Our Getaway

JB and I returned this afternoon from a two night getaway in Key West, Florida. We left the boys with the grandparents (Mom K. watched them on Friday and my parents on Saturday and Sunday) and took two days to rest and relax in the very southernmost point in the Continental U.S. (as seen in the photo below):


Why Key West? Well, the major reason is that it is only 3.5 hours south of where we grew up and neither of us had ever visited there. Florida is a very big place. Did you know that it would take you 16 hours to drive from Key West to Pensacola?! Flabbergasting, huh?

Anyways, I took care of scheduling the babysitting and JB took care of scheduling our vacation. He booked us at a beautiful hotel at Southernmost on the Beach and was told that we had an oceanfront room on a quiet side of the hotel. Unfortunately, when we went to our room, we discovered that it was overlooking the pool and was right in the middle of the party scene. It wasn't quite what he had in mind or what he was lead to believe he had purchased.

Sometimes it pays to be kind. John went back to the lobby and politely spoke with Dexter, one of the guys who worked there. "I don't mean to cause a problem," JB said. "But this wasn't exactly what we had in mind. My wife and I wanted to spend a quiet weekend. We aren't really into the party scene."

Dexter apologized profusely and said that if this wasn't what we paid for, he would fix it. And fix it he did! He put us in a B & B next door at the Dewey House, one of their sister hotels. Our room was amazing. It was much quieter. And it came with breakfast and tea time and a bunch of other perks. It was a room that would have cost us double the amount, and they gave it to us for no extra cost. They also brought us a thank you gift when JB showed his military ID for a discount to thank us for serving. It was chocolate so I liked it!

The Dewey House was fantastic. Check out the pictures below:

While it was wonderful to get away, the weekend was not quite what we had hoped in that I was pretty sick for much of it. Sometimes timing is just very bad. In this case, the timing of my illness coincided with our weekend retreat. Oh well.

I have been dealing with debilitating migraines. They are hormonally related, but they are nearly crippling in nature. If we would have been at Eglin, I would have gone to the emergency room on Saturday night it got so bad.

Don't get me wrong. We still had a wonderful weekend. While I was laid out for much of it, we also got some fantastic time to talk and just catch up. Being on the road, living with other people, and raising two little boys leaves us lacking in time together -- especially time to talk. And we got that while we were there.

Key West wasn't quite what we expected. It was more like a "mini New Orleans." It has a lot of character and charm but wasn't quite as quaint as we were picturing. The food, however, was fantastic. We ate at two different restaurants that were simply fantastic. While it isn't quite the type of vacation we are into, we are glad we went and got to see a place in our home state that we had never visited.

This week coming up promises to be a difficult one emotionally. We will be saying good bye to our families and making the drive to Baltimore in preparation for our arrival in Turkey next week. As promised, I am not going to divulge specific dates or the direction of our trip. With being in the military and going to the Middle East, we find it important to keep specifics to a minimum.

But the dates are fast approaching.

Pray for us all as we prepare to say good bye.