Floridaaahhhhh!

Is this winter getting you down, or what?

I can't remember a winter more mood-altering than this one. And I mean that in a bad-mood kind of way.

After months of frigid temperatures, and record snowfall, it got to the point where the Goo Shoes family had to...

Staring out the window at mountains of snow day after day got Mr. Goo Shoes and I thinking a lot about relocating to a warmer climate someday. Many of our friends are planning to head down to Florida eventually, so it's a pretty good bet that we will, too. I mean, do we really want to go some place else where we'd have to make new friends at that point in our lives? As long as the current ones still think we're ok, we'll just go where they're going.

We decided to fly south for a few days and start to get a feel for areas we might be interested in, as well as some much-needed solar therapy.  Unfortunately, we only had four days, since that's all the time that Junior Goo Shoes had off from school. 

It was actually a small miracle that we were able to leave as planned the night of February 14 (remember I told you we were doing something fun on Valentine's Day?). Mr. Goo Shoes came down with the flu earlier that week, the dog was sick for a few days, and we had a huge nor'easter that dumped about a foot of snow right before we left. But the stars were aligned...it all worked out, and even our flight was on time. 

We stayed at the W Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. There are other areas of Florida that we like far better than Ft. Lauderdale, but we wanted to use our Starwood Hotel points for a free stay. As long as there were palm trees, a beach and no snow, we weren't complaining.

The hotel decor is very contemporary, which is meant to appeal to a younger, hipper clientele, but they let us in anyway, LOL! Despite it's quirky feel, we enjoyed it. It's an excellent hotel, and the service was wonderful, with a special shout-out to Raul, the Concierge.

One thing did crack me up, though. Apparently, the rooms are not cleaned...get this...they are "styled"...not by housekeeping, or maids....but "room stylists."  LMAO!

Check out the lobby...

How cool is this bookcase? LOVE the fabric on those chairs. 

The lobby extends outside, overlooking the ocean. Every time I saw that fire pit, I was tempted to ask for a giant pair of chopsticks -- looks like a humongous wok, if you ask me.

I forgot to take a picture of our room before we messed ours up. You don't want to see one with Junior Goo Shoes' stuff all over the place, do you? You can see a nice, neat one here. We didn't have that view -- we had this one...

Not too shabby. There are times when a hotel view really matters to us, but it wasn't a priority this time. This time, we just wanted to be near the ocean.

The hotel isn't directly on the beach...it is across the street. Because it's a public beach, the hotel can't supply chairs. We had to rent them ($12 per chair; $20 per umbrella per day). It really bugs me to have to pay extra for basic amenities, but in this case, I don't think the hotel has a choice.  Mr. Goo Shoes and I are past the point of parking our butts on a towel, so we had to fork over the bucks. Actually, they do let you charge it to your room, which was nice.




We spent the first day on the beach...the weather couldn't have been better! Slowly, the icicles begin to thaw from our bodies...we felt human, again! 

We also had a good amount of time chillaxin' at the hotel pool. Look -- they're serving orange beef at the pool, too! If you sit on those white cement seats, I guess you're between a wok and a hard place...ba-dump-bump.

The alarm clock had to be set pretty early for us to get lounges facing the ocean, but it was worth it. It's a much nicer view than looking at people in the pool who shouldn't be wearing bikinis.

See that plexiglass awning over the pool? 

It is actually a stairway from the 4th floor lobby to the 5th floor pool. When you ascend, you can see into the bottom of the pool as if you were looking at a human aquarium. Some of those "fish" were scary looking!

I had a great time standing in the stairwell taking about a hundred "underwater" photos of Junior Goo Shoes. Be thankful I didn't post them all.

We did get to play "House Hunters" one day. I kept waiting for the HGTV announcer to introduce us...

 "The Goo Shoes family is looking for an escape from 

cold winters in NJ. Will they buy the ugly duckling 

with golf-course views, or the gorgeous home in the 

community where the average age is 95? "  

There is no way we are buying anything now, but all Junior Goo Shoes had to hear was "house in Florida," and he took it upon himself to become our real estate agent. Before we left for Florida, he researched houses, and put together a slide presentation for us. Of course, he should have been studying Biology, but that's another story.

Wouldn't you know it, he found some great houses...one in particular that we really liked, so we called the listing agent and arranged to see it. It was awesome! But, there was an even better one in that community. Can I tell you, that if we were truly ready to buy, we would have taken this house in a heartbeat?

The beach in Delray is what attracted us to this area. Love the dunes! The sun was setting as I snapped these, so pardon the shadows and washed-out sky.  Delray also has a very "happening" downtown with great restaurants and shopping. Yeah, I could be happy there.

  




The four days went quickly, and before we knew it, we were back in NJ, which had two more small snowfalls while we were gone. The weather has really warmed up these last couple of days, so all that snow is finally melting!

It was a great little break, enough to refresh us, and sustain us for the rest of winter a few days.

For those of you who are bloggers, I am SO behind in reading all of your posts after being away. I'm going to try to catch up over the next few days...because I've missed you all!

Cheers!

Linking With:
Weekend Bloggy Reading 
TIckeled Pink Times Two 
Fabulously Creative Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Oh, The Places I've Been 
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