honda has been rated one of the top beaches in the world (I know, I know. Just last week I mentioned how few beaches there are in the Keys and it's true. Bahia Honda just happens to not only be one of the prettiest in the world but one of the few natural ones in the Keys).

When we pulled up to the entrance to Bahia Honda we were met with a line of cars in both directions which definitely made us think twice about our day trip there. In fact, multiple times we joked that we might as well just continue to drive the remaining 45 mins and head to Key West for the day. But we stuck with it and made our way in, fought for a parking spot and then began to explore.

After getting a sufficient amount of sun, sand and saltwater we headed the hour trip back up to Islamorada to get "cleaned up" and head back over to Lorelei Cabana Bar for happy hour, dinner and "the best sunset in town". Boy they weren't kidding either!

People were actually fighting for a table and sitting down at tables that had extra seats available just to catch the view but we got there nice and early and took advantage of their crazy cheap happy hour prices.

Monday morning we enjoyed our last moments of paradise out on the beach before heading to grab lunch and hitting the road.

I'll leave you with this... until next time Isla.

cut outs

Black Cut Out

6/07/2016

animal kingdom

Weekending

6/06/2016

Happy Monday love bugs! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! I had a nice mix of busy and relaxing so I'm feeling refreshed but still wishing it was the weekend of course. My work week this week is much slower than it was last week so that will be a nice change of pace. It's tough coming back from vacation straight into a crazy work week. Ok enough work talk, let's talk about my weekend with Biana!

Friday I was in Bradenton all day for work visiting a local brewery and brewing a beer for our company (I know, tough life, right?). The only downside is Bradenton is just over 2 hours from Orlando so by the time we were done there it was either sit in rush hour traffic home or grab dinner and head back after rush house. Of course we chose the latter of the two and relaxed a bit instead of sitting in the car for any longer than necessary.

Saturday morning I did a little at home workout before heading over to Disney for the last weekend of our passes before they black out for summer vacation. I have a love/hate relationship with losing our Disney passes for the next 2 1/2 months. It's going to be super hot and super busy so part of me is glad I can't go but then there's part of me that loves the option to go there, people watch, walk around and just be outside.

We drank around the world for the first time and had a blast then we headed over to Animal Kingdom to check out their new nighttime experiences. Up until May Animal Kingdom was only open until 6 pm but now they're open until 11 pm have a bunch of cool night experiences. We checked out The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic, and rode a few rides before heading home. And walking 7 miles in the heat is not a bad way to burn some calories either!

Sunday was spent relaxing and running errands like a typical Sunday. We hung out by the pool for a bit so I can keep my Islamorada tan going and caught up on tv shows from the week!

We have a tropical storm moving in today so it's going to be a wet one here in Florida. We're on the east side of the storm which usually means you get the worst weather so I'm hoping it isn't too bad but wish us luck! Have a wonderful week!

beach

Friday Five

6/03/2016

florida keys

Islamorada {Part 1}

6/02/2016

Happy Friday eve everyone! I am finally starting to get back in the swing of things after being on vacation and out on Monday traveling for work. Of course tomorrow I have to travel again for work so I'm just going to get thrown all off again but at least after that it will be the weekend, right? I have to admit, I'm super sad to be recapping my trip on the day I was prepping to leave for it last week but it was fun getting to go through all the pictures!

As you all were already aware, for Memorial Day weekend Kerri, the boys and I all headed down to the Florida Keys for our yearly getaway. This time instead of heading ALL the way down to Key West (well, we almost made it there one day but that will be explained in another post) we stopped on the second major island, Islamorada. We headed out super early Friday morning and arrived to our final destination right around lunchtime so we stopped at a little place right on the water called Hog Heaven. This place had amazing views, good food and the most delicious Key Lime Colada. A perfect way to start out our vacation.

After lunch it was still a bit too early to check into our hotel so we decided to check out two local breweries, Islamorada Beer Company and Florida Keys Brewing. I'll share some more on those later because who doesn't love a good beer post, right?

After the breweries it was time to check in and explore our resort, The Guy Harvey Islander Resort. Super gorgeous property, the rooms were clean and comfy and you couldn't beat their beach. If you don't know anything about The Keys, they aren't exactly known for their beaches. Since The Keys are actually a chain of exposed coral reef, all of the beaches are man made so a lot of resorts won't have very nice beaches or a beach at all.

Saturday we decided to spend the day relaxing in our pool floats in the ocean. There's no better therapy than a little salt water, sunshine and fruity cocktails.

After we were all cooked to the appropriate temperature; medium rare of course ;) we got cleaned up and headed over to another resort just down the road, the Cheeca Lodge for some food and libations. The grounds of this resort are absolutely stunning but the beach wasn't as good as ours and the drinks were super pricey. It was still nice to sit on the beach, relax with a glass of wine in hand. I mean seriously, you can't beat those views!