A Very Chilly Penn State Weekend

Friday night after work we headed up to Penn State for the weekend.

The fire was going when we arrived. 

 Saturday morning we went to one of Mom & Steve's favorites in State College, The Waffle Shop.

 This was just a random Saturday, and the line was out the door!  This is the main reason I've never been before, imagine the line on a game weekend -- this is why we have game day breakfast at home.

Our first time at the Waffle Shop.

We made a quick trip over to the Mt. Nittany Mall & got home just before a small snow.

 Some of us watched sports, while others of us took a nap and watched The Wedding Date (it's time to start getting in all the wedding movies) :) 

We had an early dinner downtown at The Deli before heading to the hockey game. 

Penn State lost 3-2 to Boston College but it was an exciting game & we all had a good time. 

 Coach Franklin came through briefly bringing the recruits by

When we got home we read on the internet that two more recruits committed to PSU that night. 

Trying to catch his fiancé a t-shirt and modeling the lion gloves. 

We were suppose to go downtown for drinks after the game but after the less than five minute beyond freezing walk to the car, we decided to be lazy at home instead. 

 Sunday morning we slept in, relaxed and worked on honeymoon planning to escape from the freezing temperatures outside

 Nash was loving it

Enjoying a lazy Sunday. 

 We went to Cracker Barrel for brunch -- I haven't been in a few years. I have tons of memories going out to eat here every visit to Virginia when I was little.  They still have the same little candy sticks...

… and this same silly little game on the table.  I beat Derek. Three Times. 

We packed up to head home and that was it!  I love Penn State on the crowded, busy, crazy game weekends but I also love it on the quiet, relaxing non-game weekends.  I slept in until 9:00am yesterday, it was the best!!

Only 8 more months until college football is back :) 

(only 3 months if you count the Blue/White game!)

Xo C

Traveling Thursday: "Catching Up" Florida Trip 2013

Last March, Derek and I headed down to Florida for an eight day trip between Fort Myers, Orlando and West Palm Beach.  At Derek's holiday party last year he won a free two day trip to The Breakers in West Palm Beach (including airfare) so we decided to extend the trip so we could visit my Grandma too since I usually make a trip to see her every single spring.

Day 1: Friday, March 1st - Fort Myers

Derek and I traveled individually to the Hilton right next to JFK the night before; he didn't get in from work until late so I got take out, had some wine and watched reality TV.  Anyways we were up at 3:45am and headed to the airport of smooth travels to Florida! 

Today was the traditional "first day in Florida" day at Grandma's -- gocery store, liquor store, pizza pick up from Heavenly Pizza for lunch, and some golf cart rides.  We had dinner & drinks at the Pub in Del Tura with Grandma and turned in early.. we'd been up for what felt like forever.

Day 2: Saturday, March 2nd - Fort Myers

 

It was chilly, in the 60's, so we took a trip over to the hot tub and then went to Manatee Park with Ryan and actually got to see some manatees!

 

In the evening we went over to Aunt Gini & Uncle Tom's house for a BBQ and enjoying time out on their new leni. Aunt Julie, Uncle Jeff, Casey & Jake were also in town so we have a fun visit.

Day 3: Sunday, March 3rd - Disney World

We had a LONG day, we woke up at 8am and hit all four parks today. 

 First stop was Animal Kingdom, where Ryan used to work!

The boys went on a roller coaster, which I wasn't into, so I had a coke float, at 10am.  

We all went on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride and there were a ton of animals out today!  

Next up was Hollywood Studios. The boys did a few rides while a watched the Beauty and the Beast Show, alone. We had lunch here, wandered around a bit and all did Star Tours together. 

Derek with his "first visit button" before we left the hotel, The Beach Club Resort, for Epcot.  

We drank our way around the world, the boys made it to all 12 countries, I made it to most of them.  We missed our dinner reservation in Germany for them to accomplish this task. 

Derek & I went over to the Magic Kingdom for "Extra Magic Hours" and it was perfect, there were no crowds, no lines and it felt like we had the park to ourselves.

Day 4: Monday, March 4th - Disney World

 We started the morning with a character breakfast at the Cape May Cafe at the hotel

 and got to meet a couple of the characters

We explored the hotel a little bit and got a drink at Hurricane Hanna's at the hotel 

We met Mickey & Pluto before going on some rides

We checked out the new Fantasyland and did some shopping but our feet were pretty sore from all the walking (in the wrong shoes) the day before so we headed back to the hotel to meet Ryan and go back to Fort Myers

Day 5: Tuesday, March 5th - Fort Myers

We finally had a warm day for a pool day! We had some drinks and lunch by the pool and played shuffleboard/horseshoes.

We went out to dinner with Grandma to Bianca's, the best restaurant in Fort Myers.  It was our last night in Fort Myers, so of course we went back to the Pub.

Day 6: Wednesday, March 6th -- West Palm Beach

We packed up in Fort Myers and headed over to West Palm Beach for our stay at The Breakers.  We took a rental car from airport to airport to get there. 

 Our room was ready (with a chocolate display waiting) and we checked right in before heading down for lunch. 

We enjoyed the beautiful property including beach/pools/drinks brought right out to us. 

We went to the Flagler Steakhouse at The Breakers for dinner and it was possibly one of our favorite meals, ever.

Day 7: Thursday, March 7th - West Palm Beach

 We went to the spa for massages

 Had another fantastic meal

and spent the rest of the day at the beach and pools. 

 Dinner at the Seafood Bar at the hotel 

The bar was a fish tank underneath and fish swam right under our drinks.

Day 8: Friday, March 8th - West Palm Beach

 We went to Riviera Beach Marina for a boat cruise

 We saw a bunch of yachts, mansions and beautiful scenery.

The cruise had a full bar, too. 

 Once we docked, we went to a tiki bar at the Marina for lunch

We found out our flight was pretty delayed so we took our time at lunch and rented a car to do some shopping at Singer Island and City Place.  We did the rest of our waiting at the beach bar at the hotel before heading home.

Xo C