Let's Go Places (And Meet People!): Florida

 

Since we last talked I've completed a slew of firsts for 2025: first trip, first blogger meetup, and first lighthouse visit.  This is the story of how it all came to be.

Back in November, my work announced an all company off site meeting to be held Florida in early February.  No sooner did they say the words than I knew that I would be expanding the trip to meet two of my favorite Florida people.

The only direct flights to FL from where I live are on the budget airlines, and Google said that Allegiant was the best way to go.  The catch was that they only fly to Ft Lauderdale on Mondays and Thursdays.  Well, the off site was from Wednesday to Friday, so the Thursday flight was out, so I was "sorry not sorry" that I would have to spend an entire week in FL.  The plan that I put together on the spot was:

• Monday night: fly to FL
• Tuesday: work from hotel
• Wednesday: while all of my coworkers were traveling to the off site, I would hopefully hang out with Jenny during the day and then go to the offsite that night
• Thursday: offsite
• Friday: wrap up offsite, drive up to St. Petersburg
• Saturday: hopefully hang out with Stephany 
• Sunday: drive from St. Petersburg to Ft Launderdale, find something interesting to do on the way.
• Monday: work from hotel in AM, come home in PM.

My next move was to fire off emails to Jenny and Stephany to let them know what was up and have them save slots on their dance cards for me.

So already we have a dream setup: my work pays for me to fly somewhere warm in the dead of winter and puts a roof over my head for two nights, and I get to meet two people who I've been wanting to meet for a long time.  It doesn't get any better than that.  

And then it got better than that.

A day or so after I'd gotten my plane ticket, Lisa wrote that she had a sales conference in FL in February.  I texted her something like "I know there is no way that your conference is at [Big Snazzy Resort] from February 5-7".

She texted back that her conference was at [Big Snazzy Resort] from February 3-5.  And that she was thinking what I was thinking, which is that it should be possible to meet some folks while she was there.  She had her eye on Jenny and SHU.  After a round of emails, we locked down a lunch date for the east Florida folks on Wednesday and a meetup for Stephany and me in west Florida that weekend.

Monday - wheels up

I don't fly very often but when I do, it's nearly always to Florida for vacation.  I've also said that I don't like to fly, and flying to FL is the reason.  The flight time is short, but where I live the only direct flights are on budget airlines, and the service experience isn't always the best.  The incidence of flight delays that I've experienced in the past decade is around 100%.  I had never flown Allegiant before, and I was just waiting for the delay notification to come in.

I'm still waiting because it ended up being the smoothest flight experience that I can remember.  Before I knew it I was on the ground in Ft Lauderdale, and then I blinked and our bags were ready.

I'm not at my best late at night, so I didn't want to deal with picking up a rental car and checking into an Airbnb.  I stayed at the airport Hyatt House which (1) had a shuttle, (2) got me some of those sweet, sweet Hyatt points, (3) got me one step closer to a free night certificate for staying at five of their brands, and (4) was very reasonably priced.

Given the choice, I would almost always opt for an Airbnb, but this was definitely a great option.

Tuesday - WFH (work from hotel)

Tuesday was a normal work day.  My first move was to the gym for a workout, and then I snagged some half and half from the hotel breakfast and brewed my own coffee in the room.

 

I headed outside in search of food.  Of course I could have eaten the hotel breakfast, but I wanted to see if I could do better.  The hotel was in a shopping district, and there was a Sprouts nearby.  I've never been there before, but it's a name I keep hearing so I wanted to check it out.  Between you and me, it was nothing to write home about, but I scored a breakfast burrito and a plant based frozen meal for lunch.

I set up my hotel work station.  My work is a lot easier with two monitors, and the cheapie portable monitor that I'd recently gotten did the job.

Every work conversation that I had on Tuesday went like this:

Coworker: when are you going to Florida?

Me: I'm in Florida.  I came last night.

Coworker: Neato!  What are you doing?

Me: working.

Over lunch I caught the airport shuttle back to the airport and picked up my rental car.  Now I had all of the pieces that I needed for the week.  P.S. if you want to save money on rental cars, get out your Costco card.  In my experience their travel portal always has the best prices.

That night after work I walked around the shopping complex for entertainment purposes and settled on Bento for dinner.  I got the tofu katsu, which came with lots of sides.  It wasn't extraordinary, but it fit the bill of a lighter dinner with lots of things to taste.  The best thing on the plate was the garlic green beans in the left corner.

I went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Wednesday - ladies who lunch

While my coworkers were in the sky, I had other plans.  I checked out of the hotel and headed for the waterfront to meet my tribe.  As you may recall, Lisa and I met last summer in her hometown of Minneapolis, Jenny and I have been following each other's blogs for a long, long time, and I am a SHU reader and podcast listener.

We met at YOT restaurant for an early lunch.  We walked around the waterfront until our reservation time.  All that I will say is that you wish you were a fly on that wall!  OK fine there were no walls since we were outside but you know what I mean.  It was a good conversation with good people.

I had a shrimp wasabi caesar salad, which was very good.  Our waitress took very good care of us, and was very intrigued when she learned that we were internet friends.

After lunch Lisa headed to the airport to get her plane and SHU headed home to finish writing her book which will be out next January!!!  Jenny had more time before she had to get back home, so we found a park nearby and walked the trails.

The afternoon came to an end and I headed over to the Big Snazzy Resort and found out how tall my coworkers are.

Thursday - all werk and no play

On Thursday morning I got to feel the sand between my toes.

And then I spent the rest of the day inside.  Whomp whomp.

Friday - all work, a really long drive, and some play

The werk conference ended at noon, and I was soon back on the road.

