I've been anxious to go on a vacation for months and I'm thankful that my Aunt Suzie invited my mom and I to go down to her condo in Florida with her.
I woke up at 6:30 on Monday morning and made it to Aunt Suzie's house by 8:30; we stopped for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts on the way.
Our 12:45 plane was relayed until 2:04, so we ate lunch at O'Brien's Pub, one of the restaurants in Atlantic City International Airport. Then we had to wait around for another couple of hours until it was time to board the plane.
We landed in Fort Lauderdale at about 4:30 pm, and rented a car to take us the last leg of the journey to Port St. Lucie.
Aunt Suzie's vacation home is in a neighborhood called The Meadows at Port St. Lucie, a cluster of peach colored stucco condos. We arrived there at around 8:00, after a nearly two hour drive from Fort Lauderdale and a stop for dinner at McDonald's.

My Mom's friend Jill lives in a town called Oviedo, about a two hour drive away from Port St. Lucie, so she met us at Aunt Suzie's condo. The condo only has two bedrooms, so I graciously offered to sleep on the couch in the living room. I was so exhausted from my nearly twelve hour trip that I fell asleep right away.
When I woke up, I found my mom and Aunt Suzie sitting out on the front porch where Aunt Suzie told me she sometimes sees alligators. I sat out on the porch with them while I readjusted to consciousness. Jill eventually joined us.

After breakfast, we got ready to go to nearby Jensen Beach. It's a short drive away along the Indian River, past palm trees, boat jetties, and pastel colored vacation houses. The Jensen Beach public beach reminds of the beaches on the Jersey Shore. It is long and narrow and dips into the ocean instead of stretching out into eternity until the water finally gets deep enough to swim in, like the beaches back home in Cape Ann.

After I went for a swim and sat reading for a while, Jill and I gathered some of the blue-grey, white, and orange shells which wash up on the shore to fill one of glass jars Aunt Suzie keeps in her living room. I had to reapply my sunscreen before going back in the water because I was starting to turn red.

We had plans with some of Aunt Suzie's friends at 3:00, so we left the beach at 12:30. This gave us plenty of time to shower, change, and have lunch before going to visit Aunt Suzie's friend Dawn and her husband Scott. Dawn and Scott have a gorgeous house where almost all of the rooms overlook the pool and two adorable little pugs named Stella and Joey-Girl.
By 4:00, we had made our way to a waterfront bar and restaurant in Jensen Beach called Conchy Joes for happy hour and trivia.

Our trivia team was called the Jersey Devils (since my Mom, Jill, Aunt Suzie, and Aunt Suzie's circle of friends down here in Florida are all from New Jersey.) We did pretty well, racking up ninety-two points, but did not crack the top three. While we tried to figure out the answers to the questions, I drank wine spritzer and listened to music ranging from contemporary songs like "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars and Pompeii by Bastille, to oldies like "Mary-Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty and "My Girl" by The Temptations, to New Jersey favorites like "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen and "You Give Love A Bad Name" by Bon Jovi.

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We had dinner out on the deck overlooking the Indian River after happy hour trivia. I ordered the seared snapper with Panko breadcrumbs and a side of yellow rice which were fantastic.

On our way home, we stopped at a store called Bealls to do some shopping before it closed at 9:00. My mom bought a purse there the last time she was down there which I admired, so I bought one for myself. They were designed by a local artist named Leoma Lovegrove: Mom's has flamingos on hers while mine has a mermaid. I also bought a set of bath bombs and a sunhat to replace the one I lost during the trip down here.
Tomorrow, we're going to visit Fort Pierce.