Hooray For Vacay!!

Several weeks ago, I decided to plan a surprise trip for Doug. He's just finished a ROUGH semester of school and needed a treat for sure. So I did a lot of reading, researching, inter-netting, review-reading and talking to others and finally decided upon a destination...FLORIDA!!

Doug only knew that we were going SOMEWHERE. I didn't even want to tell him that, but realized that he might need to ask for a few days off of work. So, all he knew was to be dressed and ready to go at 6am on Saturday morning. I did all of the packing, so he didn't even know what type of climate to expect!

Since he's so laid back, his reaction to this idea was...

Once we finally got in the car, I felt sure he'd be just dying to know WHERE on earth we were heading. But no, he didn't want to know! He told me to hold out just as long as I could. So, for about 600 miles, it was just me and the map that knew where we were headed to...

Of course, the further east we headed, the more obvious it became that we were indeed going to...

But where? Which city? The beach?...YES!!!

Santa Rosa Beach!

After looking all over, I decided upon this beach which is situated between Destin and Seaside. It's all the beauty without quite so many tourists! Perfect!

The drive to the beach was beautiful...

And then, we finally arrived at the condo I had rented. I found this place online, and was feeling a bit nervous. For all I knew, it was going to be a total dump despite what the pictures posted online portrayed. But it wasn't!!!

It was GREAT!!!!!

The Inn at Gulf Place Unit 210

Complete with an awesome king-sized bed...


jacuzzi tub...

comfy living room...

full kitchen...
And it had the cutest look from the outside too. We were there on the 2nd floor. Awesome balcony with a view of the ocean. This condo was so fun in that it was situated above a bunch of cute shops and great restaurants. All you could want in one place!


The entire goal of this trip was to...

And that we did! Each day was spent like this...

We loved watching the birds, listening to waves and just doing NOTHING!

We took our lunch to the beach each day, and then enjoyed the great restaurants in around the area for dinner.

On the beach at sunset...

This trip was such a great reminder that...

Another great part of this trip was that on the way home, we got to meet with several of Doug's very best friends from college. Walker, Brian and Carla...we LOVED seeing you all! Looking forward to another visit soon!