I had a good day today. A really good day. I woke up at 6 am to head out for a run. I hit the beach with no music, no set goals/pace, and no plan. I ran with just my thoughts, God, and the sound of the ocean in my ears.

I had time for four slower, steady miles again to process some thoughts and simply be with myself. At the end of my run, I happened to come across two very special people – Peter and Makenzie. We strolled the beach a little longer together before coming in for breakfast. I once again had my favorite bowl of oatmeal and some refreshing iced coffee.

Something about iced coffee tastes that much more refreshing at the beach. I savored it over a chill morning before getting ready for a special lunch date I had planned for later.

Julie and I have been buddies through the online world even before we both began blogging. Last year, when we knew we would be in closer proximity, we made sure to get together for a lunch. We had such a great time and needed to continue that tradition again when I came to Florida this year. And luckily, two other friends managed to add to the fun as well – Meghann and Kelly! I couldn’t wait to get the chance to meet both of them for the first time since we have bonded online for so long.

We met up at the Virgin Olive Market in Orlando for a lot of girl talk and sandwiches.

We were all ready to eat so hit up the order counter right after my arrival. I ordered the “Laughing Uncello” sandwich, which included turkey breast, provolone cheese, fresh basil, tomato & onion with a sundried tomato aioli all pressed on focaccia bread.

The sundried tomato aioli made this sandwich. Also, the focaccia. Without a doubt, focaccia makes a good sandwich. I loved every bite…and I do mean every bite. I ate the whole thing over the span of our almost 3 hour chat. Yep. Almost 3 hours. I would expect no less putting four women who love to share their lives and participate in such a fabulous community together. We talked blogging, relationships, Healthy Living Summit, family, running, babies, and more. I cannot wait to see them again…which luckily I won’t have to because we will all have the chance to spend more time together at HLS in August and at the Savannah RNR Race in November. Yay!

picture taken from Meghann because mine was super blurry

Hanging out with blog friends never fails to provide a lot of wonderful conversation, laughs, and plain ole fun. Next year hopefully I will remember to plan ahead enough to make it a bigger meet-up. More bloggers just means more fun!

• What do you love most about the blogging community?

I know many of you might be a bit over the Fitbloggin recaps. And I know I have already shared the following posts over my insights from the conference:

• Blog Tips Part One – Being Yourself, SEO, Building Relationships
• Blog Tips Part Two – Value of Readers, Goals of Blogging, Invest in Your Passion

But I sincerely hope you grant me just one more post to allow me to relive my fun and have a chance to capture it in this post as a virtual keepsake of sorts. I promise cute baby pictures at the end! 😉

In my first recap, I left off after our first morning with the many fitness activities. It seems so long ago and doesn’t even begin to cover the main conference events! Friday afternoon consisted of two panels: one discussed blog and brand relationships while the other touched on blogging as a hobby versus as a profession. After those, we all got prepped and ready for the Sears Social at 6 before heading out to dinner.

The social was fairly low-key. We all grabbed our complimentary drinks and hung around for awhile chatting while deciding on where to head for dinner. No matter what though, when you stick a bunch of bloggers in a room it will be a good time.

from top left: with Jenn, with Tina, with Gabriela & Courtney, social shot

After the social, a group of 12 of us headed to Mo’s Seafood for dinner.

Somewhere we had heard a recommendation for the restaurant and it sounded like a great fit…until we got there. The service was far from stellar and the food was far from delicious. It tasted okay, but my crab cake had a ton of shell in it (ew!) and the shrimp/scallops were in a very bland sauce. At least they were cooked alright though!

Veggies and bread rounded out the meal.

Along with great company!

Courtney, Amanda, Julie, Theodora, Heather, Gracie, Gabriela, Nicole, Anne, Tina, Jac

At least when service is slow we have plenty to talk about! I had a great time with these ladies and I miss them all already.

Saturday consisted of conference sessions all day long. They had so many great ones to choose from! I fueled myself up with a banana and a bowl of oats topped with berries, granola, and maple syrup to get through the first half of the day.

Then, I got my live blogging fingers ready to capture the blogging from hobby to career session. I don’t think I have typed so fast in my life. I was glad to have my duty out of the way in the first session so I could relax, enjoy, and note-take at my own pace in the other sessions I attended:

• Building an Online Community:Balancing, Monetizing and Inspiring!
• Ditch The Diet: Eat Intuitively
• SEO For Fitness Bloggers: Increasing Visits & Monetizing Search Traffic
• Know Your Stats (although I quickly learned I wished I had attended the Blogger Responsibility talk instead as the stats info was more basic than I expected)

We powered through those sessions with the only real break coming for lunch.

I want that lunch in my life again. It consisted of roasted vegetable mix, potatoes with red peppers, an apple and cabbage slaw/salad with blue cheese, and a roll. So good! It even held me over fairly well until heading to dinner with the roomies that night.

Luckily dinner on Saturday had much better food! I craved something rather different than my norm, but I went with it. Even though everyone around me ordered spinach salads that sounded amazing, I couldn’t deny the sudden hankering for fish and chips after seeing them on the menu.

They delivered. I devoured them. And still had room for a little fudge pit stop later. Always room for dessert, you know? We even booked it to the fudge shop to make sure we got our fudge fix before they closed! On the way back to the hotel we stopped off to say good-bye to some of our other blog friends before everyone began heading home in the morning.

My shuttle picked me up at around 10 am, which gave me plenty of time in the airport. What better way to kill time than with some food? I was hangry after only having a larabar earlier that morning. Enter Starbucks perfect oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit.

It was my first time having it and I was fairly impressed. It did a nice job of filling me up for my flight home. After leaving everyone I could not wait to get going home. I missed my little family so much!!!

I immediately teared up upon seeing those faces greeting me. Home really is where the heart is! And oh – go figure that Baby B learned to roll over while I was gone. I guess he wanted to have his own special surprise for me for when I got home.

• Do you like seafood? I’m very picky about seafood and will typically only eat it when at a beach. Unless it’s sushi or Cheeky’s fish tacos of course.
• What is a travel food pit stop you usually go with?