I took somewhat of a hiatus on blog posting when baby HM was born, but it has been five months and we are back! We took two vacations since Seattle: Miami, FL for Nathan to compete in the MiamiMan Triathlon like I did in 2013, and Jacksonville, FL for a beach trip with our neighbors.

Miami, Florida
We traveled to Miami with my parents in November 2014.  We stayed at the same hotel my mom and I had stayed at the previous year, the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove.  The hotel is awesome for that area, and the service is unbeatable.  We stayed there Friday through Monday for Nathan’s race, then moved to the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach for Monday to Wednesday.  We had an absolute blast.  I was 7 months pregnant and still feeling pretty good at that time, so I was able to enjoy myself.  I did have to wear a sports bra the entire time because none of my little bikinis would fit- But that didn’t stop me from sporting the mondo-belly!

Jacksonville, Florida
The other trip we took was more recent – a May 2015 trip to Jacksonville, Florida.  Well, we stayed on the Mayport Naval Station at the Navy Gateway Inn & Suites. We were on a budget, and found the Gateway for $50/night with military ID, which is incredible for an ocean-view hotel. The drive was about 5 hours, though it took us about 6 1/2 with the baby. We really didn’t know what to expect from the hotel at that price, but when we got there we were very pleasantly surprised! It is not a high-class resort, but it has everything you need for a weekend at the beach and is walking distance to the ocean. We had a full-sized refrigerator, though I heard some of the rooms do not. During the week we spent time out on the beach, visited my cousin in Jacksonville, and ate a LOT!  We also had a chance to swim in the pool a little before we left. Our house in Georgia gets a lot of unwanted “visitors,” so we had decided if we saw any critters we wouldn’t even stay one night. Turned out we didn’t see any our entire trip, which was such a relief! We had great weather and a great time.  Ate TONS of seafood, including a fresh market purchase of two pounds of shrimp, fish, and some crab legs that we grilled on the last night. The trip home was MUCH faster and even though the house was super hot when we got home, we were happy to sleep in our own bed again.