S.L.A.B 1, Part 1

I've been a little absent from the blog this month....I've been busy vacationing :) We started out the month with our week long beach trip and then I left the following Thursday for SLAB 1!  SLAB stands for Shannon, Laurie, Alison, Blue. We decided to have an annual SLAB reunion, starting this year. Shannon moved to St. Louis, MO last November so that was where we decided on for our destination.  It was so great to be with these three again. I hadn't seen Blue since the wedding and Shannon since before she moved. We were there for three days so I'm going to break this up into three posts...I have lots of pictures to share.

Alison and I arrived in St. Louis around 1:30 on Friday and took a cab into the city to Shannon's work. Shannon had to work until 5:00 so Alison and I got lunch and mani/pedis to kill the time.  We picked Blue up from the airport around 5:30 and headed to Shannon's grandparents house. Shannon has a lot of family in St. Louis and they treated us just like family! Her grandma made us a feast of fried chicken, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes. It was sooo delicious.  Here's there house...isn't it adorable?

Shannon and her grandparents...she's the tall one for this side of the family :)

After dinner we headed to Shannon's flat. She has this amazing apartment! It's an apartment exclusively for artists. Shannon is a graphic designer so she fits right in. Her loft is amazing....exposed brick, cement floors, exposed pipes, updated fixtures. Alison, Blue, and I were all in love with it! 

We were pretty tired after our travel day so we figured out sleeping arrangements and hit the sack. I somehow managed to share Shannon's amazingly comfortable bed for the entire weekend. It was awesome. The next day was jam packed with touristy things. 

Shannon took us to this amazing breakfast place called Rooster. We all had delicious crepes and the wait wasn't long even though it was packed! 

A round of mimosas before starting the day.

The great thing was that everything we went to on Saturday was within walking distance of Shannon's apartment. She really hit the jackpot with that place.  Next stop was the famous Arch! The Gateway to the Midwest!

Shannon: tourguide

It was here that I took my most famous picture of the weekend:

I got made fun of the entire weekend for that instagram...I'll admit, the ones they took had a bit more face and a bit more light but come on....this is art!

Shannon and I in our frisbee numbered baseball seats we found on the sidewalk.

This is where Shannon got the title for her car...

We also stopped by the library on our way home. I wish I had a picture of this place. It is truly incredible! They have completely renovated it and it's gorgeous and modern on the inside, and old/elegant on the outside. There were conference rooms for book clubs, an amazing kids room where Shannon whooped me at Checkers. The design of the place was just incredible! I think I would go there just to hang out if I lived in St. Louis.

After cooling down back at Shannon's place we walked down to Schlafly's tap room. Schlafly's is a famous brewery in St. Louis so we had to check it out. The best part was that our first round came in glasses that mirrored our height in relation to one another.

Shannon, Laurie/Blue, Alison

Afterwards we headed to a MAD house! Seriously...this place was crazy! It's called the City Museum and this guy just built this absolutely crazy jungle gym out of everything imaginable. We spent an hour here and then booked it home. It was exhausting and just plain crazy!! Plus we didn't really fit in a lot of it...it was extremely claustrophobic and there were kids popping out of tunnels and holes everywhere!

Here's the museum. Yes...that's a school bus hanging off the roof.

No words

This was a hole in the ground that you had to fall through. It ended in a slide and you found yourself trapped under ground and the only way out was a tiny crack in the wall that none of us could fit through or a tunnel we had to squeeze through on our hands and knees.

Shannon working on her physique.

 What is that?? You could climb on everything you see in this picture. Everything you see is part of the jungle gym.

Same here.

Here's Shannon driving the bus off the roof of the building.

Alison getting coached across the stepping stones.

Alison and I rode the Ferris Wheel. It was on top of the roof and you could see the whole city! It was fun but we asked the operator to let us off first and he did. It was rickety and high and there was a storm coming in....we did not want to be stuck at the top of a metal Ferris Wheel in a lightning storm!

And this is how you got down from the Ferris Wheel level.

