Spring Break 2018 - Catching Up with Lots of Friends/Family

We were fortunate to be able to blend our vacation time with some nice visits with friends and family -- some planned and some unexpected nice surprises. Our first surprise came from Ron's colleague and friend Kevin Cooper, who saw our sunset facebook post from our first night in Florida. He was on vacation with his family on nearby Anna Maria Island. After our time in St. Pete's beach, we spent a half day with the Cooper family playing on the beautiful beaches of Anna Maria.



After time with the Coopers, we headed to Tampa to see our friends' son, Casey Mittlestadt, play in one of his first NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres. We were lucky to be in town when they were playing the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was a pretty special evening. We started the night with a traditional pregame at Hattricks with his dad Tom. We then went to the game where we got to see Casey score his very first NHL goal!!! Pretty darn cool! We then had a nice surprise by running into one of Mom's business school classmates Hal Perdew (and his wife Stephanie) who were also at the game. And we ended the night by getting to say hi and congratulations to Casey!



Our last 24 hours in Florida were also spent with family and friends. The night after the hockey game, we took a quick detour to St. Petersburg to have coffee, bagels and bacon with another one of Trisha's business school classmates and former General Mills colleagues (Chris Brandt and wife Heather), at their beautiful home. It was so nice to catch up with old friends. We then headed to the Villages to spend the afternoon and evening with Aunt Joy, Uncle Bud, and Aunt Mary. The weather did not cooperate for evening music but we had some nice toasts to Great Granny Kohls and a fun evening of Mexican Train.