Florida Trip

*Late post*

Jordan and I had the opportunity to take a 4 day trip down to Florida, without the kids, to house hunt and become more familiar with the area. 

We have only been away from our kids one other time, and that was last summer when we traveled to Michigan to see the amazing Coldplay in concert. We were gone for a little over 24 hours that time. To say I was anxious about leaving them, was an understatement.

I tried to plan and prepare as much as I could for my Mom and sister Angela to take care of them. I wrote out instructions (pages because I am crazy like that), contacted friends to come over for playdates with them, had emergency items ready and so on.

Jordan and I set out early Friday morning to the airport. And surprisingly, my anxiety left me. I was fine. It was all the anticipation that was killing me!

Jordan and I flew from Columbus to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Fort Myers. Once we got out of the airport, I realized I was in tropical land... which is unique to the contintental US. Palm trees. Sun and lots of it. Clear skies. Flat land. Heat and humidity. And everything it seemed, looked different. 

We headed to Publix - which is the king kong grocery down there - to get a few necessities for the trip.

We then drove around for a couple of hours locating Sam's Club, the church, the library and the YMCA. Side note about the YMCA... my only experience with any YMCA's has been in Powell. The Powell YMCA is super nice, wonderful child care, all kinds of amenities and a good sized facility. 

Jordan told me that was an exception to the norm.... womp womp woooomp. This YMCA in Fort Myers was small, cramped, no AC, no pools (which kinda makes sense but still..) and the locker rooms were, undesirable to say the least.

Either way, we made our way around thanks to our GPS as we explored a whole new world.

We made it to dinner at a BBQ joint - which is Jordan's favorite kind of place to eat. We ordered this massive meal - potato wedges, cornbread, coleslaw, corn on the cob, ribs, brisket and chicken....(Chico's comped our meals and trip)

During dinner, I began to feel overwhelmed by what this trip really meant. Nothing would be the same going forward. Everything would be new and it would be very painful. I sat eating dinner, on the brink of tears until we made it back to our hotel room and I could let myself feel the sadness and grief of leaving everything I have known and loved.

The next morning we had breakfast and then walked around Bell Tower Shops before meeting with our real estate agent.

Almost all the malls are outdoor in style and this one had some pretty unique and stylish design.

And my Jordan... how handsome is he?? 

After going through all kinds of houses in Cape Coral and Fort Myers, we called it a day and had dinner at Caraba's and then watched a movie at a nearby theatre - World War Z.

The next day we went to church and drove to a neighborhood in Cape Coral called Sandoval. It was awesome. Here in Fort Myers (and other big cities in Florida) most neighborhoods are behind gates and fences. In our temporary house right now, probably 50% of the homes will be vacant until November when the snowbirds come back.

Cape Coral is different, in that, it is city set up in a grid pattern with only a handful of master planned communities. Sandoval, happens to be one of them. There are 4 playgrounds, a kids pool and splash park, and adult pool, fishing pond, lakes, basketball court, tennis courts, fitness center and walking path. We would like to find a house there... and so, we wait!

We bought a van on Monday, before leaving to come back to Columbus. We were both so excited to see the kids and we really, really missed them. They did amazing and did not get sad once that we were gone! We held them extra tight that night, thanked my Mom and Angela and then braced ourselves for three more days of Ohio until we would move to Florida....