Whew, we made it! 2,914 miles later, we have finally reached our destination of Pembroke Pines, Florida (it's 20 minutes outside of Miami). Overall it was a good experience to look back on, but I will NEVER do it again. Thank goodness for airplanes and frequent flyer miles. LOL. Anywho, this is a very exciting time in mine and Alex's life. We are finally able to start building our life together now that we are permanently in Florida. For the time being we are staying in his room that he was previously renting before he moved to California, but we should find our own place within the next couple of weeks if we are lucky. His roommates are very nice, but I've had my fair share of living with stinky boys and the only stinky boy I want to live with is Alex. Haha.
As promised here are some details and photos of our looooong trip across the United States:
We left Bakersfield on Jan. 30th to venture about 2 hours to Thousand Oaks, Ca. where we stopped for the night to see my second beautiful niece Madison Grace Fisher be born. She was 6lbs 10oz and 19in. Such a stunningly gorgeous baby. My camera died before I could get anymore of her :( We then had a wonderful celebration dinner, got a good night's rest and off we went the next morning. Thank you to my wonderful family who made the last few months so wonderful. I love you guys.
From Thousand Oaks, Ca. we drove 15 hours through Arizona to El Paso, Texas on the I-10. We were exactly four hours away from reaching what was supposed to be our destination in Fort Stockton, Tx. when we suddenly got stopped 10 minutes after we crossed the New Mexico border due to an accident for FOUR hours. By the time we got out of the closure it was so late we just looked up an alternate hotel and stayed in El Paso. Here are some photos of this part our journey:
Tuscon, AZ. (Below)
Alex's "We should have flown," face. Haha.
Phoenix, AZ.
Beautiful sunset in Arizona.
The next morning we woke up around 10:30 and checked out of our hotel. We were on the road by 11am and drove another 15 hours to play catch up on the four hours we lost the night before. We drove through all of Texas in ONE day, and if you've ever been to Texas, you know the state is just as big as it's residents. Hehehe. Today our plan was to get from El Paso, TX. to Baton Rouge, LA. Tiring as usual but this day turned out to be a more pleasant experience than the day before. Nice weather, sunny with no rain. Okay enough chatter here are some photos:
Bored. Haha.
If you can guess what that says, you win. LOL.
About 30 miles outside of San Antonio, TX.
At this point we are actually out of Texas and in Louisiana. It was so foggy and swampy. Lucky me I got to drive through it all.
We finally made it to our hotel around 2:30 in the morning, and in desperate need of some R&R. The next morning we ate an east coast country breakfast at the Cracker Barrel and it was delicious! I had sweet potato pancakes with scrambled eggs and sausage, and Alex had chicken and dumplings with eggs in a sourdough nest. YUM! Today our goal was to drive around 8-9hrs from Baton Rouge to McIntosh, Florida to visit Alex's parents Friday-Sunday. This was the easiest day of all, but we were eager to stay in one place for more than one night. We traveled through the rest of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama to Florida. I must admit, Florida is definitely the nicest state I had seen thus far. Crisp clean air, magnificent blue skies, and green as far as the eye can see. We arrived at my future in-law's place and I was absolutely blown away with how sweet everyone was, but more so their beautiful house Alex's dad built, and a loving lush garden his mother tends to. A beautiful place deep in the forest surrounded by a small town called Micanopy. After a full night's rest on Friday, we toured Micanopy (and it's antique shops, you know I loved that!). I absolutely fell in love with this family and town. I could not be more lucky to have these people to call my in-laws one day.
This is just entering Florida, I was asleep and missed the FL welcome sign :(
Our tour through little ol' Micanopy. Only 5 minutes away from where the Di Mella's live.
This little bakery was full of yummy organic treats! We got some guava cream cheese pasteries to nibble on, and ate them on the back porch with a beautiful view.
The ones we got are at the top right corner in the case.
A random cat taking a snoozer while we ate our treats.
Alex's mom and I getting ready to enjoy the pasteries.
Countryside inbetween Micanopy and McIntosh.
The Di Mella Corgi posse, Ellie and Emy.
View of the garden/backyard from the stairs leading up to the apartment attached to the house.
We farted around out in the garden and took pictures ( I got to really test out my camera).
The beautiful Di Mella home.
A sign by the bakery in Micanopy, we went back to get more pasteries before we left. LOL.
The remainder of our trip was from McIntosh down to Miami/ Pembroke Pines. It took about 4 1/2 hours, and I couldn't bring myself to get the camera out because I just wanted to be home. Haha. Welp, that is all for now. When we move into our new place and get settled for real, I will take pictures and make another post. xoxoxoxo.
