Nikki, Eva and I got back from Florida early Sunday morning. We were gone for all of Thanksgiving week and it was great to be away from work for a week. Surprisingly I don't get a lot of email... I don't think I had more than 30-40 emails at work to go through, and about 10 personal ones. RSS feed items are a different story though... and I'm at the threshold where I don't even read anything anymore because there's too much stuff to go through. Time to wipe RSS Bandit almost clean again...

Anyway, we stayed in North Redington Beach, which is just a little gulf coast town outside of Tampa. The weather was not typical Florida weather, and the temperatures were around 60 F for most of the week. Nothing that a few sweatshirts can't handle though... instead of spending time on the beach we did other stuff like go to the Tampa zoo. I really don't care for just spending time on the beach anyway. Otherwise by Wednesday it was warming up again and by Thanksgiving day it was well above 70 F.

Eva did great on the flights and in an unfamiliar place. She was a little out-of-sorts the entire week because of not being home, but she loved all the new experiences like walking on the beach and playing in the sand.

Friday we went to a Tampa Bay Lightning game at the St. Pete Times Forum, where the Lightning hosted the Atlanta Thrashers. It was a great game - but it made us really appreciate how great the Wild's Xcel Energy Center is. The St. Pete Times Forum is a lot like the Minneaplis Target Center - it's aging a little bit and it was built more as a multi-purpose arena than strictly for hockey. The fans there are great and they love their team. They're arguably louder than us mild-mannered Minnesota fans are. It looked like the almost had a sold-out game there, which speaks volumes about how a winning franchise can make hockey popular in a non-traditional market.

On Thanksgiving day we cooked a turkey in our place and had a great dinner with just the five of us. It was kinda weird - I'd have had a Thanksgiving dinner where 1) the weather was warm, 2) there weren't fewer than 10 people, 3) it was relatively quiet while eating, and 4) I had a sunburn. Normally it's cold, there are 2-3 tables of friends and family, and chaotic with kids running around. Breaking tradition is always a good thing! It was an outstanding dinner - Nikki's mom is an awesome cook.

It was a good time but I'm also glad to be back home. What's next? Not sure... Nikki and I are throwing around the idea of flying out east (Boston?) for a quick getaway maybe next spring.