There is girl talk, laughter, tears........... peeing of the pants due to the laughter and tears.
Ok that last part may be due to the fact that I have a baby sitting on my bladder and a sneeze will do the same thing.
But I digress.
It's a magical time when your hair comes down and you are completely comfortable in your skin.
I just returned from a 5 day girly weekend with my sister S in Florida. Yes, the sister who hates frogs. It was a much needed vacation with some quality sister time thrown in.
I arrived on a Thursday afternoon, hungry and in need of a nap. So we stopped on our way back to her place for a kids meal at a fast food joint, which I scarfed in the car. It was raining off and on so the beach was out for the day.
After a short nap we headed out to meet some friends for dinner at a place call Red Mesa Cantina. It is Mexican food fusion and delicious. I had a duck taco, steak taco and jicama fries.
Awesome! I met several of S's friends including a gentlemen we'll call him J that she is currently seeing.
Friday was still a little cloudy and rainy so we went shopping at an outlet mall. The sun stayed out enough to enjoy walking around the area. This was not your ordinary outlet mall.... this mall had Coach, Michael Kors,etc. It also had some regular store in it. I got Carter a couple outfits and a dress from Motherhood that I had been eyeing for a while.
Friday evening we went to a part of Tampa known as Ybor. It is home to several night clubs, bars, restaurants, and fun little shops.
We went into one of the coolest vintage clothing shops I have ever seen. We headed to dinner at the Columbia It was very good! I may have to try to copy their Spanish soup. It was basically ham and bean only using chick peas and adding chorizo. Amazing.
Next on our list for the evening was a drag show.
When S lived where I do she used to go to the local shows all the time. She told me about the ones that she goes to down there and I told her I wanted to go to one. So she made sure we made it to one while I was there.
Daphni is the star of the show there and she is 6'7" with her heals. She recently became engaged and I had a great conversation with her fiance. There are stone pavers all over Ybor that you can buy and engrave with whatever you would like. That was how he proposed. Very sweet, they plan to wed in about a year in New York.
It was a blast to watch.
Then I was brought up onstage to take place in a booty shaking contest. They have the contestants do a shot before they start...... luckily my S knew the bartender and when he came up with the tray he handed me a Shirley temple shot.
Daphni who was standing next to me asked me why I was not drinking and if I was under 21? I told her I was pregnant and she said she had not even noticed. Still not sure how I feel about that comment. There were 6 of us on stage and Daphni went down the line asking the audience if they wanted us to stay for the contest. I got a few cheers but Daphni turned to me and said "No one wants you to hurt your baby, you can go sit down." It was a fun evening and I got some great pictures.
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| S and her friend who works with Daphni. |
Saturday morning we went to brunch at a friend of ours home. We graduated high school with this girl and she moved down to Tampa after college. Her daughter was in a dance recital and invited us to go.......little did we know it was a 2 hour show. Not a big deal, but I fell asleep in the middle of it.
Later that evening we met up with my S's current beau and some of his family, whom she had not met either, for dinner. I enjoyed seeing how he interacted with his family. You get a good sense of what the guy is like when you can see them in that setting. After dinner we went home to watch a movie and relax.
Sunday was finally a beautiful day for the beach.
We went our early before it got too busy and enjoyed the sun and waves. For lunch we went to a beach side restaurant called Frenchy's. Pretty good food, even though I was not a fan of what I ordered. I don't like fish much but I decided to try it anyway and was not a fan. We walked to some shops along the beach and decided to cook at home that night. J joined us for a nice relaxing dinner and movie at home.
Monday we went to an Italian market called Mazzaro's to gather goodies for dinner that night. They had an amazing selection of wines, a cheese monger counter, fresh pasta, bread counter, a selection of fresh made sauces, and a variety of jarred goods as well.
I wish that we had something similar where I live....... it was awesome.
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| Cheese.......yum! |
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| Carb overload. |
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| Vino! |
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| Fresh Pasta |
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| Did the price tag really need to go right there? |
I wish that we had something similar where I live....... it was awesome.
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| Winter and her trainers. |
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| Panama is a 40 year old dolphin that lives at the aquarium. She likes to show off. |
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| Panama on the left and Winter on the right. |
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| Turtle Turtle! |
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| A couple of the many sting rays. |
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| This is Hope, she lost her mom at a young age and doesn't know how to hunt. She will stay at the aquarium. |
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| Another Turtle. |
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| This is Nicholas. He was rescued when his mom stranded on the beach and later died. When they found him he had 2nd and 3rd degree sunburns on his back. He will stay at the aquarium because he doesn't know how to hunt. |
This aquarium specializes in rescue rehab and release of injured aquatic life. It is life-long home to several animals that were too injured to be release, including Winter the dolphin. They house 4 dolphins, about a dozen sea turtles, a couple sharks, many sting-rays, and other aquatic animals they either hatch or rehabilitate.
We were able to walk to the aquarium because it is only a couple blocks from where S lives, but it sure was hot. When we got home we relaxed in the AC for the afternoon, then made some delicious Italian food for dinner.
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| Sunrise on the bay. |
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| Midnight bay view. |
