Good morning everyone! I feel a renewed sense of self, with only a slight undertone of dread. Ha! No, I had a very wonderful weekend that did help me feel relaxed and carefree. But of course, that has to end. Anyway, let’s go back in tine…

…to Friday, when I left the office at 11:45, got home to finish packing up, then Ash and I hit the road. My cousin and his wife live in a 1920 shotgun style home in Vero Beach and we’ve been trying to get together now for a while. We finally made plans and it worked out. It’s about 5.5. hours so we stopped at a bottle shop in Jacksonville named Beer:30 (lol) and bought about 15 individual cans and got to talking to the guys in there, since they were pretty familiar with Tallahassee breweries. We split two pints there as well then got on with it. We got into Vero around 6 and had plans to meet them for dinner at 7. We walked to American Icon brewery, which is in their old power plant and a very cool building! We got two flights and some really good food. Ash’s pretzel was quite tasty and we had the siracha deviled eggs. Danielle and I both had steak and rice bowls and Ash had a burger. Alan had tacos, I believe. After that, we walked around their downtown, which gets cordoned off on Fridays for beer, food, and art vendors. Very cool! Alan knows a lot about each building and a lot of people; we walked through a tiny venue called the Stamp and stopped to talk to his barber, who was an interesting fellow and not sparing us the contact high; but hey, isn’t that normal these days?

We left there and went to the brewery closest to their house, Walking Tree, which is in an old naval warehouse. Their beer was not as good as the first place but they did have a pre-prohibition style lager, which you NEVER see. That was it for that night; we were exhausted.

The next morning, we went to their place first for the tour; they are avid antique collectors and have large collections of stuff such as rolling pins, old board games, dishware, etc. She has that house nearly perfectly curated, it’s basically a museum. So we hung out there a while then took Alan’s VW bus for a drive to the oceanfront where Vero has a farmer’s market, then down to Ft. Pierce where we went to an art festival, lunch and a brewery. Went back to swap vehicles to go to Sebastian and a brewery there. After, back into town for Mexican and then we ended the night at their place around the fire. We headed out Sunday morning, stopping in Melbourne to eat at El Chico (as we typically do) then to Jax for one more bottle shop then home.

It was a very fun weekend at the same time as I kept thinking about all the crap I have to do. Luckily this weekend has no committees so I am planning to get here early and leave early. I got my daughter registered for Spring break camp and now I am slowly working up the courage to delve into final grading for my online courses. I’m stressed about SO many things right now but I think, if I can get there mentally, making a list will help. As I tell my children, don’t run from problems; tackle them head on. I need to take my own advice!

******

I can’t remember if I shared this with you yet but since it is random today, I will: