Last Tuesday, my friend Kelley and I left Mississippi bright and early and headed to Florida. We were going to check out homes in neighborhoods where Bobby and I are going to move, which is TAMPA! I already shared this news yesterday with my email subscribers, but figured it was time to let you guys in on it as well. 🙂 We are looking north of Tampa, to be precise. So anyway, we drove, and we drove, and we drove. It was a gorgeous day, so it was hard to believe a hurricane was coming.
How cool is this rest stop? It has a “stretch your legs” trail!
We finally made it to Clearwater after 10:00 at night. We stayed at the Sheraton Sand Key and really liked it. It’s right on the beach (well you have to walk out a bit but no big deal). Too bad it was chilly and overcast. It didn’t stop us from sitting out there a few hours anyway!
We eventually ventured up to the pool before grabbing lunch and meeting with my awesome realtor.
Our plan was to look at homes all afternoon and into the early evening since we were going to head out Thursday afternoon instead of Friday because of hurricane Matthew. We saw some great houses and neighborhoods. After awhile they just all start running together though!
This pool was awesome but unfortunately the rest of the house was not.
How cool is this kid’s super hero room?!?
Loved this kitchen but the neighborhood would be way too long of a commute for Bobby.
We even rode a golf cart in one neighborhood.
That night we hit up a restaurant in Clearwater before turning in for the night.
The next day we were up early again for more house hunting. The Sheraton was so awesome and let us cancel out last night and refunded us no problem because of the hurricane. It was super simple and we were so grateful.
We loaded up my SUV and were just going to meet the realtor at the first house that morning. Well, the directions I put into my map app on my iPhone were not exactly right. They took us through these back roads and down a dirt road where we came across this gentleman. We then went down ANTOHER dirt road and Siri told us to get out and walk to our destination. OMG. I felt like we were in a horror movie where the two young girls get led down a series of winding dirt roads to their deaths. We couldn’t stop laughing!
We finally made it back to a main road and found where we were going, but whew what a way to start the morning. We saw gorgeous new neighborhood and some model homes, and then made it out of the area heading north just as the first rain bands started.
Someone please explain the below photo?
We had a LOT of traffic headed up 75 to I-10, and I-10 was basically gridlocked all the way to Talahassee. What should have taken us 6 hours took well over 7, and I was over it by the time we finally got to Destin around 7:15 that evening. We very much deserved good food and drinks so we headed to Rockin’ Tacos which was delicious.
The next morning, we woke up to SUNSHINE! We were finally going to get some beach time. We were legit out on the beach by 7:45 in the morning, and we laid in the sun until around 12:15 when we finally packed up the car and had to head back to Mississippi.
Hello sugar white sands! Oh how I missed you.
It was totally worth driving in the traffic to get to Destin for a morning at the beach. Also it was nice to break up the 11 hour drive into two parts coming back.
My friend Kelley was SO super sweet to spend her vacation time with me looking for houses and neighborhoods. She in her last year of residency at the hospital and could have been doing a million other things with her limited time off, but she chose to help me out. I think I may have killed anyone else in the car for that long but we talked, listened to awesome playlists, and made it work. We also may have eaten at Chipotle twice. She had never been so I thought it was necessary. We had a great time and now I feel more confident as we narrow down where to live in just a few short weeks, so hopefully our house sells soon!
QOTD: What is your favorite beach? Do you like house hunting?
Good luck with the house hunting girl! Hope you find one you absolutely love! My favorite beach is Pensacola Beach because that’s where I grew up!
I believe that picture is showing someone who is advertising their fishing charters. Just so happens it is a very odd name for it!
Good luck with your house hunting. I know it’s exciting at first but can then turn frustrating.
Welcome (soon) to the Tampa area! I’m your southern neighbor just on the other side of the Sunshine Skyway bridge! I think you’ll find that in some ways it’s the same as what you are used to (heat and humidity and hurricanes?) and in some ways very different (the fishing charter name on the truck, the dude on the dirt road, the lack of large hair bows on little girls (although I think it’s adorable it’s not the norm here). I see you fitting into the casual beach life and loving the easy access to Disney!
Thanks! No way I’m ditching the bows!