Tampa mid to late January

Jackson ended up having to go back to Indiana for a week to train his replacement at work. I stayed back in Tampa with MacKenzie

I took some Pilates classes, went to a new trainer, went to a new dentist for a cleaning and just over all settled in to our new place.

MacKenzie redecorating

MacKenzie waiting on me outside the
 grocery store we walked to

We have a pretty nice Winn Dixie just behind our apartment complex. Even though this is a really nice area, there are still criminals working. I had reusable bags in the cart and was wearing my purse. I walked away from my shopping cart and came back to a guy riffling through my bags looking for my wallet. Luckily our family friend Patty has always warned about leaving your purse in the cart and I am careful to heed that advice. The guy ran away when I asked him how he liked my reusable bags. While this wasn't a huge deal, it did rattle me a bit as I'd never had anything like this happen to me. Jackson was actually with me, but he was in a different part of the store and missed the whole ordeal.

In good news we both had MLK Day off so we lounged by the pool and just relaxed.

Reading by the pool on MLK Day

The folks of Tampa are obsessed with this festival they call Gasparilla. A prate ship comes into the bay and then they have a parade for kids one weekend and a parade for adults the next weekend. We walked down after the kids parade to see the fireworks and things. It was pretty neat.

The pirate ship

Petefish

Grilling in January

We really have enjoyed the weather down here, though.

MacKenzie continues to be adorable.

Unfortunately not everything has gone well. The garage where we park is supposed to be secured. We had our bikes locked up there and as I left one evening to pick Jackson up from dropping off his rental car for work I noticed that our lock had been cut and the bike had been stolen. WHAT!!!

Missing a bike! UGH!

We also have not been impressed with how the Mexican restaurant across the street, The Green Lemon, turns into a night club 5 times a week. The street is so loud and after an attempt of a purse theft and the theft of our bike we were on edge. Then our door appeared to have been messed with and we had to have the locks replaced. All of that together lead us to contact the building manager to explore the ability to move out early.

MacK soaking in some sun

We'd not officially decided to throw in the towel until the wild weekend of Gasparilla. Our apartment complex threw a party that we did go by. As the morning went on the neighbors blared music and the wild antics outside were hard to ignore. We were going to be in Naples early the next week anyway to take Susan to the airport so we decided to just leave early.

Getting in the Gaparilla spirit with a
dog cookie

It is not a good thing that 3 weeks in and we are already looking to escape our new home. We decided that we were likely better off cutting our losses and moving out. Our last day in Tampa will be March 9th. We've been staged in Naples (again).

Back in Naples!

We did have to return to Tampa for a couple of days as Jackson went to Orlando, but once he was home we didn't know why were there when we could be in our happier place of Naples so we came back down. It stinks that Tampa is not going to work out, but Jackson has talked to his boss who doesn't care where we live in Florida. We now are looking for places to rent down here. Things will be in limbo for a while as we wrap things up in Tampa, make visits back home to Indiana, I go to Savannah for work and Jackson is all over Florida for work. Tax season will be in full swing soon and we are just trying to get as ready as we can. Life isn't always easy, but we're glad to do it together. 

The move to Tampa

January 5, 2019 finally arrived. You know how you have a date for something and it feels so far away and then it is that day and you felt like it would never happen? That was how moving day felt for me.

Moving day--up before the sun! 

We did a great job. Jackson mainly unloaded the truck and I began sorting through boxes. Susan arrived in the afternoon and brought MacKenzie (and a ton of our stuff that had been staged at her condo). We didn't even argue. It was amazing. He must have slipped me a pill when I wasn't looking or something. ;)

Fancy living room!

We finally took a break at around 3 to get some lunch/dinner. We kept working all evening after that! No rest for the....moving!

Lunch break at Chipotle

Sunday we made the questionable decision to hit the local IKEA to get some dressers. On a Sunday afternoon. We went to IKEA. I just want to make that clear. We did survive. We ended up with so many pieces that we had to have them deliver it the next day! Whoops!

Basking in the sun and wind

Luckily, we had the internet up and running and my Ball State South campus was open for business on Monday morning as usual. Jackson spent most of the day dealing with deliveries and building IKEA furniture.

Building furniture

Once it was quitting time for me we grabbed our bikes and headed to the waterfront for a ride.

PM bike ride

New views

Importantly, MacKenzie is settling in and finding new places to lose her tennis balls.

Checking out her new toy bin

We got our residency established which was the worst process I've ever had to endure. Luckily I'd read about all of the hoops online so I brought 9,000 pieces of information and we got everything done in a single visit which may be a record for them. It cost us just under $700 to plate our car and get new licenses. There goes our savings from having no state income tax! GRR!

New plates!

