the island

Anna Maria Island // Florida // 2011

Tim and I spent last week in a little slice of paradise called Anna Maria Island. In the Gulf of Mexico, just an hour or so south of Tampa, where the water is turquoise, the sand feels just like sugar, and the seafood is incredible.

I ordered shrimp at every restaurant we went to. Fresh gulf shrimp.

This was the second time we had vacationed there, and it's a special place to us. We were there two years ago, in August of 2011, just a small handful of days after sitting in a doctor's office where we paid $1,400 for them to tell us we couldn't have kids.

After news like that, all one really needs is a trip to the beach and a stiff drink. Amen?

The last time we were on the island, I was in a very thin, dark place. Where are you supposed to go after news like that? What was I supposed to do with that? So we sat on that beach and we swam in the ocean, and at some point during the week I came to realize that life just wasn't going to look quite like I had imagined it would. Now I had to make peace with it. And begin to trust that God knew better.

A couple days after we got home, we went to Red Lobster in an attempt to ease our seafood withdrawals (spoiler alert: it's not as good). We sat in our booth and said to each other, you know, maybe adoption isn't Plan B. Maybe it was Plan A all along, and it just took us this time to figure it out. Maybe?

One year and a handful of days later, our daughter was born. He did know better. This, this was much better than the plans I had, what I had imagined would be.

So, Anna Maria Island is a special place to me. I like to think that it was there that I began to make peace, I began to find my daughter who just wasn't in my arms quite yet.

---

All of this year's pictures were taken with my iPhone, because my big camera was too clunky to haul around and sometimes it's nice to just be a participant in your own life, you know? Enjoy!

We stayed in the cutest little one bedroom cottage. Also, we ate a lot of donuts. As you will soon see.

The view from my chair, where I spent a good chunk of time.

Again. Spent much of the week in this very spot.

Lunch at Rod & Reel Pier (shrimp, of course!).

Anna Maria Donuts, serving up piping hot, fresh, made to order donuts. The greatest business model known to man.

Iced coffee tastes better on a beach.

Manatee County Public Beach. Don't let the food court-ish eating establishment fool you. They serve some of the best coconut shrimp on the island!

You & me.

More donuts. Wait, what? We did bike two miles to get there. So, I ate two, one for each mile. It seemed like the right thing to do.

The island trolley ends at the City Pier, but if you walk or bike just a bit further you'll find Bean Point. You can stand on the very tip of the six mile island, with nothing but ocean on all three sides. My favorite.

Home sweet home.