That night a huge storm came in so we skipped the piano bar and stayed in instead. After the long day we had, it was much needed!

More to come on Day 2 of Slab Reunion: St Louis!

Beach Trip Part 2

Tuesday was the last day that they weather channel seemed to be able to guarantee not too much rain so the guys took the opportunity to go golfing. Michael and William bought clubs at the Humanity ReStore and Derrick and Alexander caddied for them. Derrick can't play golf with his bad shoulder right now...he still has a physical therapist to yell at him. Team William and Alexander won. I hear the course was pretty terrible. While the guys were off golfing, Holly, Rebecca and I soaked up some clouds on the beach for the morning and then visited Lucky Dog cafe for lunch. It was the size of a single wide trailer...I'll give it  a B+. I wasn't blown away but I was happy to try something local.  

Tuesday night, we ate at Robbi's Reef. We tried to go there on Sunday night but they are closed Sunday and Monday so we went back the first night they were open. It's a seafood restaurant but I was pleased that they  actually cared what their non-seafood items tasted like. Derrick got a delicious Italian sausage sandwich and I got a delicious salad. It was so good we went back on Friday and ordered the exact same thing!

Now...the best part of our week!!! Drum Roll please.......

SHARKS TEETH

Venice, FL is home to one of the best Sharks Tooth hunting beaches. We went for the first time on Tuesday but I wish we had done it the very first day we got there...even after that long drive. I LOVED it! There were tons of people out there hunting. We searched our kitchen and found about 8 colanders so we took those out there to sift through the sand. I found 85 total! Derrick was a good sport and watched over my sharks teeth as I ran back and forth from the ocean. Holly and Rebecca really got into it too, as did William although he had unfortunate timing. A not-to-be-missed game of bocce started just has he hit his groove and found his first one.  He found more the following day though!

This is also where we met Mr. Giant Turtle. I touched him...Derrick did too, however, it was through wireless phone connection. I had him on the phone while I touched him. It was terrifying and awesome!

Thursday Andrea really hit hard. There were tornado warnings and I was busy positioning myself closest to the safest place in our house should a tornado strike. I would have been ready! We did get a little lapse in the storm during the late morning and I told Derrick we had to use this time to go Shark Tooth hunting! I told you I was obsessed right? Everybody but Alexander was convinced it was a great idea too so we piled into the car and headed out! It was only when we encountered the flooded beach road that we started to wonder if the idea was as grand as it seemed. There was caution tape on all of the beach entrances and cars were leaving there as quickly as they could. Not to be deterred, we parked, found an entrance that had not been barred yet, and headed onto the beach where the ocean was almost up to the boardwalk! My obliging husband jumped in the ocean and sifted away until he found at least one tooth! William videoed it...I'll post it if  I can get it from him. The wind and waves were CRAZY! It was pretty cool.

That night we escaped Andrea with some more bowling and some Mexican food.

Rebecca looked adorable in her bowling outfit.

William wore the big hat at the Mexican restaurant.

Friday we finally got some sun and I, not so subtly, rushed everyone out of the house so we could soak it up. I was so excited to get at least one day of the sun. It was a great end to the vacation! Holly and I even napped by the pool that afternoon...perfect!

A 13 hour car drive later and we were home. It was definitely too short but also much needed! It was nice to  set work aside (I only had to take 1 call and answer a few emails) and Derrick was able to disconnect from work for the most part as well. I think we both needed that and it came just at the right time!

Next up...Girls weekend in St. Louis this coming weekend! Derrick's so sweet for letting me take off with just the girls. It's going to be a blast!

Let's Go to the Beach, Beach!

The title is to be sung to the starting beat of Nicki Minaj's Starship.  That is what I've been singing for the past several weeks and is the excuse for my long absence of blog posts! Derrick and I joined up with friends and look a week long vacation to Venice, Florida to soak up some sun tropical storm Andrea. We settled on Venice, FL because I wanted to get away from NC and we were able to find a beach house that would comfortably accommodate all 7 of us and still be within walking distance of a beach without breaking the bank. We booked our trip through a company called Vacation Rental Pros and I would definitely recommend them. They were very easy to work with, checked in along the way, and were very timely with their responses to any of my questions.

