This is mostly going to be a picture dump but I wanted to add a little commentary. 2020 was the year that never happened. Life as we knew it came to a halt VERY suddenly and that included any goals, trips, hobbies, vacations, etc as we were all locked in our houses. As a person that was accustomed to traveling at least twice per month for either work or leisure, I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed being home more. However, having the same routine almost everyday does take its toll on you mentally. The brain gets lazy and it doesn't want to work as well.
I noticed it because I started having trouble recalling words. It kept getting worse and out of fear of developing dementia or something like that I started to research the topic and found that it can be a side affect of being quarantined since your brain doesn't have as much stimulation. So, we decided to take a quick trip to Knoxville in October 2020 and thankfully we saw instant improvement in our brain function!
Fast forward a few months later and we are in the thick of a Midwest winter. If you've never lived here, there is no fall or spring, it is just winter and then summer. The summers are A-MA-ZING but the winters can also feel super long. We have learned that we have to plan a warm trip around the end of February or beginning of March just to keep our sanity.
Knowing all this about warm vacations for sanity, routine changes helping brain functionality, not spending any money in 2020 (because it never happened), and the nice bonus of work being remote then we decided to go big for our first trip in 2021 and book a 2 week stay at a beachfront house!
On top of renting a place for 2 weeks, we decided to splurge for the beachfront location because even though we had decided to take a trip, we were still being super careful about interactions with people. We decided to drive down instead of flying (plus that allowed us to take our dog) and this sounds crazy but we didn't plan to actually do anything while we were there. Especially after hearing how Florida had reacted to social distancing and masks!
Anyways, it ended up being absolutely lovely. It was a little windy but the temperature was perfect. You'll see below we did venture out to an alligator farm since it was outside (they are apparently exceptionally good at doing The Splits, who knew??) but other than that, our days just consisted of listening to the waves crash while we worked and taking a walk on the beach every day. I was even able to find a nearby nature preserve to run at before work!
In the end, I'm glad we did it and will definitely consider doing again in the future if we are still allowed to work remotely. It was a nice getaway to ease us back into traveling without the pressures of sightseeing because we had the perfect "sight" right in front of us!
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| My view while "at work" |
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| This was our "front porch" |
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| This was just hanging in the window and was so cool! |
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| As a recent vegetarian convert, I had to get a pic of this! |
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| The kitchen/dining/living room was an open floor plan with this being the view |
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| "Look guys! I can finally do The Splits!" |
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