Weekend Road Trip: Florida Coast to Coast
The first part of my adventure series: Jan 2021 // Road trip - Coast to Coast FL!
This trip was a wild adventure, traveling with someone who I was very newly dating who asked I refrain from any photos or videos that included him. Halfway through the trip, we had an unpleasant interaction now known as: the magazine heard around the world. I find it hilarious looking back, but at the time it was pretty stressful on the nervous system so I didn’t get many pictures or capture much of the experiences on this trip. However, there were still some noteworthy moments that could build a foundation for another fun adventure around FL.
Road Trip Itinerary:
✈️ Fly into FT. Lauderdale
🚙 Rent a car, begin the road trip with St. Augustine
Pro-tip: keep a change of clothes easily accessible if you’re traveling from a colder area, you’ll probably want to lose the jacket and change into shorts once the plane lands! (Pic 1&2)
Dinner >> Hard Rock Hotel in Daytona Beach. The ambiance of the outdoor patio was perfect for a chilly evening in January - you can hear the ocean while sitting on couches next to a cozy fire.
Stay the night in St. Augustine >> personally, I feel deeply connected to St. Augustine. It is quaint, adorable, and has magical energy. I’d love to go back! Although, technically this is a road trip itinerary to explore both FL coasts - I think driving up the Eastern coast of FL from Ft Lauderdale; exploring the beaches and staying in St. Augustine for the whole trip would make for a beautiful vacation. We stayed in an AirBnB for our stay but some potentially adorable places to stay are the Bayfront Westcott House and the Beachcomber on Vilano
Morning coffee >> Choco-latte (Pic 3)
Enjoy the magic >> walk around the downtown area, it’s absolutely adorable!
Explore some history >> Castillo De San Marcos National Monument (Pic 4-9)
Dinnertime >> Prohibition Kitchen (Pic 10)
🚙 Roadtrip to the west coast of FL
Road trip fun >> drive on Daytona Beach (you can only go 10 mph so truthfully it’s a bit boring but fun to do one time to experience it - Pic 1). This route also places you in Orlando. If you have the time - spend the night and explore Disney! Eat and drink your way around the world at Epcot before continuing on to the west coast of FL.
🚙 Tampa:
Live it up >> check out the nightlife in Ybor City: 7th Avenue. If you like loud clubs, noisy cars driving up and down to show off, and a vibrant atmosphere - this is it! A bit sketchy in certain parts but it was a lot of fun. It’s also where the booze mixes with big egos and my trip starts to fall if it’s hinges so explore with caution ;)
Fight the Ybor City hangover >> head to Buddy Brew Coffee for an Affogato (Pic 2)
Insta-worthy lunch >> try the trendy black charcoal sesame bun at Datz
Rainy-weather friendly afternoon >> explore the Florida Aquarium (they have birds too! Pic 3&4)
Grab a beer and people watch >> LightHaus Beer Garden
Explore the outdoors >> take a walk along the channel at the Tampa Bay History Center (perfect for long strolls on the phone with a friend discussing escape routes and worst-case scenarios)
Sun and sand >> for an absolutely gorgeous beach and wonderful food - head over to Clearwater beach (45-min drive from Tampa)
🚙 Drive back to Ft. Lauderdale
✈️ Fly home
BLOOPERS: The Official Story of the Magazine Heard Around the World
I coined this the magazine heard around the world because…it’s funny…and because I hope every girl hears this story and rememerbers it when she’s faced with someone trying to shame her.
It started with a night out on the town…
I was living my best life, with beer and fun and people-watching and more beer. And he wasn’t drinking nearly as much as me because he was driving. So, it’s late. I’m drunk (let’s be honest). We hit up a CVS to get some wine and grab some snacks. I check out via the self-check-out because it’s late and no one’s around at the register. A guy comes out of the back and checks my ID, everything is fine. The guy I’m with proceeds to come over to the register, look at me, look at my bags, look at me, and I sense a weird vibe but…it’s late and I’m in a blissful world of giddiness. We leave. Once in the car he looks at me and says “how many items are in your bag” I’m like hmmmm…IDK who counts their items at checkout? (I have never counted before or since FYI…) He then grills me about THE magazine. It didn’t scan while I was checking out. I am here to be totally honest with the world: I noticed it didn’t scan when I went to checkout, but I didn’t take it out of the bag to rescan it. The bag alarm didn’t go off and I just carried on. Was that the most upright thing to do? No. Was it the reality? Yes. Was it the end of the world? Depends on who you ask.
So, we’re sitting in the parking lot of a CVS late at night, with me staring at my hands in my lap as the guy I’ve flow all the way to Florida with grills me police-style about my life choices. He tells me I’ve made him a get-away driver to a crime. I’ve been reckless and have put his career at risk because they’ll look at the security footage and run the plate and it will lead directly back to him because he rented the car. That I’m untrustworthy and not who he thought I was. We finally drive back to our AirBnb. He refuses to speak to me for the majority of the trip afterward and sleeps fully clothed, on top of the sheets, with the keys to our rental car in his jeans pocket for the next two nights. I’m convinced I’m going to be left in FL in the middle of the night and don’t sleep again until I get home.
