Florida is more fun than the 'boro

Day one in Florida. I woke up at 7ish (Damn! I really wanted to sleep in, but the beautiful weather was calling!)The sky was beautiful and the ocean was calm. I walked on the beach for a bit and enjoyed the warm weather.

On Friday, we all went to the Ringling Museum. Yes, Ringling as in "Circus Man." We toured his winter estate and saw the circus museum and his bog ole' house. These are banyan trees given to Ringling back in the 1920s from Mr. Thomas Edison himself. (The Edison winter estate is down in Fort Myers and has one of the biggest banyan trees in existence.)

I could live in a house like this. The piazza looks over Sarasota Bay. Amazing view. The house was not as impressive as Biltmore, but that is a very high standard to meet. Although the Vanderbilts regularly visited Ringling and his wife at their estate. (I'm not really sure who the people sitting on the right are. They were in my way. Stupid people.)

Someday I will have a bar like this.

Mom and Dad making out in front of the estate. Gross. :P

The waves were pretty rough on Sunday. Not too rough to enjoy but far more rough that the previous three days. Beautiful, though.

Me and my favorite travel buddy. We had such a blast!!

Mom and Pops.

Pops and my cousin Jennifer (who lives just off the island.)

Our last sunset. *tear*

My special find. It is a charm for my slider chain. It's part of a shell and is trimmed in silver. I cannot wait to wear it!!!

Dresses were on sale in Florida!!! And there were a million. And you all know how much I like to wear dresses every day! I bought two and Mom and Dad bought me one. This one has little palm trees all over it. So cute.

This makes my fourth (or fifth?) pink dress.

This is my (and Laura's) favorite. Pretty red poppies. Gotta love it! And, when I return home, Kia had sent me a present in the mail!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!

So, vacation is over and real life returns. Ugh. It was so wonderful to spend four completely stress-free days on the beach. I didn't think about work (or the lack thereof), money (or the lack thereof), health insurance (or the lack thereof), or housing (or the lack thereof). It was fabulous. Of course, upon my return, it all came rushing back. I'll try not to think about it. I am working really hard to adopt the Scarlett O'Hara view of life.

"I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."