Vacation Hangover

This morning I found myself decidedly groggy...and it lasted pretty much all day long, bummer!  I went to bed nice and early, got a huge amount of sleep last night and didn't even drink that much yesterday despite it being a football Sunday so what could've been the problem?  Yes, oh yes, the dreaded "Vacation Hangover!"  I find that the more enjoyable a vacation has been, the bigger the vacation hangover.  It has absolutely nothing to do with how long we have been away, just how much fun we had on the trip!  Therefore, I think you can probably extrapolate just how awesome this particular getaway was!!

I took Thursday and Friday off from work and we went to our favorite, the Hyatt Siesta Key Beach.  This place is like THE end-all-be-all beach getaway destination!  The rooms (more like super high-end condos) are incredible, the pool is ritzy what with the fancy cabanas lining the perimeter and a bar where they pour quite a stiff drink and the beach is gorgeous with staffers setting up whatever chairs and umbrellas are needed and providing kayaks, paddleboards and a variety of other beachy toys (corn toss, bocce, football).

Our room with a sweet beach view!

After we arrived on Thursday, Rob and I went out to paddleboard and kayak around for a while since I hadn't done any running that day.  I figured paddleboarding would be a good "cross-training activity."  What was cool was that we saw a bunch of fish while we were out there when we made our way out to this new area we hadn't been over to before, near some rocks...cleverly titled "Point of Rocks" and ended up kayaking back to it the next day and doing some snorkeling.  We've been coming here now for a few years and are still discovering new things about the place!  The last time I tried paddleboarding, there were a bunch of boats, which made it a lot rougher and harder for me to stay balanced.  (My balance is notoriously crappy anyway, so boat wakes don't exactly help matters.)  This time, it was totally calm, which made it easy to stay on the board.  I was surprised that I didn't fall once, I kind of thought I would! 

Of course, I was actually IN the water when I went paddleboarding

Rob & I enjoying the calm waters of the Gulf

Pretty kickass sunset, if I do say so myself...

...which I do....

We watched the sunset from our room and got ready to go out to our one 'fancy' dinner during the trip. We went out to a really nice dinner at the Crab & Fin in St. Armand's Circle.  We've been going here almost each time we come to Siesta Key.  This time it was good, but the server wasn't as good this time as our server last time, Michael.  I felt kind of weird, like a stalker, but I kept watching Michael across the room and wishing he was our server.  He always has a funny story and kind of laughs like Uncle Arthur (Paul Lynd) from the original Bewitched.  Plus, last time, he gave us extra chocolate dipped pineapple pieces at the end of the meal!  Michael!  Must remember Michael. 

Friday morning, I went for my 8 mile run spanning almost the entire length of the island.  I did pretty well, averaging about 12:30 per mile.  I was surprised since I figured, with 8 miles to cover, I'd probably end up way slower than that!  The one negative to the run was the fact that my Nike+ watch conked out with just 1 mile left to go...so I only got credit for 7.01 miles, but I know I covered the entire distance so it's alright I guess.  I don't really understand though since I charged it the entire night before I got up to run.  Kind of bizarre!  It was really awesome though, I got up and out to run around 7:15 am and got done around 9 am.  When I got out there initially, I was cold because the sun hadn't come up yet and it was just really cool out with low humidity (for a change).  When I actually started running, that changed though and I warmed right up!  The community in Siesta Key is just so nice!  When I was running, I passed a bunch of people who all said, "Good morning" and this one girl I passed at the very beginning of my run and then again at the end even said, "Good job, girl!" to me with a smile!  That was pretty sweet!

The rest of the day was beautiful!  We hung out on the beach from about 10:15 am to around 5 pm with some kayaking thrown in there.  It was just so perfect!

Andre setting up the umbrellas and chairs for the guests

View of Crescent Beach from our balcony

Anyone ever see Segway's on the beach before??  Yeah, me neither...

Nothin' but blue skies....do I see....

....and clear waters...

Closing out another beautiful day on Siesta Key

The next day, we (again) hung out on the beach all day long...which was heaven!  We went kayaking again and then snorkeling by the rocks.  On the way out, we saw a stingray, a HUGE school of bait fish which kept jumping on top of me when I was swimming through them and tickling the crap out of me.  We also saw some sheepshead, permits, snook (BIG snook), a bunch of different types of wrasses (my favorite was the fairy wrasse), sergeant majors (of course), spotfin butterflyfish, drumfish, pretty sure we saw a two barred rabbitfish and a bunch others that I can't even remember.  By now, I'm sure you get the point that it was seriously awesome snorkeling!  We WILL be back!!

Well, that about sums up our time on Siesta Key.  We moved over to a place in Lido Beach (near where Rob and I got married) and had a rather Twilight-Zoneish evening there complete with redneck wedding, free pizza from a nearby birthday party, our friend getting lost looking for an ice cream place and a call from my brother notifying my parents that their house had been broken into (which later turned out to be untrue).  Altogether a very weird night indeed!

Now it's time to get myself together and start planning my runs out for the week ahead.  This week, I'm supposed to be doing 5 mile training runs and a 10K weekend run, which will be a nice relief from the 7 and 8 miles I've run the past couple of weekends!  I was excited when I got home today because I received my Team ASPCA training shirt along with a Team ASPCA tote bag!  Yay, goodies!!

And, as always, thank you to EVERYONE who has donated so far!  We're already up to 53% of our fundraising goal and we've only really been going at it for about a month now!  I am already so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from friends and family members, I only hope that it keeps up so that we can run the half-marathon in January!

If you haven't done so already, please check out our fundraising page!  It's fun to see that thermometer thingy rise to the halfway point!  And, ALL DONATIONS ARE ABSOLUTELY WELCOME!!!  NOTHING IS TOO SMALL!

Team Steph B. and Steff S.