A litte bit of paradise

Kate Spade "Mexican Floral" iPhone case

Left: Express mint top (seen here), American Eagle shorts (seen here),

Rebecca Minkoff sandals (seen here), Kate Spade scarf

Middle: Antonio Melani top (seen here), Banana Republic skirt (seen here), Marc Fisher pumps

Right: Kate Spade scarf, Express tee (seen here), American Eagle cuffed cropped chinos,

Rebecca Minkoff sandals

I finally get two seconds to breathe and catch you up on my little trip I talked about in my packing post. It was pretty freaking fabulous, even if I'm paying for it a bit right now playing catch up in the office. It's always a game of catch up when you're gone - I guess it's worth it that at least I went somewhere beautiful.A little bit of paradise.

I was really glad that I decided to come in a day early, because my fear of delayed flights came true. There was a mechanical problem that delayed us for about an hour, which ultimately could have made me late for the meeting had it been the same day. Alas, I didn't have to stress about it. I was a little bummed to see it was raining when I landed, and the rental car attendant had said it had been that way for a whole week. Boo for them, but the odds of it clearing up during my stay were pretty good (which it did)!

I stayed at the Springhill Suites hotel in Pensacola Beach, directly adjacent to Gulf Breeze. They had my room ready even though I was there a bit before check-in time, which I was pretty happy about, AND they gave me a free upgrade to a pool view. Heaven.

I ended up taking my laptop down by the pool to go through emails before a conference call started that I had scheduled for late afternoon. The call ended my day, so I decided to rack up some steps on my FitBit on the beach, followed by a fruity cocktail.

Via Instagram

I would say I travel quite a bit for work - twice a month or so? Most of the time it's by myself, so I've gotten pretty used to being by myself, even for meals. Based on a recommendation, I decided to check out this restaurant called Crabs. I ridiculously love seafood, especially crab. How could I not like this?

Via Instagram

It was amazing. Everything. Their version of bread was really a cinnamon and sugar covered pastry with a melted honey dipping sauce. I'm truly not usually a sweets person. I'm more savory. But lately, I've been craving sweet pastries like nobody's business. It was hard not to eat all of them. I ended up having oysters as an appetizer, and yes, I ate the whole dozen by myself. For my meal I chose the king crab, which was served with corn on the cob, redskin potatoes, and I didn't realize it until all the crab was gone - there was one sausage link hiding under all that crab. Like I said, it was all so good, it's a good thing I walked 2 miles on the beach (although I needed more like 100 miles to walk all that off!)

The next morning, I grabbed an early breakfast in the lobby and had an hour to lay by the pool before a 2-hour conference call. Afterwards, I crammed on finishing a package I needed to finish before my City meeting. The meeting went extremely well, which just makes this whole trip that much better. Work was done and I had a couple of hours of sunlight left to enjoy, so I did two of my favorite things - laid by the pool and walked on the beach.

Dinner the second night wasn't that impressive. Well, the food and my server were pretty good but I was turned off by the greeting, or lack thereof, at the hostess stand. The place was called Flounders. I ended up just getting some bomb calamari with a side salad and a cup of chowder. The calamari came with peppers, which was an awesome touch.

Via Instagram

Wednesday morning came really fast, especially with a 6am flight. Started my morning at 3am and ended my workday at about 10pm that night in order to wake up for an 8:30am meeting that lasted 2 and a half hours at work. Yeah. Needless to say I am completely exhausted, but I really wanted to document this trip with you guys and share some photos. It was a pretty good balance of work and play, even though it meant working at night - I certainly would not have complained for more play and less work!

I'm super really excited to talk about my Nordstrom Anniversary Pre-Sale purchases, but that will have to wait for a weekend post!!! Have a great Friday!!