We got back from our weekend last night. It was so nice to just get a way from Tampa for awhile. One of my favorite things about going to the island is the cozy feeling it gives me. It’s mostly small shops, art galleries from artists that live on the island, and family owned restaurants. There’s a Walgreens, CVS, a Publix supermarket, and a Subway on the island, but other than that everything is locally owned. Coming from parents that owned a small business, the idea of a place that has small businesses all over is refreshing.

We left for the island Friday night and got there pretty late. Since both of us hadn’t eaten dinner, both Dave and I were starving. The one bad thing about locally owned places is that they close early, so once we unloaded the car we headed back off the island to get something to eat. We decided on Denny’s since there wasn’t much else to choose from. It was surprisingly good. The server was nice and the food didn’t taste like it has been sitting under heat lamps.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the Crepe restaurant. Oh, btw, I totally blew any diet that I might have been sticking to this weekend. Whatever. It’s my birthday. Dave told me he had a surprise for me later in the afternoon and I spent the rest of the morning trying to figure it out. Jet-ski’s? Boat rental? What was it? Ugh, I hate surprises. Dave and I drove around the island looking at all the big houses. We both decided it would be funny to make a website called “givemeyourhouse.com” and just put pictures that we took of really nice houses on there. Man, we can be super nerdy sometimes.

He ended up taking me to Parasailing. Wow. Parasailing. This was something I’ve wanted to do for years. God, I love him.

We ended up not going Parasailing Saturday afternoon. I storm was coming in and the captain of the boat said it was too dangerous to go out on the gulf. We rescheduled for Sunday. We ended up going to the beach for a little bit, but it got way too windy so we went back to the condo. We showered at met Dave’s parents for Mexican. Delicious. His parents gave me a nice necklace and matching pair of earrings with dolphins on them. I immediately put them on.

Sunday morning we went back to the crepe place for breakfast then headed back to the parasailing place. It seemed like every time we went to this place we brought a storm with us. Again, there was a bunch of storms coming in and we wouldn’t be able to go out. I gave up on it at this point and figured we just wouldn’t go. They said they would call if the weather looked better and for hours after we left I heard thunder. I had given up for good, but Dave got a call around 3:30 saying that they were going to go out at 5:00. I immediately get excited again. Finally. Parasailing! We were actually going! It was going to be so awesome.

We had the entire boat to ourselves. They took us out on the gulf and drove the boat around the island while we were suspended 150ft. in the air. The guy on the boat was nice enough to take some pictures of us with my camera.

Seeing the island like that was so cool. I even got to see a dolphin! It was definitely one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever received.

After parasailing, we headed back to the condo to shower and gather our things. We went to dinner at this really great BBQ place, then headed back home to Tampa.

My actual birthday is tomorrow. I’ll be spending the day with my parents. My mom is making me a pot roast for dinner, one of my favorite meals of hers. So far this birthday has been great and I’m sure tomorrow will be even better.

Filed under: life, me by Barbara
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