South on 75

I got to go visit friends in St. Pete over the second to last weekend in April! Caleb and Christina are friends of mine from Beaufort. I've known them for forever. Caleb used to be my next door neighbor, and Christina and I were in the same literature class in high school. I've gone on mission trips with them and they had their wedding reception in my parents' backyard, just like I did!

I left on a Friday evening after work and got there about four and a half hours later. 

Christina and I stayed up a little too late talking that night, so we slept in a little the next morning. It was a beautiful day and 79 degrees felt a lot hotter in south Florida than it feels in Tallahassee. 

We headed to the ferry to take us over to Clearwater Beach. It was a busy Saturday, and the ferry was very new, so we actually waited almost two hours. The bridge (behind us in the picture) was about a 2.5 hour wait to get across. Christina said that Clearwater Beach was recently voted the best beach in America, so I guess everyone wanted to get over to experience it!

We spent about two hours at the beach. We walked around for a little while looking for somewhere to eat, then sat on the beach for just a little bit, before we both admitted that just sitting and laying out at the beach isn't our favorite thing, so we got up and just walked really far down the beach. 

So we decided to go back on the ferry but when we got to the line, we noticed that it was really long. The people in front of us went to the front of the line and asked how long the wait was and they said that it was about two and a half hours. Christina googled how far it was to just walk across the bridge and it was two miles, so instead of standing in line for forever, we geared up for a long walk... in sandals. Our feet were aching because of course we hadn't planned on hiking up a bridge and hadn't prepped and had just taken a long walk on the beach. The view at the top was worth it, and it was kind of fun to walk up the bridge, even if we did have to take our shoes off and go barefoot for a little while. 

(thanks for the picture, random guy who stopped his bike ride to take a water break)

Caleb and Christina prepared an amazing dinner of shrimp alfredo, stuffed mushrooms and garlic bread. It was a late dinner and a late night because we'd added a walk over a bridge to our evening earlier. We watched James Bond: Spectre after we ate and Christina was asleep in about five minutes.

We went to church the next morning and ate really delicious Greek food after. 

Caleb had to study for his law school finals so Christina and I hit the beach in the afternoon! We went to St Petersburg Beach because it's a lot closer and had a much shorter walk involved in it :) It was beautiful!

We got back from the beach and took a leisurely trip to Target, before picking up Caleb and going back to the beach in the evening to see the sun set. We saw three weddings/couples taking wedding photos on the beach that evening.

After our trip to the beach, Caleb and Christina cooked another fantastic dinner: steak! They completely spoiled me. We watched Aladdin after we ate because they were headed to New York the following weekend and planned on seeing the Broadway version!

On Monday morning, I slept in a little bit because Christina was already at work, and headed north. I made a pit stop in Ocala for lunch to see Morgan and Grayson for a few hours. 

I got back home in time for dinner, exhausted from walking and sun and not nearly enough sleep, but it was so much fun! I'm thankful to live close enough to see friends as often as I can. Things are going to change this summer (Morgan is moving to Tennessee and we are of course going overseas), so I'm trying to make the most of the time I have!