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Living The Dream And Taking A Vacation To Refuel

Living The Dream And Taking A Vacation To Refuel

I needed to refuel.

Blogging about decorating my home, other people’s homes and running an online business; This is my dream job.

At first it seemed selfish to me that I wanted to take a vacation.

I mean really, I work from home in my pajamas, (don’t judge) and make my own schedule, but quite honestly I work very long hours, seven days a week.

So, last Fall when Nikki and I decided that we wanted to surprise our husbands with a vacation, we couldn’t have picked a better time than this past week.

Jimmy and Nikki are seasoned airbnb.com renters. They knew how this whole online property rental thing worked, and that calmed my nerves about trying something new.

We wanted to do something that the four of us had never done. Using the airbnb website was simple and easy and quickly helped us decide what our vacation would entail.

The boys, as we lovingly call them, had no idea where we were going. Okay, wait…that’s not entirely true.

They knew we were going to the Orlando airport because I used Wade’s frequent flyer points for our flight. Other than that, we told them to pack casually, include swim trunks and keep an open mind.

So early on Wednesday morning, and I mean 4am early, we started a long weekend vacation.

After an uneventful flight, we rented a car and drove an hour north of Orlando to a small town called Sanford.

We directed the boys to Lake Monroe as our final destination and surprised them with a five night stay on this 60 ft. houseboat.

Before you ask, no, we couldn’t take the boat out onto the lake, but we were so busy sightseeing and running around the area, that being out in the middle of the lake would have made for a completely different trip.

Maybe someday.

After meeting the delightful owners Rebecca and Michael, and receiving a tour of the boat and the ins and outs how everything worked, we were on our own.

The first thing we did was decide who got which bedroom. I wanted to flip a coin for the master, but Nikki said we could have it.

(You can see why we are friends.)  🙂

The master was at the back of the boat.

This is a queen size bed with the greatest mattress and pillows. We had a TV in our room and a patio door too that lead to the ladder for the upstairs living space.

Our master bathroom was right beside our bedroom and had a full shower, whirlpool tub, toilet and sink.

Across from our bathroom was a closet that contained a washer and dryer and next to that was Jimmy and Nikki’s bathroom.

Their bedroom was next and contained a full size bed with the same kind of comfy mattress and pillows.

Now that you have seen the bedrooms, let’s start back at the front of the boat.

When you first stepped on you were greeted by this table and chairs sitting in the sunshine.

Through a sliding glass door is the beautifully decorated main living space, dining area and galley kitchen.

As I already mentioned, we had a sliding glass door in our bedroom that allowed you to go outside and use a ladder to get to the floor above. This is that ladder on the back of the boat.

But wait, see this ladder and hatch inside at the end of the kitchen counter?

This was another way to climb upstairs and relax in this amazing space.

As you pop up from the downstairs this is the area that you see first.

And these are the pictures that were the selling point when deciding which property to rent.

Can you see why 4 Midwesterners in the grips of a dark and gray winter couldn’t turn down this view?

This boat was fully stocked with everything we needed. In fact, Rebecca had even stocked the refrigerator with a dozen eggs, bacon and bagels with cream cheese, not to mention a wonderful bottle of red wine which we thoroughly enjoyed.

We filled our days with trips to Daytona beach and a full day at Universal where Wade was like a kid in a candy store at Harry Potter.

Historic Sanford is a very small town but it did not disappoint. Restaurants, bars, boutique and antique shopping and even a little Mardi Gras parade rounded out our final day in Florida.

It’s amazing how sunshine, relaxation and sometimes pure silliness can refuel a body.

~Wendy

P.S. If you are interested in this airbnb rental, you can find it here. Thank you Rebecca for supplying the photos of your lovely houseboat.

P.S.S. In full disclosure, I was not compensated in any way from airbnb or Rebecca for this fantastic vacation.