Jackson insists that the balcony is a great office space for him.

New "office" 

Keeping an eye on things

We've also taken advantage of the fire pits and swimming pool in the complex.

Because when you have a fire pit...

Relaxing

Watching the world go by

Nice setup here

We've enjoyed getting out and exploring on our bikes.

Exploring the new 'hood

We finally got all unpacked and got some furniture like real adults!

Kitchen all put together

Finally got my closet all sorted out

Appreciating the new rug

Petefish B&B now open!

MacKenzie has put out all of her beds and made herself right at home which is not surprising.

A little chilly so she's on her
new heating pad

She even visited the local dog store and got new accessories as she adjusts to her new city.

MacK got a pirate collar to celebrate
Gaspirilla

I love this dog. And the man, too. 

These were all the happenings between January 5-14th. Jackson had all that time off so we had ample time to settle in before "real life" picked back up.

Waiting to move...

We had about a week between returning from Europe and when we moved in to our place in Tampa. I worked and caught up on things. We also made the most of the sunny days.

Hanging at the pool

Adorable sun-seekers 

Susie sinking a big putt! 

We really like watching the golfers come through. MacKenzie barks at them. Jackson heckles them. I cheer for them. It is a thing.

Chocolate chip scone! YUM! 

I have a slight addiction to Skillets, a breakfast place with multiple locations around town.

Homemade caprese salad!

We did still cook at home some, too. Thanks for hosting us, Susie!

Bath, England

I took Mom to the Thermae Bath Spa in August after a high recommendation from Susie. It was so incredible that I decided then that Jackson needed to experience it, too. We packaged this trip so that we had time for a quick overnight in Bath and a day at the spa. It was wholly worth it.

We woke up a bit early so we wandered into town and grabbed some coffee and just relaxed before it was time to get pampered. I could tell Jackson was nervous about this experience.

Coffee date! YUM! 

It was finally time to hit the spa so we got all checked in, changed into our "bathing costumes" and robes and headed out to explore the facility. As I had anticipated, Jackson loved it. There was just levels and levels of places to explore. There are warm pools, hot tubs, mineral spas, steam saunas, dry saunas, cold baths, and the list goes on. We explore for hours before it was time for our lunch.

Cappuccinos are a must here

LEMON WATER?! BLESS.

I had the salmon because it was amazing last
time and it was amazing again. Jackson had
a delicious chicken dish. 

I had the sorbet again. I repeated my order from last time
exactly. I'm predictable. Jackson had a lemon dessert. He loved it.

We went back to have some more time in the spas before it was time for our massages. I must admit that while my massage was good, my massage the time before was beyond. Jackson loved his and he hates massages so that was a real win. We finished up there and got back on the road to return to car to London's Heathrow Airport before heading into the city for one last evening.

We got all the way to the airport with no real issues minus a few wrong turns due to wonky GPS, but then released we needed to fuel up the car before returning it. We found a gas station on the other side of the airport and made our way to it. That part was fine. Then it was getting very dark and we were tired and still driving on the opposite side of the road from what we're used to and long story short I drove down a road the wrong way and scared the crap out of us and about 5 other vehicles who were certain that someone got to kicking off the new year early and was drunk driving. Luckily, there were no injuries and I was able to turn around without any assistance from the law. I've never been happier to return a car in all my life.

We took a shuttle back to the airport and promptly got on the wrong train. Son of a gun!! Things had been going so well. Instead of getting to our hotel in about 30 minutes it took closer to 75. By then we were bushed and the idea of walking down to the river to see the fireworks only to walk back and have to be up early for a flight was so unappealing that we decided to just hole up in our hotel room and watch them on television.

A sweet setup for our "honeymoon" 

We actually stayed at the same hotel where we'd been before so we knew the neighborhood. Jackson went out and found an open restaurant with the best fish-n-chips I'd ever had. He swore I would not have eaten it if I'd seen the rundown restaurant, but this meal was legit.

Jackson tracked down a final batch of fish-n-chips for
our NYE meal!

We got cleaned up after a day of adventures and crawled into bed to watch the BBC's coverage of the fireworks. They were amazing. We could hear them from our opened balcony doors. We listened to the revelers walk by for a bit then drifted off to sleep. We had an early flight at another airport across town so we'd be taking an Uber for that one. Thank goodness we didn't have to get on a train again! Bah!

How London looked that evening

We got to our flight without issue. London is just such a huge place that you forget it will take an hour without traffic to get to an airport. We made it without issue, got on our to Fort Lauderdale and got picked up by the cutest little airport shuttle, MacKenzie (with help from Grammy). It was so nice to take one flight and be done with it. A quick drive across Alligator Alley is cake compared to waiting for a connecting flight. We had such a fun trip!