a few weekends ago, cory and i traveled to tampa to visit my brother and his family. they came to north carolina last summer to visit us, and we had such a great time we decided to keep the tradition alive again this summer. in my opinion, these are the best kinds of vacations... nothing beats having fun and relaxing with family (though if anyone can clue me in on how to fight the depression that follows once you leave, that'd be great)!
my brother and sister-in-law were wonderful hosts and showed us a great time!
their neighborhood is also home to many sandhill cranes. these birds are really big, and seem to be pretty comfortable around their human neighbors.
my brother's mini pineapple farm in his backyard.
the first night we were there, we visited in the loop brewing company. this place had such a chill atmosphere and some yummy beer selections as well!
grace and brian jr. had a good time battling one another in giant jenga!
the next day we traveled to honeymoon island to take the ferry over to caladesi island state park where we spent the day at the beach.
on the ferry ride
i love a good mangrove.
view of the island from the ferry
we made it to the island!
ummmmm.... okay.
i. heart. florida.
after a small hike, we made it to the beach!
the water was incredibly warm, and the most beautiful clear turquoise color.
i'll definitely be coming back ;)
after going home and cleaning the salt water and sunscreen off our bodies, we headed into downtown tampa to check out the armature works. the building dates back to 1910 and was once the storage and maintenance facility for tampa electric's streetcars. now it's filled with tons of shops, eateries and bars.
how adorable is this flower shop?
on our final full day there, my brother hosted a bbq and invited the rest of our family. here he can be seen stuffing a can of beer into a chicken's butt.
the grill/smoke masters!
if only scratch and sniff computer screens were a real thing....
every southern bbq requires a big pot of boiled peanuts!
corn, you're pretty.
who knew we'd eventually get along so well ;)
my nephew recruited my dad to help him test out his homemade walkie talkie!
he's so silly.
after the rest of the guests left we broke out monopoly. i've lost to cory many times at this game (actually, i've never seen him lose to anyone in monopoly.... until now)! grace kicked all of our butts! future real estate mogul, perhaps?
my brother and nephew kept donating money to me because i was losing so badly. haha, they're the sweetest.
florida sent us off with this gorgeous sunset! until next time...
