This past month, my company exhibited at a trade show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I worked at the convention center for the Winter AUSA Expo. Below is my little stand - this was my home for the week. I managed the booth and explained about our lightweight, composite armor. Cool story: two guys stopped by, and like usual, I gave them my spiel about our body armor plates. They proceeded to tell me that I was the smartest person at this convention because no one else knew the bullets their plates could stop, or the composition of materials. I was shocked! I can't imagine marketing a product and not knowing anything about it. I was pretty proud of myself.
Then after the work was done... I got to play with my friend Lacey and her adorable baby June for another 5 days - in the SUNNY, 85-degree weather!! It was such an oasis of paradise! We spent our days lounging around this pool:
Where little Junie had her first swim!
And then later, we ventured to a new hotel closer to the beach... where we had a very unfortunate experience that I'm sure we will never forget! First, they wouldn't let us check-in until the clock struck 4pm. (Despite our massive load of baggage, tired baby and exhausted pleading.) So we made the best of it and hung out on the beach instead.
By the time we came back, our room was ready! But it was on the second floor AND the elevator was broken. Again, I tried to be optimistic and pretended like carrying 200 pounds of suitcases, a stroller and a car-seat up a flight of stairs was my exercise for the day. (It really was no big deal... things just started building one each other.) Once arriving in our room we quickly realized the door didn't lock, the bathtub didn't have a plug, and there was an old, creepy man who somehow seemed to appear everywhere we went. Things were not looking so bright and sunny at this point.
Last straw... the baby crib we had called and reserved weeks ago was "no where to be found." The emotionless Slovakian girl (I'll call her "Helga"), who was running the place, claimed that they never had a crib and we clearly must not have reserved one. Confused and frustrated... we asked to speak to her manager. But she said no, we had to wait until 6pm. We pleaded a few more times to talk to the manager on the phone... but Helga refused to give in. Well, 6pm came... and went. No manager and No crib. We were starting to freak out. We wanted to leave since there was no place for baby June to sleep and it was already past her bedtime, but since we booked the room online, we were afraid of having to pay a huge cancellation fee. Once the manager finally arrived, we found out that they actually DID have a crib... someone was just using it that night (even though WE had RESERVED it). Ugh. Long story short - we did NOT stay at this hotel (and we got all our money back!) Lacey's husband (and booking.com) saved the day. We escaped this horrible nightmare called "The Beach Plaza 3 Palms" and enjoyed the remaining days of our vacation at the Hyatt.
Despite our torturous adventure that night... we still enjoyed a nice vacation filled with: a buffet of the freshest fruit (where we hoarded leftovers for days, haha), late-night snacks, pool-side lunches, yacht-side dinners (Steven Spielberg's to be exact!), the Bachelor, baby lizards and wild iguanas, sunbathing, walking everywhere, shopping, palm trees and ocean waves, and we even had a sunset photo shoot!! It was a little overcast so there wasn't much sun (+ my hair started out curly but the wind straightened it out in like 2 seconds)... but the pictures still turned out super cute! Here are some favorites:
(If you want to see a few more pics of these cute girls, click here!)
We loved our week in southern Florida. It was such a great escape from the Ohio cold! And we really lucked out with the weather. The weekend before we arrived it was 50, windy and cold. And the day we flew out, it was pouring rain all day. But in between it was sunny, 80-85 degrees every day, and only dropped to 70 at night. It was perfect. Oh and I have to say that I'm super proud of myself for wearing sunscreen every.single.day! This is a big deal.
Oh, and some things I learned on our trip:
Then after the work was done... I got to play with my friend Lacey and her adorable baby June for another 5 days - in the SUNNY, 85-degree weather!! It was such an oasis of paradise! We spent our days lounging around this pool:
Where little Junie had her first swim!
And then later, we ventured to a new hotel closer to the beach... where we had a very unfortunate experience that I'm sure we will never forget! First, they wouldn't let us check-in until the clock struck 4pm. (Despite our massive load of baggage, tired baby and exhausted pleading.) So we made the best of it and hung out on the beach instead.
By the time we came back, our room was ready! But it was on the second floor AND the elevator was broken. Again, I tried to be optimistic and pretended like carrying 200 pounds of suitcases, a stroller and a car-seat up a flight of stairs was my exercise for the day. (It really was no big deal... things just started building one each other.) Once arriving in our room we quickly realized the door didn't lock, the bathtub didn't have a plug, and there was an old, creepy man who somehow seemed to appear everywhere we went. Things were not looking so bright and sunny at this point.
Last straw... the baby crib we had called and reserved weeks ago was "no where to be found." The emotionless Slovakian girl (I'll call her "Helga"), who was running the place, claimed that they never had a crib and we clearly must not have reserved one. Confused and frustrated... we asked to speak to her manager. But she said no, we had to wait until 6pm. We pleaded a few more times to talk to the manager on the phone... but Helga refused to give in. Well, 6pm came... and went. No manager and No crib. We were starting to freak out. We wanted to leave since there was no place for baby June to sleep and it was already past her bedtime, but since we booked the room online, we were afraid of having to pay a huge cancellation fee. Once the manager finally arrived, we found out that they actually DID have a crib... someone was just using it that night (even though WE had RESERVED it). Ugh. Long story short - we did NOT stay at this hotel (and we got all our money back!) Lacey's husband (and booking.com) saved the day. We escaped this horrible nightmare called "The Beach Plaza 3 Palms" and enjoyed the remaining days of our vacation at the Hyatt.
Despite our torturous adventure that night... we still enjoyed a nice vacation filled with: a buffet of the freshest fruit (where we hoarded leftovers for days, haha), late-night snacks, pool-side lunches, yacht-side dinners (Steven Spielberg's to be exact!), the Bachelor, baby lizards and wild iguanas, sunbathing, walking everywhere, shopping, palm trees and ocean waves, and we even had a sunset photo shoot!! It was a little overcast so there wasn't much sun (+ my hair started out curly but the wind straightened it out in like 2 seconds)... but the pictures still turned out super cute! Here are some favorites:
(If you want to see a few more pics of these cute girls, click here!)
We loved our week in southern Florida. It was such a great escape from the Ohio cold! And we really lucked out with the weather. The weekend before we arrived it was 50, windy and cold. And the day we flew out, it was pouring rain all day. But in between it was sunny, 80-85 degrees every day, and only dropped to 70 at night. It was perfect. Oh and I have to say that I'm super proud of myself for wearing sunscreen every.single.day! This is a big deal.
Oh, and some things I learned on our trip:
- Babies take work. Like, a lot a lot. And they require so.much.stuff.
- Childless people like me are super selfish - sleeping, showering, relaxing whenever we want... just living our lives around our needs, making our own schedules. Seriously, I felt guilty when I realized how selfish I am on a daily basis.
- Everywhere you go, people.love.babies - strangers will touch your baby's face, talk to your baby, and generally be nicer to you... except on airplanes. Then they avoid you like the plague.
- But despite how much attention babies require... they are also the sweetest, cutest, bundles of joy. Baby smiles and giggles are probably my favorite thing, ever.
- Lastly, when two women travel together with a partially Asian baby, people start to wonder... hahaha
No comments:
Post a Comment