S and I returned Saturday afternoon from our relaxing trip to Florida. Just a few highlights to share:
1. On Thursday, we decided to sit as close to the ocean as possible, so rented a ‘private’ umbrella– our hotel only controlled a portion of the beach leading up to the ocean, and the rest was public property, with private vendors renting out umbrellas. Soon after we sat down, I noticed that the person next to us was being served by our hotel… and I knew that our hotel didn’t serve anyone else unless they were on the hotel property… so I immediately told S that I thought a celebrity was sitting next to us. S was unconvinced, and said it was just someone who tipped well. 5 minutes later, someone asked to take a picture with the person, and only THEN did S believe me that indeed, none other than Mr. Chris Rock was sitting next to us. For those of you who don’t know who he is, go here. Unlike some others (although there weren’t too many), we didn’t ask for a picture or an autograph– clearly the guy just wanted a calm quiet day on the beach, and we were happy to try to help give it to him. He did a show in Clearwater or Tampa that night, and another the next night. The only picture I took, was to show just how close we sat to him the whole day:
Our umbrella was the one with the white towels- Chris Rock has the black hat on and is under the umbrella next to ours. I will say we were close enough to hear snippets of his conversations on his cell phone- not that I was trying to listen, mind you- but it was pretty funny. He sounded like he was discussing material for an upcoming show, and in another call, it sounded like he was negotiating a deal. Seriously, though, I tried not to listen!!! And, for what it’s worth, I didn’t hear him swear once.
2. Our hotel was the site for a bunch of weddings while we were there. I took a picture of one which took place right outside where our room was– they had the hotel draw a heart in the sand, and then got married in the middle of the heart. All together, now, awwwwwwwwwwwww….:
Heart without people
Heart with the happy couple. The guys all wore kilts, which I thought was actually pretty cool.
3. On July 4th, the restaurants all booked up pretty early, as did the bbq at our hotel (which we didn’t want to go to anyway- they didn’t have much that I could eat or that S could eat- lots of pork products, lots of seafood, etc.), so we ended up ordering room service, and catching the sunset for the first and only time from our balcony. Every other night it was either cloudy, or we missed it! Here was our view:
We also got to listen to the band playing at the hotel’s bbq- as it was taking place right below us:
Tables all set up for the bbq
The band is on the left.
We felt very spoiled! To top it off, although the “official” fireworks were on the other side of the island, there were tons of unofficial (i.e. illegal) fireworks all up and down the coastline that we could see from our window after sunset. The displays were actually really impressive– HUGE fireworks, almost as good as the real thing, and all from our balcony! I didn’t get a good shot- here was one of my attempts:
It was really fun, and a great way to spend our last night in Florida. 
4. Little Miss P clearly loved her vacation time, too. She was quite the active little squirmer, and S and I had fun watching her and feeling her move all around. S finally saw one of her “full body squiggles” as I like to call them, when my whole stomach moves up and down in waves all over. As S says, he almost fell out of his chair- he couldn’t quite believe it, and we both couldn’t stop laughing at his reaction. I think he thought it was like watching a sea creature emerge from the ocean.
Speaking of Baby P, I’m now 30 weeks. She is almost 3 pounds, and is close to 16 inches. All of the websites we look at regarding her development talked mostly about me this week- about how my joints are becoming looser, and it is likely that I will be clumsier than usual. This is saying a lot- I’m already not the most graceful person- our dance instructor for the wedding actually nicknamed me “Graceful Greta.” True story. (and for those of you who were actually at our wedding, no, we didn’t do the dance we were taught by our teacher- we chickened out.) S and I actually witnessed this newly-extra-clumsy status firsthand while on vacation- for the first time in this pregnancy, I tripped a little stepping down from a curb, and, much to my total surprise (because normally, I would have recovered just fine), I fell. S had one hand so caught me for the most part, and then I reached out my other hand, and the rest of the fall was absorbed there. No other part of my body touched the ground, and I was absolutely fine, but it did scare me. I suddenly felt very vulnerable, and I just wanted to immediately lay down so that I could feel the baby move again. Luckily, she moved shortly thereafter so I didn’t have to worry, but it was definitely a reminder that business is not going to continue as usual for the next few weeks. I also suddenly became grateful that I’m pregnant in the summer- everyone tells me how bad they feel for me with the heat, but I’m really glad I don’t have to navigate snowy/icy Chicago streets during the winter. If I’m ever pregnant in the winter, I might have to construct a giant bubble for me to walk in, to assure that I don’t injury myself or the baby.
In other developmental stuff, the books also talk about how around this time, I’m going to start feeling like I can’t get enough to breathe. That actually happened while on vacation, too (and I’m sure the humid Florida air didn’t help!). It was a strange, almost claustrophobic feeling that I just wasn’t getting enough air– I kept reminding myself that it was just the baby moving up, and that I’m totally fine, but it was disconcerting. I’m sure it’s just one more thing I’ll get used to!
Other than that, S and I are easing back into our respective workplaces this week. So far, so good, but we already definitely miss being on vacation. We can’t complain, though- it was a wonderful trip.
Hope everyone had a great July 4th holiday weekend!!!!!
