Belated blog about the land of boiled peanuts

I have no excuses for waiting so long to write this blog post...well, not true, I could come up with many, but for the sake of catching up on some belated blogging, I'll spare our readers the list and reflect on a sunny week that Steve and I embarked on in May 2010. The mission was one beach side wedding in Florida (yay Caryn and Logan!), the adventure ended up including some serious Spanish moss action, 3 days under a tin roof with dear friends (yay Ariel and Erin!), and the sun that we are (yet again) craving in yonder rainy BC.

Phase 1 - Take a red eye to southern Florida (see stripping off of sweater image above in the FL heat), rent a car and drive to Sarasota (home of Mr. John Ringling of the famous family and a whole gamut of retirees), conquer beach, park, and fruity sunset drinks, and stay at great Airbnb.com find.




Phase 2 - Drive a couple hundred miles north to Tallahassee (in "the deep south") lose count of the Confederate flags seen, but collect photo montage from the passenger seat of some purely southern gems.




Phase 3 - Get to know Tallahassee and surrounding area a bit by spending time with dear friends, visit family farm, eat biscuits, gravy, and grits, and promise to come back soon.




Phase 4 - Leave dear friends after 3 wonderful days and nights, drive back down south in one day, meet up with more great friends for wedding fun, and work, daily, on acquiring enough freckles to make the Vancouverites envious. :)


It is a week of sun, dear friends, and fun times that we still think of fondly, and probably will even moreso now that the weather is changing. Only now, we'll start dreaming of beaches in Thailand. That said, we were advised upon moving to Vancouver that in order to make it through the winters, you have to go somewhere hot. We've got this coming year covered, but thoughts of returning to the south for a Talla"classy" visit have crossed our minds more than once. Never did get to try any of those roadside boiled peanuts...

Bienvenue chez S &S!

I'm getting excited for our second venture into the land of airbnb.com this coming weekend. This is a fabulous site that we discovered on http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/ a while ago in which people advertise rooms, futons, couches, attached bungalos, etc. in their homes to travelers for cheap. In May, we stayed in Sarasota, FL in a lovely spare bedroom for the low price of $27/night. It was clean, easy to access with a yummy breakfast in the fridge for us the next morning, and it had the feeling of a real home away from home - what's not to love? Well, this weekend we are embarking on the "other end" of airbnbing - and that's hosting someone. This summer, we've had many requests to stay (after all, it's the best time to be in the 'Couv), but keeping in mind that the summer is not only busy with goings-on, shows, rehearsals, papers to write, dinner on the beach with friends and family, we've allowed ourselves to be picky when it comes to accepting requests. But this weekend, we've got some busy evenings and a spare key, so we're giving our first guest a go...and the money that we make from the weekend (less expensive than a Vancouver hotel, but, by no means cheap) will go directly into our trip fund.

Wish us luck! Hopefully our guest is happy with what she gets - a comfy futon, some snuggly cats, great transit - and she passes on the good word. Bienvenue chez S & S!

140 days till liftoff!