So, Venice is an 11.5 hour drive from Durham, NC. Derrick and I considered flying for just a second, but decided that driving couldn't be all that bad and it would save some major cash. Alexander and Holly also opted for driving so Derrick and I picked them up in Fayetteville which was right on the way.  We were able to get all of the luggage, beach bags, and games in the trunk which left plenty of room for all of us comfortably settled in up front with our snacks and Roo Cups! Derrick even broke out his tank top for the ride...definitely beach ready.  I told him he looked like a body builder in this picture...don't you think?

The drive was surprisingly easy! We didn't hit any traffic and only got a little bit of rain in the Tampa area.  The only hiccup we had was the lack of mini Oreos. It's all I wanted in the world and the gas station we were at did not have them...it was devastating. Luckily the next place we stopped had them. I may or may not have screamed. I bought 2 bags and Alexander made sure to grab some on the way home to avoid another crisis situation.

We were at the house by 7:30. Isn't it cute? The description called it a mansion....not quite, but still cute! It had 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a pool. Perfect for us!

Here's a view from the kitchen facing the front of the house. That table where everybody is sitting turned out to be perfect for games....and we played a LOT of games thanks to Andrea. 

Here's the living room. Plenty of seating and the ceiling was so cool with those beams! I loved how open it was. I told Derrick that if the bedroom layout wasn't so weird, this could be a really cool floorplan for us one day. 

The first night we played a few games and crashed. It had been a long travel day for everybody. Monday morning we hit the beach! The walk-able beach was OK...there wasn't tons of sand but there also were hardly any people so it was a nice trade off. The water felt awesome and we were able to swim way out and find a sandbar. We also played some bocce that Derrick and I brought along. Michael is really good at bocce! He probably won. I kept forgetting my camera, but here's a phone pic of the aqua water! This was our last really good day of sun until Friday.

That afternoon we laid out by the pool. It was really nice to be able to enjoy the beach in the morning and then be lazy by the pool in the afternoon. Holly and I both took afternoon naps by the pool at least twice. Derrick played sunscreen police.

Sunday night for dinner we checked out an Italian place we had seen driving into town and that Rebecca had also read was good. Rebecca is the foodie of the group and had found some awesome restaurants for us to try throughout the week. The place was called A Taste of Italy and it was delicious!! Derrick, Michael, and Alexander split a pizza by the yard. Essentially, it's three pizzas cut in a way that can be lined up on this huge tray so that the entire table can try the different types of pizza. Here's the inside of the restaurant. We were in a hidden back room. So cute!

Here's the pizza by the yard!

 Here is what William, Rebecca, and I got. It's the Sunday special. They only make it on Sunday and apparently the sauce simmers all day on Saturday. I don't know exactly what it was...pasta and lots of meat but it was amazing!

Venice was an adorable little beach town. They had these painted dolphins and turtles lining the sidewalks. 

 After dinner with A Taste of Italy in the background.

I'm not sure what's going on here.

Here is Holly and my favorite Dolphin. It was sponsored by a Venice Radiology practice. It had pretty fish swimming on one side of him and then...

X-Rayed fish on the other side that lined up with the fish on the right side!!! It was the best one.

The next day was more of the same. It was overcast but Holly, and I still went out to the beach. I managed to get sunburned but it's already tanned out. The clouds started moving in during the afternoon so we went bowling and I bowled a career high 125! That was right after a 62 on my first game...I am not consistent! Derrick is still bowling lefty because of shoulder but he still did really well with a high of 128!

That night we went to the Daiquiri deck for dinner and BOGO daiquiris!

And ended the night with gelato!

Sorry for the picture overload! We're only halfway through the week but I'll finish up with another blog post. I still haven't even touched on my new found hobby!