Well, we made it – for those of you who don’t know me, Todd and I are on a week long vacation without the kids.  Aside from an occasional weekend with friends, this is the first time we’ve taken a major trip without kids – since we were married 13 1/2 yrs ago.  I think I’ll call this the “accidental honeymoon.”

Getting here was pretty painless if you discount he 3 1/2 hr flight in the last row of a packed plane – and the kid that yacked all over the door to the bathroom behind my seat.  All I can say is good thing Todd wasn’t on the aisle or it would have been all over.  Hopefully they’re staying in Tampa less or more time than we are and don’t share the return flight.  I felt bad for him but – HELLO – that’s what the little bags are for, people!

We’re in a really nice condo on the beach on Anna Maria Island.  It took us about an hour of really easy driving from Tampa airport to get here.  I really like this place, nicer than Treasure Island was last year, altho I do miss the free breakfast at the Marriott Residence Inn there (highly recommended if you have to visit Treasure Island, it was nice).

So back to Anna Maria – we rented our cute and convenient little condo from Island Real Estate.  Its in the Anna Maria Island Club and is unit #40.  It was remodeled this year with new carpet, tile,paint, furniture & kitchen.  Very nice granite & stainless appliances.  It looks like the previous tenant ripped the doors off of the utility closet, but that’s not a huge deal.  I called the office to let them know we would be out and about and to let us know if they wanted in to fix them.  The kitchen was stocked with all the dishes you’ll need and even had coffee & filters.  Of course, it was half-caf Folgers so I had to hit up Publix for some Dunkin Donuts coffee.  I cant handle half-caf – what’s the point in drinking coffee?

I “borrowed” this picture from the Island real Estate website.  This is the view of the pool & ocean from our balcony.  It looks like the water is far away but once we’re past the pool, its about 100 steps to the ocean during high tide.  There’s a sea turtle nest right in front of the pool along the beach, just past the vegetation.

Again this image is borrowed, but as you all know how much I like cooking, a kitchen like this is enough to make me happy!  Very nice granite and appliances.

The other really nice thing about Anna Maria is the Pink Flamingo wireless service.  I can pick it up at the condo and its only $15 for 7 days – that’s a bargain!  You’d  pay that much a night in a hotel.

So we dont have a lot of plans for the week, probably a bit of kayaking through the mangrove tunnels, Todd wants to parasail, and we might head to orlando to visit Epcot again.  last year when we were there it was the last day of our vacation and EVEYRONE was on each others nerves, we didnt get to enjoy it much.  Plus the fireworks this week at Epcot should be amazing!  Too bad we missed them last night

I’ll keep you all posted and try to figure out how to get images off my camera and onto my Dell Mini, if I cant I’ll share a slideshow when I get home! 

Right now its 8:15 and humid, I want to go swimming  lets see if I can get Todd out of bed, he’s participating in his favorite vacation passtime, sleeping in!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 5:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.