Verve Evolving: Getaway

tired aiplane selfie (no filter ;)

For my husband's (!still feels weird to say) birthday this year (back in May! forever with the delayed blogging) I surprised him with a whirlwind trip to Key Largo, Florida. It was a long long winter here and our January getaway felt like forever ago.. when we left it was about 20 degrees C in Ottawa and almost 30 C in Key Largo. So not a crazy difference but I think it was much cooler when I booked the trip.

It was a crazy late night Visa situation. Could I afford it not really - but sometimes you just gotta 'yolo' it am I right? I found this 'deal' which involved all kinds of flight connections.

We would fly to Miami, FL and figure out a shuttle bus situation to the Keys - and then stay at this 'affordable 2 star off the highway for (almost) two days. Bayside Inn Key Largo!

So it was a Saturday night and my love had just come home from being out - so he was feeling good and it was about 2AM (we had to leave for our early flight to Miami around 4am and he had no idea yet - so fun right?) He knew I asked him to clear his schedule until tuesday - .He later told me he had assumed we'd be going to the Caves in Gatineau - something nearby - and at one point expressed concern that I was going drag him off to some 'silent yoga retreat' - hah! He was very cool about everything - he said he was cool with whatever as long as could drink beers and play guitar

So after a complex blind-folded game of 'guess where we're going' we were off on our adventure (we had so much fun but in hindsight: would we do it again? probably not! the travel time was practically equal to the hotel time) But be sure to checkout the lil' video I made at the end!)

play n' scroll!

trippy wing

I heart terra cotta roofs - you know you're somewhere warm when

oops! 2 hours until the next Keys shuttle :S

Things I wanna remember:

-our sarcastic and very hard to understand shuttle bus driver

-'Scrappy' - the hotel mascot

-having the pool pretty much to ourselves all day

-meeting that only other couple at the pool : it was also his birthday and she surprised him too! I snapped an instax of them and gave it to them as a memento :)

-'Snooks' the restaurant next door - known for celebrating the sunset every night - one lucky person gets to 'sound the horn' by pulling a rope

-that sunset though- there was a feeling in the air, everyone got up and snapped photos of it, of each other, I honestly got overwhelmed with gratitude.

-that liquor depot that sold everything you could ever imagine - I indulged in a pre-mixed malibu rum drink in a bag (yep - with a faucet!) and a 3pack of cigarellos (a spur of the moment thing - I don't smoke normally!)

-just doing nothing with my love!

-that crazy flight home : Miami > NYC>TO>OTTAWA

I am officially obsessed with palm trees - probably because they don't grow where I live and they represent vacation, warmth, beach, etc! I actually got a palm tree tattoo not long ago I will have to share soon :)

let the day drinking begin - happy birthday my love!

and because y'all are dying to know what I wore ;P

obsessed with that white romper! tennis anyone?

scrappy!

vacation video :)

psst: they may both be playing at the same time: it's the same song as above but you may want to scroll to top and pause the first one (!) enjoy!

ORRRR :open it in a new tab?

For the 3rd year in a row - a group of us enjoyed Lac La Peche in Quebec.

It was the last weekend of June and the weather was seriously perfect!

It's this peninsula we get all to ourselves - and a fairly easy canoe ride in ( I wanna say 5km?)

The tents get pitched in the back and I must admit the mosquitos were relentless but way better out on the 'communal rock' I call it - out of the woods leading into the water -where we spend all our time anyway - fire, chilling, music, swimming! I made a little video you can checkout at the end and get a visual of our sweet surroundings. Still really into making lil' iMovies of basically any getaway :)