It’s been a crazy few weeks but we are finally feeling settled here in South Florida.  We’re in a rental house for right now and are patiently waiting for someone to buy our home in Dallas so we can start looking for our forever home here in the Palm Beach area.

We took 2.5 days to drive from Dallas to South Florida with a car packed to the brim and our dog, Miss Begbie.  We tried to make it a little fun by stopping in New Orleans for one night and St. Augustine, FL our second night but it was a pretty boring drive overall.  Miss Begbie was an angel and just sat in her bed or slept the whole trip and we made a few stops along the way to let her do her business at various rest stops.  Thank goodness for satellite radio!!  I don’t know how we would survived without it.

I booked pet friendly hotels along the way, which worked out well.  We stayed one night at the W Hotel in the French Quarter and at the St. Augustine Beach Hotel our second night.  Both were great but we had a difficult time getting to the W Hotel in New Orleans because of that whole collapsed building and crane mess in that area.  Overall, we liked the W Hotel and it was in a great location.  After we arrived, we too Miss Begbie for a walk in the French Quarter and to the park by the Mississippi River.  She was not a fan of all the traffic, noise and people in the Quarter so after she did her business at the riverside park, we dropped her back off at the room and grabbed a quick dinner.

We stopped into Felix’s Oyster Bar for our favorite chargrilled oysters and red beans & rice and called it an early night.  I was pretty wiped out as I did all the driving that day and I think it was the earliest I have ever been to bed in Nola.

The next day we hit the road early and it was pouring rain.  We drove through Mississippi and Alabama and finally crossed into Florida and drove across the panhandle. I have to say – this drive was seriously BOR-ing.  There is no scenery until you get to the ocean.

We made it to St. Augustine after dark and had a great dinner at a local seafood place that was within walking distance to our hotel and was dog friendly so we were able to bring Miss Begbie with us rather than leave her in the hotel room.  St. Augustine was full of 1950’s kitschy motels.  I loved their retro signs.

We were up the next morning  and saw a gorgeous sunrise over the Atlantic and then I took Miss Begbie for a walk on the beach, which she loved.  After breakfast at a local cafe, we hit the road again to finish the last 3-4 hours to Palm Beach.

We made it to our rental house and our boxes of clothes that we had shipped were waiting for us on the doorstep.  After we unloaded the car, we went to Guanabana’s in Jupiter, FL for an early dinner and some well-deserved cocktails.  Over the next few days, we bought beach gear and visited Jupiter Beach.  We really do love going to the beach, which is only a 10 minute drive from where we live.  So far, Florida has been great!  We are just so ready to sell our house in Dallas and buy a forever home here!

Next week we leave for 9 days in Italy.  It’s a trip we have had planned long before we knew were moving to Florida.  We are taking Steve’s mom with us and will be spending 3 days in Rome and 5 days in Tuscany/Florence.  We have some private tours of the Vatican and Coliseum planned as well as a day trip in Tuscany to visit some wineries.  I’ll be sharing those posts and pictures when we get back!