October 21-25, 2009
What a great time we had in Vero Beach, FL with Jenna, Tim, and Jenna's college roommates; Amy, Elesa and Tara as well as Amy's husband Dan and Elesa's husband Mark. Tara's husband Matt (see Tara and Matt's Wedding below) couldn't make it and was missed. The weekend was in celebration of Jenna's 30th birthday and was a blast. It seems terribly cold here in Washington after 5 days of 85 degree weather. The toughest decision we had to make each day was whether to go to the pool or the beach first. The picture above is sunrise from the deck of the cottage where we stayed... click it to see the rest of the pictures from the trip.
Jenna, Tim, Teresa and I arrived on Wednesday and had one of the worst rental car experiences I have ever been through. Long lines, no cars. After going through the registration process we were told we had to wait 20 minutes for a car. Quite the ploy to keep you in their line. By that time you aren't as interested in trying one of the other agencies. I wonder if it's due to Disney World that the lines are so long.
Thursday morning we woke up to a downpour. It had been raining all night and we were a little nervous for the days ahead, but it cleared up by about noon and was beautiful the rest of the time we were there. Even in the rain the temperature was very nice and we were still walking around in shorts and t-shirts.
After the rest of the group showed up on Thursday we settled into the routine of beach, pool, eat, drink, sleep, repeat. The "season" is pretty much over for the year so there weren't a lot of people (compared to what it probably is in the height of summer) so we didn't have to worry about not getting a spot on the beach or chairs at the pool.
Tim cooked dinner a couple of nights and Teresa made Migas for Jenna and the girls on Friday morning. We went through a lot of food, but no doubt saved quite a bit of money by eating in. It made it easier to just sit around talking after dinner too with nobody trying to rush us out. The Migas were delicious as was the Captain Crunch Chicken.
The wildlife was pretty cool... there were little lizards all over and Teresa and I saw a snake one morning when we were out walking. We saw two chocolate brown bunnies (or the same one twice) and lots of Pelicans. They are very strange looking birds. There were two kinds of small birds named Sanderlings and Willets running up and down the beach. In the pictures I took the smaller shore birds are the Sanderlings and the larger ones are the Willets.
The last bit of wildlife was the alligator I saw near the airport as Jenna and Tim were taking us to the hotel in Orlando on Sunday night. He was sunbathing right there on the mowed grass by a small pond about a quarter mile from the airport! Tim offered to stop, but my camera was buried in the trunk and I didn't see a convenient place to turn so I wasn't able to get a picture, but that's kind of crazy.
A few months ago when Jenna asked us to go I was a little worried since everyone was in their early 30's and well... we're not. But we had a great time and would do it again in a minute. Thanks for inviting us!
