Back in Siesta Keys

We try to visit my mother in Florida as much as we can. She moved there last year and Our trip to Siesta Keys to visit my mom was a great time!  I wanted to visit her over the summer, just the kids and I, but the red tide had plans of it's own. So we rescheduled for October and Ty got to come with us. We stayed with my mom for part of the time and then rented a Beach Cottage for the other part of the trip. Our cottage was just around the corner from the beach and this made for amazing sunsets and sunrises. I will link everything we did and where we stayed.

Accomodations:
We stayed at Tropical Breeze Resort in Siesta Keys . We LOVED this place!! Super friendly and accommodating, so close to the beach and lots of room options. Check out our "Siesta Key" highlight reel on instagram at @itslaurenrebecca for all of our vaca details and tour of where we stayed. 

Dining:
As I had told you in a past post,  I was going to try and be more intentional about working out and eating healthier. And I did for the most part. We are usually pretty active on our vacations anyhow. Always out swimming or walking or doing some sort of adventure. But I made sure to get in a few workouts even if they were quick ones. It felt good to stay on track. Generally on vacation, I abandon all routine workouts and eating is a free for all. And sometimes that is ok because often you might not have enough time to workout or you just deserve a good break from trying to eat so on point all the time, and just enjoy eating and drinking whatever you please. Sometimes this doesn't work well for people because they feel like they fall off the wagon and it's like starting all over again when they return. For me, by the end of vacation, I am craving healthy foods, balance and some good fitness. So it is not a problem for me. This time it was more about not wanting to feel sick and bloated. So I made sure I incorporated a lot of healthy, clean meals and still had some full-on unhealthy, super chocolatey, greasy meals also. I'm a sucker for some good onion rings!! We had a full kitchen in our cottage so we also bought food and made some meals in our place.  Some places that we ate at were: Another Broken Egg (this was around the corner from where we stayed and they had the best breakfast. We ate here a lot), Green Zebra Cafe (this place had organic options and it was where we went when we needed a healthy meal), Meaney's Mini Donuts (We can't come to Siesta Keys without grabbing some of these deliciously amazing mini donuts), Osyter Bar or SKOB (My mom took the kids one night and Ty and I did some restaurant and live music searching. This place was great for seafood and some live music), Bon Jour French Cafe (They had GF and Vegan options),  Made in Rome Organic Gelato (Obv we had to try this place), The Cottage (this place was right around the corner from where we stayed too and they had great food and the drinks were good too)
Marina Jacks  (We ate dinner outdoors overlooking the ocean at this restaurant. Very cool atmosphere and they also had live music)

Things To Do:
We went to Big Cat Habitat in Sarasota, which I highly recommend! It wasn't expensive and it was so cool to see all of the wild cats. I had NO idea that a Liger was a real thing! No clue why we had no photos of the cats but I do recommend it. We rented little scooter cars and drove around the beaches.  The kids thought this was the best thing ever. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens was another favorite for the kids. They had the coolest gardens and fun little exploratory places included a tree with roots that they found amazing!
We also took one day and went to Busch Gardens. It was so empty there as far as people. We lucked out and got the place to ourselves. Kids loved the animals, rides, getting their faces painted and games there. We also really enjoyed just hanging out at the beach. Red Tide was just ending and when we went to the beach, we had a manatee come right up to us and stick his snout out of the water!!! Coolest thing ever!! The beach is such a therapeutic place. We spent lots of evenings and mornings there. The kids can never get enough of it.

On our way home, we flew Southwest and the pilots & staff were the best! They let the kids take a look at the cockpit and where they fly. Maxwell was in his glory! We had an awesome time as always and look forward to visiting my mother again.

Busch Gardens

Tropical Breeze Resort

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Another Broken Egg

Big Cat Habitat Sanctuary 

Marina Jacks

The Cottage