A new adventure about to begin...

Well, we're finally on our way to Tampa to begin our new adventure; a "winter" in a warm climate and a return to the workforce (in a seasonal capacity) in a new and different place.  After doing another round of visiting in Rhode Island and a few last trips to our storage unit to put away our camping and hiking gear and switch it up for what we will need in Florida (including actual work clothes!), we packed up the van and headed south toward Tampa and my seasonal job with PwC that begins on November 4th.

On our way we had a great stopover in DC for a few days to visit Andre's sister Rose and her family. As always, their hospitality was fantastic and the accommodations in their beautiful home superb! We had a great visit, enjoying the city during the day and watching the Capital's hockey and of course, Red Sox baseball in the evenings.  Their home is only a short walk from the National Zoo, so we spent he first afternoon walking around the zoo, enjoying the exhibits (especially the big cats and the playful otters) and reminiscing about all the previous visits to the zoo when our kids were very small.



Cheetah Pacing

 Quite an impressive Lion

Otters Playing

The next day, we rode our bikes down to the White House and the National Mall and enjoyed many of the monuments and museums before heading back to Rose & Terry's for a nice dinner and Game 1 of the World Series.

Andre in front of the White House

The Lincoln Memorial - one of my favorites

After a great couple of days with the Audette-Lynch's in DC, we packed it up once more and continued south into the Carolina's, stopping at the Duck-Rabbit Brewery tasting room in North Carolina for some free sampling of their high quality dark beers, before continuing on to Myrtle Beach where we stayed for two nights before finally making our way into Florida, where we spent a night in Jacksonville, Florida.

Duck-Rabbit Brewery Tasting Room

Lots of Great Choices

 

Today we are in the van heading to Tampa to do some early "scouting" of the area we will be temporarily relocating to and then we will head to New Port Richey to visit Mom for a few days before heading back to down-town Tampa for the weekend and the start of my work week next week.

 

We are excited about being in a new place for a while and I am excited about starting a new job and enjoying some of the benefits of being in the workforce again, albeit temporarily. There are some aspects of work that I have missed and I will enjoy revisiting them for a short while. Of course the money doesn't hurt either.  Not sure how I will feel once I am working steadily without much free time, but it will be a good test for determining if this makes sense for us to do every winter or every few winters.

 

Whatever the outcome, I love new experiences, so this will be one more under my belt. And then in the Spring it will be time to figure out what's next on this adventure...