In the meantime, I’ve been convinced that I did something horribly wrong and that I am actually, deep down, a terrible person. He told me it made me an overall untrustworthy person and showed a flaw in my general character. And I believed him.
After existing near each other but hardly speaking, it’s finally time to drive back to the airport. He tells me he wants to put this behind us and he promises he won’t tell anyone what I’ve done if I promise to never ever do it again. I promise. We fly home and have another two-hour car ride in complete silence to get back to my car and he gives me a hug and tells me he’ll talk to me later. And then doesn’t text me again for days.
My co-workers are confused - how did I go away for a vacation to warm, sunny Florida with a guy I was dating and not come back glowing? I refused to talk about it. I was so ashamed of what happened and how I ruined the entire trip. I couldn’t stop beating myself up over it. Until one night we go out for drinks after work and, after a few too many tequila shots, I tell my co-workers everything that happened. I’m crying in a Mexican restaurant, babbling on about how none of them really know me and how I’m actually a dirty criminal.
Meanwhile, I still haven’t heard from the guy. Maybe you’d think that I would never want to hear from him again. But, to be ghosted by someone you just went on a vacation with…after he said that he forgave you and wanted to put the entire incident in the past…it leaves you feeling unsettled and unsure, there’s a part of you that wants to feel validated - have him tell you he doesn’t actually think you’re a bad person and release the spell of condemnation he’s placed on you. Especially when you’ve been successfully convinced that you’re the reason the trip was ruined and you’re lucky he didn’t march you into the local precinct himself. It plays on your mind, your confidence, and your self-worth.
At dinner, my co-worker decides we’re going to put this to bed tonight and we text him about why he hasn’t been talking to me since we got back.
We go around in the same circles we did before - there was tons of narrative about my character but none of it had a pathway to conflict resolution.
Finally, after realizing we’re not getting anywhere, we try to figure out what the conclusion to this situation is, maybe turning me in is the best thing to do? Guess not. By the end of the evening, he tells me that he wants it to be over - “things aren’t going to be fine and dandy all of a sudden because you expect them to be…so I no longer wish to pursue a dating relationship.” Finally, a resolution to the conflict.
The biggest lesson learned from this absolutely wild blooper:
We often question how we’re showing up in life; are we good moms, good girlfriends, good employees, are we frauds, are we imposters? We look to other people to validate us. To tell us: thank you, good job, I love you, you’re doing great sweetie. But, at the end of the day, these people are sometimes carefully crafting stories that condemn us. They are so strong in their opinion that they can destroy your self-confidence. They make you feel unsafe, sometimes holding the literal keys to your pathway moving forward. They might twist a story to make you sound downright evil. Like you’ve been playing them and manipulating them and -phew- they caught you red-handed before you could fuck them over. Maybe that is their reality. But, just because it’s one person’s reality does not make it the whole and complete truth. You are so much more than any one action. So much more than any one experience. And definitely so much more than the opinion of someone who’s only known you for a few months. Anyone who truly cares about you or has your best interest at heart will approach a situation from a solution-based perspective. How can we fix this? How can we grow from here? If there is no effort to find a solution…if a narrative is based on condemning you or shaming you…be wary of the intentions of the person presenting the narrative.
You are worthy. And fuck, you might be a criminal like me, you might be a mischievous badass who doesn’t do things by the book and who has magazines in her possession that * gasp * she didn’t even pay for. You might burn all the rules to the ground. That’ll scare a lot of people. And along the way…you might even do some things you won’t do again as you get older. That’s called learning. Growing. Evolving. Being a rule breaker looks different each step of the way. But, don’t let anyone put you in a box and try to control you. Even if they wrap it in a pretty bow and slap the letter of the law on it to make it look official.
So, yea, I am…
A rebel.
A criminal.
I wear it as a badge of honor.
This story has become interwoven into the very fabric of my being. I talk about it all the time - the magazine heard around the world.
Why? Because it was a pivotal moment.
I had to choose. Was this going to sink deep into my psyche, a naughty secret that someone was keeping for me, growing into an outcast shadow that loomed over my head everywhere I went. Tucked neatly into the recesses of my mind, behind a locked door, buried in a box in the basement. Whispering poison from my subconscious about the sinner I actually was.
Or was I going to rise up, hug it, embrace it, take it on a walk with me in the sunshine. Let it breathe the warm summer air and come to afternoon tea. Shake its hand and welcome it to the team, own and embrace the story with every piece of me, instead of letting it mold into something dark and rancid under the guise of portraying perfection. Shame hides in the darkness, in the secrecy. Shame is like a vampire, in darkness it can bleed you dry of your beautiful life force but it dissolves when brought into the light. The choice is yours.
