Taking on New Adventures

I’ve been friends with Alysia and Noelle for 21 years now. They were my first CNN friends. And through breakups, marriages, a divorce, kids, growing old, moving, and more, we are still there for each other.

So when Noelle wanted to do a girls weekend for her 50th birthday, I jumped at the chance to hang out with my longtime pals. A weekend at the beach was sure to bring a lot of laughs, a lot of catching up and making memories that will last a lifetime.

I packed up the car on Thursday and drove over to Destin. The four plus hour drive wasn’t bad and I rolled into the driveway of the house Noelle found for us to rent shortly before 9pm.

As is with all friendships, we have kept up with each other through social media, short text messages and an occasional phone call. But when we need one another, we are there. And this time was no different as we literally picked up where we left off and caught up quickly.

The laughs were frequent on this trip. Adding in Noelle’s neighbor, Linda, a friend she made at another job who I had crossed paths with in years past, Mandy, and her longtime friend who has become a friend of mine as well over the years, Gina, it was a fun group of ladies who really just wanted to kick back and relax.

One of the cool things about the trip was that I was able to stay at a house with a private pool, which was a dream of mine back when I was a kid. While I loved the condos we stayed at over the years, I always thought it would be awesome to rent a house with a pool and grill so that we could roll in and out whenever we wanted.

It was exactly as I dreamt and what a fun way to spend a weekend with my fun friends. We took full advantage of the pool and someone was in it nearly every waking hour.

We made it to the beach as well, when we weren’t hanging in the pool. The beach was beautiful and the water was just amazing, as calm as I’ve ever seen it. A little chilly due to the time of year and numerous hurricanes but not bad at all.

Overall, the weekend was exactly what I anticipated and I cannot wait to do it again.