Good evening friends! Last week, was a productive and busy one for sure. I tagged along on another one of Andrew’s work trips which filled the majority of the week with a lot of coffeeshop hopping and long car rides.
Monday. After Savannah, I decided I could easily work from the road with Andrew on another work trip. We woke up early in Pensacola on Monday and headed downstairs to the hotel lobby for breakfast. It was a bit of a disappointment. Everything was pre-packaged, even the waffles and egg sandwiches. There were no eggs or any clean options, so I went with raisin bran, a banana, and coffee.
We quickly finished our breakfast and headed out for the day. To work, we set up at a beautiful coffee shop in Downtown Pensacola, Fosko Coffee Barre. It was a cozy, bricked space and was probably the quietest coffeeshop I was in all week.
We both had a busy, productive, and highly caffeinated morning. For lunch we crossed the street and headed into another beautiful coffeeshop, The Nest. It was bright, cool, and filled with plants, a stark contrast from Fosko. I ordered the Turkey sandwich, which I told Andrew and I will tell you all now was the best turkey sandwich I’ve ever had. It had hummus, spouts, arugula, & cucumbers on it and the bread was perfectly toasted.
We finished out the workday at The Nest and then headed out to find a gym. There was an Anytime Fitness right around the corner, but they ended up not offering day passes. Luckily we found Legendary Performance, which we absolutely loved. The staff was incredibly welcoming and helpful, the gym was well organized, and everyone there was focused and friendly.
It was our last night in Pensacola so after our gym session we rushed back to the hotel to change into bathing suits and soak up some more pooltime. We spent an hour at the pool before getting hungry enough to head back to the room and change for dinner. For dinner we went to Felix’s in Pensacola. We shared crawfish pies and fried oysters. We only ordered 6 oysters, but our waitress accidentally put the order in for 12 by mistake. It was a very delicious accident, but we were both full after appetizers so we decided to get salads for our entrees. I got the seared tuna salad. On the walk back to the car we passed Kilwin’s and stopped in and each got a scoop. 😋
Tuesday. I played it safe on Tuesday and had Andrew drop me of at The Nest again. I didn’t want to risk choosing a new coffeeshop and it not being a great spot to work. I ordered a honey & lavender latte and got to work. I had a full day of meetings and kept my head down the entire day either on the phone or working on something. Andrew picked me up after his meetings and we started the drive to Tampa.
It was a 6 hour drive to Tampa from Pensacola and, thanks to my hotspot, I finished the workday from the car. Halfway through our drive, our rental car got a flat tire and we had to navigate to the Tampa Airport to swap cars before heading to our hotel.
We stayed at the Element Tampa Midtown. It was monsooning when we arrived and we were drained from the long drive. Out of sheer exhaustion and in an attempt to stay dry, we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant, Sal Y Mar. It was surprisingly a gem. The food and the atmosphere were incredible.
Wednesday. Andrew had a meeting in Bradenton on Wednesday which is about an hour from Tampa. I can tell you with a 100% certainty I am not cut out for the “different city every night” lifestyle. It sounds glamorous, but it really is just a kaleidoscope of cities you didn’t get to explore.
The coffeeshop I found for Wednesday ended up being 3 minutes down the road from Andrew’s customer so it worked out perfectly. It was called Atria Bread + Coffee. I sat at the counter all day working and watching them knead and rollout loaves of bread. Around 3, Andrew picked me up and we started our 4 hour drive to Miami. It was late when we got in, but it was my first time in Miami. I wanted to see something while we were there and experience as much as we could. We walked from our hotel to Espanola Way. It looked like it was about to start pouring at any moment. We ended up finding this really cute spot for dinner called Moonlight Espanola Way just in time. We sat outside under the awning as the rain started coming down. The food was a unique combination of Italian and Mediterrean food. We had the Half Moon Meze for an appetizer. For dinner we shared the Taste Kebab. It was a lamb stew cooked in a clay pot topped with dough. In the oven the dough turned to this wonderful bread lid that they take off and pour the clay pot out onto. Incredible.
Thursday.
Thursday morning I picked my fourth and final coffeeshop for the week, Suite Habana Cafe. I worked there for the first half of the day and then took the last half off. It was fun to explore Miami a bit. I will have a full Miami Travel Diary up soon, I promise. 😊
Our flight was at 7 pm and the airport was insanely busy. Once we got to the lounge, Andrew worked more and I continued reading Present Over Perfect.
We ended up not getting home until 10:30 pm and we felt like zombies.
Friday. It felt so good to be home. Trips with Andrew are always super fun and exciting. I feel really blessed that we are able to go on cool trips like that together, but it’s always so nice to come home and get back into the swing of things. I thrive in our routines.
The first thing I wanted to do Friday morning was check on my flowers. I was SO surprised to see that my peonies had bloomed while we were gone.
After my flowers had been tended to, I hopped online for work. We headed to the gym around 5:30 on Friday. I am hitting cardio before and after each lift this month. I’m switching up the types of cardio I’m doing each session, but primarily its stairs, inclined walking, or cycling.
Saturday. I woke up Saturday super energized, motivated for the day, and with a huge to-do list. I woke up and immediately threw a load of laundry in. My white sneakers were in desperate need of a wash so I threw in a load of whites with all of my white sneakers. That is my favorite thing about white sneakers. Everyone always thinks they’re impossible to keep clean, but the secret is that you don’t have to keep them clean. You just need to throw them into the washing machine with towels and bleach.
I needed to run into Sephora to repurchase some hair & skin staples that I was out of. I grabbed one new product, the Ilia Skin Tint. I am loving it so far. It is super lightweight and dewy looking, but still gives some coverage. Its just what I wanted for the summer. We also had to run to Costco to get groceries for Mother’s Day.
Sunday. was Mother’s Day and my sisters, Andrew, and I cooked up a big surprise for my Mom and Grandma. We pretended like we had forgotten about Mother’s Day and had nothing planned. We even got my Dad in on it. Sunday morning my Dad told my Mom and Grandma that he needed them to help bring some of my old stuff over to my house. When they arrived we had brunch and presents waiting for them. They weren’t really surprised, they knew something was up, but it was still fun to treat them to a special day like that.
After brunch, everyone headed home and Andew and I cleaned up. We went to the gym around our normal time and picked up our favorite steak salads from Fresh Chef for dinner.
I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day celebrating the mothers and mother-figures in your life or getting showered with love if you are a Mother yourself. 🤍
Lets meet this new week with joy + motivation!
Love always,
