Back To The Real World

Happy New Year!!

John and I got back from Key West early Tuesday morning, and are still trying to recover from it. What an awesome vacation we had. I finally got to meet the rest of John's family, most of whom were females, and while I was a little nervous, all turned out well. His mom is wonderful and couldn't have made me feel more welcome. It was great seeing his sister again and meeting his step dad and aunts and cousins. Everyone was so nice!! We definitely got the royal treatment while we were there. I even picked up another Coach purse to add to my collection from his mom and step dad along with many other thoughtful and wonderful X-mas presents. It was like Christmas all over again!

The weather was amazing....highs between 80 and 82 and lows between 74 and 76. The water was super warm too, definitely not like the Pacific here in CA. It was a tad humid for me, but still, completely bareable. I managed to take an average of two showers a day, and never once did I use even slightly warm water. Cold always feels way more refreshing when it is humid.

We relaxed the entire time we were there. We were either at his parents pool laying out, relaxing at the beach, eating amazing food, or taking the Conch Train Tour of Key West. I tried escargot for the first time, and it was absolutely mouth watering, but I couldn't get the courage to eat a raw oyster. Man, they are just so disgusting to look at! We visited Bahia Honda Sate Park, which was an absolutely beautiful beach and took a Fast Cat Catamaran to the Dry Tortugas State Park. This was an absolutely amazing place with an old jail, aka Fort Jefferson, which housed the man who shot President Lincoln, and had tons of snorkeling. This was John's frist time snorkeling, and while you don't see as many beautiful fish here as you do in Hawaii, you still get to see some awesome sights. I was the first to see a really big fish about three feet long and when I pointed it out to John, he freaked out and told us to swim away as fast as we could. Once we had swam away, he told me it was a barracuda. We managed to see many more on our snorkeling adventure, and stopped worrying about them so much.

Our last full day there, his parents took us to an amazing brunch buffet, by far the best buffet I had ever been to, and then John and I had a two hour massage and spa day. After that we used the gift certificate his "aunt" had given us for Christmas to the Lobster House. We used that day to celebrate our one year anniversary, even though it's not technically unitl the 16th, but there was no where better to celebrate it than in Key West.

Overall, it was an amazing trip filled with plenty of warm sunshine and lots of down time. It was definitely one of the best vacations I have ever been on. To top it all off, we got to spend time with his family and I got to hear stories about John as a youngin' which cracked me up! I want to thank John's family for making me feel so welcome and for showing us such a great time. I really do appreciate it and will always remember my first visit to Key West!

Sadly, we are back to Sonoma County and it is freezing cold here. It is supposed to reach the high teens tomorrow night, and set some records for all time lows in the area. Yay, I can hardly wait....said with lots and lots of sarcasm. It is good to be home though, and thankfully our tv and couch are still here (my dad and mom managed to not steal them while we were gone, hee hee). Nothing beats your own bed, and I am sure John is thankful to have his six pillows back so he can build his barracade between us at night. I start school next week and have finally got all my supplies in order. I bought most of my books, which cost me $1300, and I still don't have all of them becuase one was not in stock. What a rip off....that is how these damn colleges make so much money. Then they give you back 5% when you sell them back. Ridiculous, I tell you! But I am ready to start school and am actually looking forward to it. I hope everyone had as great a new year as I did and hope you all made your new year's resolutions and have started to tackle those. These are mine, and they are not in any particular order:

Do great in school
Learn to budget my money better, especially since I will hardly be working
Exercise more
Cook more meals at home