Winter on the Beach

When it got cold in Oklahoma again. The obvious choice was to head back to Florida again for the remainder of winter and early spring. Though the focus of this particular trip was triathlon training and not sightseeing, I did manage to make it to the beach a few times for some much needed R&R.

One such situation came out of the blue when a friend asked if I'd like to join him for a day trip to St. Petersburg. My next day just happened to be a rest day, so why not!

The view from the condo in St. Pete.

The inlet by the condo at dusk.

Me and Trent resting the legs in the shade.

But though that was a nice day at the beach, my main beach vacation was a weekend trip to visit some old friends from high school on the beaches in Miami and Jupiter.

Me and Phillip throwing the football on Jupiter Beach. It was definitely much less crowded than all of the others.

This restaurant in Miami allowed patrons to arrive by car or by boat. Way cool.

The lush hot tub and pool area at my buddies apartment complex was located right on the inlet seen from the last picture.

 

Any tropical paradise would not be complete without palm trees. Lots of palm trees.

A storm prevented us from spending all day at the beach, but the slightly cooler temps made for a great afternoon nap.

Overall, Miami seemed to be a great place to live if you were right across the street from the beach and didn't have to drive too much in the insane traffic that seemingly extends everywhere. Cost of living was surprisingly very reasonable and food and drink could be had extremely cheap through hopping from happy hour to happy hour. Be sure to look for the two for one and three for one specials.

Before leaving the state of Florida, however, I had more stop to make. Luckily, the end of my training cycle coincided with OU's sprink break and I was able to meet up with some friends in Panama City Beach for a few days.

As an extra guest, I was surprised noone had already claimed the balcony for sleeping quarters. As such, I had it all to myself.

Being Spring Break, there was an immense amount of partying going on. Not too mention the most underage drinking in any one spot on the planet at any given time. This was quite entertaining. At first...

If you wanted the beach all to yourself, however, you simply had to wait for the sun to go down (or come up). With the nightly crashing of the waves, this was likely the best sleep I've ever got.

 The PCB crew. Big thanks to them for letting my crash and hangout for a couple nights!