the weekend, pt. 1

Well, I survived Taz's birthday weekend. More than survived, I actually had a good time with Charlie and made some new memories. I really felt like Taz was there with me every step of the way.

You know how much I was dreading it. And don't get me wrong, it was hard marking this milestone without him. I would MUCH rather he was there with me, discovering a new beach, visiting a friend who has known us for over 30 years, revisiting happy memories in a favorite town. 
 
But that wasn't an option so on Friday morning Charlie and I packed up the car and headed off. When Taz and I would head off for a new place where we didn't know the road and might make a few wrong turns, we called it an "expotition" which is a word used in Winnie the Pooh and was our code for being patient and having fun no matter what might lie ahead. So Charlie and I were truly off on an expotition because the first stop was a beach town I'd never been to before and had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that dogs were allowed on the beach.

The drive was easy enough but what I found was that there was a giant road project going on and access to the beach was quite limited but, luckily, after a few wrong turns, the perfect parking space appeared and Charlie and I were off to the beach.

Unfortunately, Charlie doesn't enjoy the beach as much as I do and it was awfully hot (summer has truly begun here in Florida) so we didn't stay long. Besides, expotiting makes me hungry.

 One of the problems of traveling alone, besides being lonely, is that there is no one to hold Charlie when you want to go into a store or order at a restaurant. I solved the problem this time by just walking into the restaurant to place an order with the dog whether they liked it or not. Luckily for me, they didn't care. I had been craving sushi. That was always Taz's and my thing - eating good sushi - and I haven't felt like going by myself but when I saw there was a sushi place at the beach and it had outdoor seating, I knew that was the place. Charlie likes sushi too. She really does. Taz had these nori snacks (the seaweed wrapper for sushi) and he always shared with her so she likes the taste.

Then it was time to go find the motel I had booked for the night. I had originally planned on spending both Friday and Saturday night at the home of a friend but she had to go to an event on Friday night so about a month ago I found a pretty inexpensive motel right across from the beach that was pet friendly. It sounded perfect and got good reviews but you never really know until you see it in person so I was hoping I hadn't made a big mistake. I've traveled by myself for years and have stayed in hotels and motels alone before but this time it seemed different and somewhat overwhelming. Luckily, the motel felt right to me from the first moment I drove in. It's definitely old, probably built in the '50s, but it was clean and comfortable. Each room has a full kitchen so if I'd realized that, I would have brought groceries.

Now, it was also a bit of a quirky place. I saw more shirtless cowboys than I've ever seen before and if I'd been looking for a random hookup, this was probably the place to find it. I found out later that part of the road crew from the big construction job were renting out half the rooms. But, I kept to myself and didn't go out of the room after dark so my virtue was safe.

I found an awesome place for dinner just a block away from the motel. It had a takeout window so I could order my food without breaking any health code laws by taking Charlie into a food establishment. They had awesome shrimp tacos and a killer view. In that moment, I felt happy and peacefully content. Taz would have liked this place too, they had barbecue. Of course I wished that we had discovered it together.

Across the street from the restaurant was a dune top deck with benches so that I could watch the waves and not break any laws by taking Charlie onto the sand. I'm really a rule follower at heart and Charlie certainly didn't mind not getting yucky sand in her fur so we were both happy. I sat and watched my beautiful beach until it started to get dark. I felt it was probably safest for me to be back in the room so off we went back to our little motel room.

It wasn't the Ritz but it had everything I needed, like Wifi (even though the password was an abomination) and I slept like a baby. I heard later that the shirtless cowboys (seriously, I never saw them wearing shirts) got a little loud and rowdy but it didn't wake me up so I hope they had fun.

It had been a good day and I had another fun one coming up but this is already too long so I'll save it for next time.