A long time ago (late 90s to be exact) the service scheduler where I worked was famous for asking the techs to "just swing by" to visit one more customer while in the area, and when they would say "hey that's four hours away", he would say "well it's only an inch on my map".  It's a phrase that still comes to mind when I plan my trips.

The distance from Ft Lauderdate to St. Pete's is just an inch on the map, but ouch it's the longest four hour drive that I can remember making in recent history.  It was a mess of traffic leaving Ft Lauderdale, a whole lotta nothing driving across the state, and then a mess of traffic from Sarasota to St. Pete.  

Anyhoo, I finally pulled in to my Airbnb about 10 minutes away from Stephany and texted her that I was in her town.  We met up at an Italian spot and settled in over parm - chicken for her and shrimp for me.  Yes shrimp parm - it's a thing!

Saturday - Hello Dali!

We had a full day on tap for Saturday.  First up: brunch.

But not just any brunch.  Stephany made reservations for us at The Library (not "a library" it's The Library).

I got the benedict, which was eggs, yummy sauce, and beef with breakfast potatoes on the side.  I do not have the words to tell you how good this meal was, other than to say if you are ever in St. Pete's please drop everything and have brunch here.  I can tell you right now that The Library is going to be on my list of best travel restaurants of the year.

In keeping with the library theme, they brought the check tucked into a book.  People had signed the inside cover of the book with words of wisdom.

 

We wrapped up brunch and went back to Stephany's car for our next stop.  Immediately her phone rang and the caller ID said The Library.  Somebody (me) left her credit card tucked into the book just like I do with my library card when I pick books up at the library.  The only reason that they had Stephany's number was because she'd made a reservation, but I was still blown away that they were able to track us down before I even realized my card was missing.  More props to The Library!

Our next stop was Tombolo Books, which is Stephany's favorite indie bookstore.  You might be able to guess that books were a large part of our conversation.

 

I didn't buy anything but I was tempted.

Next up: when in St. Pete's the Dali Museum is a must.  Admission is on the pricey side, but there are more important things in life besides money...which is what we would have said except that our admission was free.

How?

My trusty museum membership back home, that's how.  It includes free or discounted admission to a network of museums around the world.  Each year I get so much value out of it that I keep getting a higher membership level and each year I find myself putting more money back in my wallet with the savings.  There is always a gray area on whether the admission is just for me or for me and a guest, and sometimes the museums are very picky and want to see ID and have a whole long slew of questions and cross examinations.  All that the Dali wanted to know was the name of my home museum.

 

We saw the 360 experience show, which was mind blowing, and then we looked at the artwork.  We started with a photograph exhibit which quickly became a boob count.  Hey it's art.

This painting is definitely a "you had to be there" kind of thing, but from a distance it's a picture of Abraham Lincoln and up close it's a picture of Dali's wife's backside.

After our venture into the art world, we hit up The Blend for iced coffee flights.

 

In the back of my mind I knew that there was another Florida experience that I needed to have, and one that both Stephany and Jenny had written about...but what was it?  Oh!  Pub subs!  That would be subs that you can get from Publix grocery stores and from the way Stephany and Jenny talked about them I knew that they had to be extra special.

I know that this picture looks like a sub like any other sub, but you have to trust me that pub subs will be on the menu anytime that I'm in Publix country going forward.  I had the Italian sub for dinner on Saturday and a vegan sub for lunch on Sunday.  The Italian sub was way better than Subway and the vegan sub was so good that it will be my standard order going forward.

As Saturday night drew to a close, I was trying to figure out Sunday.  Jenny and I left it open that if I was back in the area and she was free that we would meet up.   But I realized now that it was going to take hella long time to drive back, and I was hoping to make a stop on the way so that it probably wouldn't work to meet Jenny.

At this moment Jenny texted to ask if I wanted to go to dinner on Sunday.  Problem solved!  Whatever I did on Sunday I knew that I would be there by dinnertime.

Sunday - lighthouse day

After a quick run/walk around the hood  I was wheels up back to East FL.  My first destination was the Jupiter lighthouse.  There are other lighthouses in FL, but of the ones that you can visit this one stood out because it's accessible from land and open six days a week.

 

If you want better pictures and more of a description, you can find that in Jenny's recap from when she visited.  It's much bigger than the Great Lakes lighthouses, but smaller than St. Augustine and Cape Hatteras.

Lighthouse visit achieved, I checked into my Ft Lauderdale hotel (chosen for the purposes of using my $50 per year Sapphire hotel credit), put my feet up for a bit, and then it was time to meet Jenny for dinner.

We met at Cavaleras Cantina and tucked into a mountain of guac and chips and eventually dinner. 

And with that it was time to say goodnight and goodbye for now.

Monday - come home

On Monday I worked from the hotel in the morning and caught a flight home in the afternoon.  It was another smooth flight.

Let's wrap it up

• Having my work schedule an off site meeting close to cool bloggers 10/10
• Having both Lisa's and my employers pick the same location and compatible dates for an offsite: 10/10
  
• Blogger meetups: 1000000000000000000000000/10.  And they say blogging is dead.
  
• Jenny's recap here and here
  
• Lisa's recap here
• SHU's recap here
• Stephany's recap here and here
  
• Meeting my coworkers in person: it was fine
• FL traffic: 4/10
• Brunch at The Library: 1000000/10
• First lighthouse visit of 2025: 10/10
• Hyatt having a random 3x points special during my stay: 10/10
  
• A smooth flying experience: 10/10

Did anyone have a better week than I did last week?  Not to brag, but I think not.