Melissa's Visit

What a treat I had this past weekend. My awesome friend Melissa from Texas came in for a long weekend and what fun we had. Great girl time and conversational catch up was the best part for me as I have found myself missing my favorite Texans lately. We also spent a whole day at the Ringling Museum immersed in the life and times of John and Mable Ringling reveling in the fine art, their awesome abode and cool circus treasures.

That evening, Greg entertained us with great wine, dinner and of course, chocolate at Melissa's favorite restaurant, Charley's Steakhouse.
The good Americans that we are, the next day was spent stimulating the economy. First stop was at John's Pass Boardwalk, purchasing souvenirs, enjoying the pretty day and watching the dolphin play in the water. Mel couldn't resist flirting with a pirate at the Pass.

From there, we headed to International Plaza for a late lunch and continued shopping. Over lunch, we talked about the New York Yankees spring training in Tampa how cool it would be if we could have a Derek Jeter sighting. Not moments later, who walks in? Yep, Derek Jeter was seated just a few tables away. It was such fun to see Melissa in twitterpated schoolgirl mode ~ I couldn't resist the tempation to completely interrupt Jeter's lunch for a photo op!

Only after nervously sitting down did we realize that also seated at the celebrity baseball player's table was Jorge Posada, Yankees catcher. How rude of us not to include him in our photo session...oops!

After we dropped Mel off at the airport, I reflected on the weekend much like Christmas...huge anticipation, a wonderful gift (of friendship,) lots of great memories and sadness that it was all over so quickly. I am truly blessed to have a great friend where miles between don't matter.

Click below to view a photoshow recap of our fun girl weekend!

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/YT9Ye5Qm