Key Largo, Montego, Baby Why Don’t We Go (Or, a Week on The World’s Largest Cruise Ship): Part Threefeatured

Our first day in Florida began way too early…with Mom rummaging through her luggage…loudly. It was just as well — no time to waste when you’re on vacation. We lounged around the hotel until around 10:00 am and, after the obligatory we’re-in-Florida-OMG-a-palm-tree picture, we were on our way to Boca Raton for the day.

Stephanie and I spent all of our pre-elementary school winters with Mom and grandma in Boca and it holds some great memories for us. Mom and I’s first stop? Breakfast at the Boca Raton social hub: Einstein Bagel.

We spotted an Old Navy nearby and I wanted to get a pair of leggings so we headed in…and a half hour later we walked out with…winter coats for next year. They were on clearance for $8.97! Why they had winter coats in south Florida at all is beyond me but we’re set for next winter.

And from there…we got our shop on. There’s a TJ Maxx in Boca that’s really top notch (like legitimately top notch — we’re not talking three seasons past Calvin Klein. We’re talking Tory Burch, Proenza Schouler and Rebecca Minkoff) and we spent way too much time (and money) there before heading off to Boca Town Center to walk around for a bit.

We grabbed a quick lunch at Stir Crazy and then headed out for more shopping.

The next stop on our tour d’ Mastercard? The Colonnade Shops at Sawgrass Mills. Sawgrass Mills is the largest outlet mall in the United States and the Colonnade Shops are the higher-end outlets. I got promoted a month before we left and wanted to buy something to celebrate. Kate Spade 40% off store-wide sale? Happy promotion to me.

It was getting pretty hot out and I was parched. There was a Ben and Jerry’s kiosk nearby selling $7 smoothies and Costco bottled water for $3/bottle, but that was impossible to justify, so we headed into the mall and grabbed some smoothies in the food court.

After a day of shopping, we headed back to the hotel to rest and unwind for a bit.

In an effort to save space in our luggage (for, you know…shoes), we left most of our liquid toiletries at home and figured we’d buy them in Florida. Shopping in an unfamiliar Target? Not the best use of vacation time. Note to self for next time: buy toothpaste at home. Once we were stocked up on hairspray and sunscreen, we headed to Mom’s favorite SoFlo joint for dinner — Smokey Bones.

So here’s the thing — Smokey Bones? It’s not really anything special. It’s a chain restaurant that we don’t have in Illinois and that’s open late. We found it on a trip down to Fort Lauderdale a few years ago. Mom *loves* it here for reasons that are beyond my comprehension. We have far superior ribs at home in Chicago at Carson’s. But Mom loves it and it’s special to her (and they have amazing happy hour specials), so we had a nice dinner of cornbread (served with a honey walnut butter that was INSANELY good), ribs and chicken.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel because it was Thursday night and Thursday nights mean one thing: Grey’s Anatomy (what? The network season finale schedule doesn’t stop for vacation). We caught the tail end of American Idol before Grey’s. At some point, Stephanie stopped taking my phone calls so I’d stop spoiling the episode for her (she was saving the ep to watch when she flew in the next morning). And then I spent the rest of the night showering, flat ironing my hair and watching my trashy reality shows while I pondered whether or not Shonda killed off Dr. Webber before heading off to sleep.