Florida Sunshine

Wisconsin is wonderful, but our February is not. A few days after a blizzard on a -25 below windchill day, we flew to southwest Florida in search of sunshine and frostbite avoidance.

My parents had taken refuge in Naples for a few weeks, so we took the opportunity to crash their peaceful vacation with our hyper and adorable toddlers.

So what is there to do with a 1 year old and a 3 year old?

1. The beach!

Even though it wasn't quite warm enough to swim, it was lovely and relaxing to listen to the waves and watch Magnolia play in the sand. Not to mention make many "Gulf of America" jokes.

Little Rosalie was unsure of the sand and just wanted to cuddle. I was fully okay with that.

2. The Botanical Garden 

It's always a win to find places that are equally enjoyable for us and the girls. For the adults, the garden was a peaceful and beautiful walk. For the girls, there were fountains to play in, wind chimes to ring, and even watercolors at a craft station for kids.

3. The zoo

We may have a zoo at home, but it won't be 70 degrees at ours for a while. This was one of the "coldest" day of our trip, and we overheard locals say the slight balmy breeze was "freezing."

Magnolia loves giraffes and was very happy to see some. Rosie very cutely waved and said "hi" to the animals. It was fun to see how much she's grown up since we went to the Milwaukee Zoo last summer and she was too little to even notice the animals. 

4. Tin City

There was a cute collection of shops and restaurants.

We also did a boat tour that left from here. It managed to be relaxing despite tired children. The boat eventually lulled them to sleep.

Naples is one of the wealthiest cities in Florida. About 10% of the city's population are millionaires. There were miles and miles of gigantic, beautiful waterfront mansions. It made us feel poor.

We were delighted to see dolphins swim along the boat and show off for us.

5. 5th Avenue

On what we thought was our last night (lol) we ate at a nice restaurant in Naples' downtown. The food was delicious, but I think I enjoyed our after dinner stroll down the pretty street even more. A little gelato and shopping while the sun set was the cherry on top of a fun week.

6. Children's Museum

Florida was sad to see us go, and after a week of perfect weather it rained on the day we were supposed to fly out. An indoor activity sounded great, and everyone else from the area and on vacation there had the same idea. The museum was great, but extremely crowded.

These two still enjoyed it, so it was worth it.

We get better at traveling every time we do it. On this trip we once again learned a few lessons. Our two choices were a 6am flight or a 10pm flight. We thought the latter would be less painful, despite knowing the kids would obviously get to bed super late.

The problem is that delays are more common the later you get in the day. Our flight was delayed by an hour. We were still in good spirits. Then the downpour began. Our already late plane was diverted to a different city. We sat in the airport in limbo for another 3 hours.

Our plane finally arrived and they were announcing we'd still be getting on. Only to be told another hour later that actually the pilots needed to sleep. I totally support well-rested pilots and not flying in a storm. But it was so obnoxious they didn't just cancel the flight sooner.

Oh well, it's a first world problem. We managed to get Rosalie to sleep in the stroller. Maggie was placated with a way too expensive mermaid doll from the one store that remained open at 2am. Thankfully my dad was able to pick us up and bring us back to the Airbnb for a few hours of sleep. We made it home safely the next day with two tired babies.

This was David's first time in Florida and his 30th state! We're already daydreaming about where we'll explore next and are so happy to have gotten our fill of sunshine to make it through the rest of winter.