Savvy Chats: Sweet Spring Break

Hello, hello. It has certainly been a while!

I've got some fun things to share about this beautiful thing called

spring break.

On Friday afternoon, Athens began to clear out. And I mean CLEAR. OUT. Saturday I worked a Gymdogs meet, where UGA defeated Utah. Go Dawgs! Day 1 of Spring Break= success.

Sunday, a friend of mine took me shooting. Check me out.

Then, I worked (I'm a Patient Care Coordinator at a local family practice doctor's office) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and skipped town that afternoon to head South.

My dear friend, Poorvi, hopped in my trusty '99 CRV and we started the 6.5 hr trek to Destin, to visit my wonderful grandparents.

Destin = fantastic shopping, the BEACH, great seafood PLUS my family.

What could be better??

We arrived to a steak dinner cooked by Papa. Talk about rolling out the red carpet!

We spent almost an entire day shopping at Silversands. Found some crazy deals. Ate lunch at Ciaobella. And just when we made it home and collapsed thinking the day couldn't possibly get better, we were treated to a dinner out, where I enjoyed Seafood Gumbo that would knock anybody's socks off. It's menu description:

"Classic Creole-style gumbo teeming with hearty garden vegetables, shrimp, oysters, fish and andouille sausage."

Is your mouth watering yet?

Eating out at Boathouse Landing

The next day we attempted the beach, but it was just a little too chilly and breezy to be wearing bikinis. I donned my long-sleeved shirt and read/dozed for a while. Still paradise.

We stopped by Fresh Market and picked up some ingredients to cook Thai food for dinner. Green curry with zucchini, red peppers, onions, mushrooms and tofu over rice noodles. Everyone liked it (or lied and said they did). Poorvi and I even went at it with chopsticks. Impressed?

Green curry noodle bowl

The next day was BY FAR our most successful beach day. The weather was PERFECT. I mean, PERFECT. If you've ever been to the gulf coast in the summer, you know that it's almost impossible to stay out of the water for more than 15 minutes at a time because you actually feel like your skin is burning/melting off.

This day on the beach was nothing like that. It was warm and sunny, with the slight breeze that made it comfortable to be out all day, and dangerous because you didn't feel the sun burning your skin, which it probably was. Over the course of the day, I read a solid 1/2 of my James Paterson novel, we enjoyed lunch at Pompano Joes, took a walk down the beach and did some of our best people-watching of the trip. I got some serious stares most likely due to my survivor-buff-turned-bathing suit top combined with the scrub pants I wore on our walk because the back of one of my legs was pretty lobster-red and I didn't want to be that girl who doesn't know how to evenly apply sunscreen.

Caribbean Taco Salad- jerked chicken, black beans, corn, tomatoes, papaya, mango, farmers and mexican cheese served over salad greens with chipotle-ranch dressing.

Probably one of the best taco salads I've ever consumed. That plate was two times the size of my head and I didn't leave a spot of food on it. Shwoops.