Visiting Don, Amy, and Abby in St Pete Beach - 2024/03/16

Every year for the past few years, Donald has a conference down in Florida in St. Pete Beach! On the weekend when they're done with all their meetings, we get invited to come visit! 

It's a 2 hour drive with traffic to St Pete from Orlando, so we better get some sustenance for the drive. A CFA breakfast! I like how their community TV lets you upload pictures immediately to it now!  

And it keeps some of the older photos too. 

This one has 2 of our photos on one screen, but the most I've seen is 3! The goal is to get 4 or more! 

Ready for the drive...

To this awesome beach side hotel! Donald upgraded to the suite so he'd have this view of the water every day. 

And the patio door slides open for a great view! Except when the neighbors are smoking on their porch. 

And guess what else! Abby is here! She came down earlier in the week to hang out in the sunshine! 

Let's go to the sand! 

There were a couple nets set up for beach volleyball and I have a beach volleyball in the truck! It's been a while since we've played, but this was a lot of fun. I miss playing. 

As does Theresa. It's a great way to get cardio without it feeling like exercise. 

Here we go! Big spike! 

I'm not going into the water, but the kids really wanted to. Thankfully Donald and Abby were happy to take them. 

They're having fun! 

Floating out in the water was a giant inflatable obstacle course! Looked fun, but not for $40 a person per hour! 

But you know what is free? The Zing Ray Zip Line!

We got our harnesses set up and jumped off the 3 story tower! 

That was a lot of fun! Who is hungry? I know I am! 

At the hotel there's a Pizza Hut, but I think we can do better. 

Like the 1200 Chophouse! This restaurant opens at 5pm and lines start an hour ahead of time. That's because there's very limited seating and if you don't get into the first round, you're waiting for someone to finish! Another hour at least! 

Even though we only arrived 15 minutes before 5, we got the second to last table! Whew! Sadly Abby has to head to the airport to go back home and Amy volunteered to take her. That leave us 5! 

Ian has fond memories of the truffle fries and just wanted to eat that for his dinner. We ordered 2 and were surprised by how big the plates were! And boy were they fantastic! 

We remembered the bruschetta to be very raw oniony last time, but this time it was better. Very good! 

Loving our choices so far!

Instead of getting the giant tomahawk steaks like last time (the prices have skyrocketed, 1 Tomahawk for $120), I opted for the ribeye. 

The flavor of the steak was excellent. All around the table, we thought the flavor was great. But the cooking was a little disappointing this time. For an expensive steakhouse, we expected to get the meat cooked to our liking. My rare steak was more like a medium. Theresa and Don's medium steaks were approaching well-done. 

But the company is more important than the food, and we were having a good time hanging out together. 

Going back to the hotel, this duck family lives in the streams and pools that flow around the resort. 

They're so adorable! 

Made it back just in time for sunset. 

And we've got a great view. 

Another beautiful day in Florida! 

Alli asking for a phone to take photos. 

Goodbye sun! 

Thanks Don, Amy, and Abby for inviting us all to come visit!