Hello, everyone! What have you all been up to? My life got a kick in the hectic pants with a heavier than usual workload, an illness that I called the “five-day malaise,” and a whirlwind work trip. All of those things have kept me from Work Play and Chardonnay. I'm hoping to make up for that over the next few weeks with lots and lots of posts.
Let it be known…”lots” for this blog is defined as “two a week.”
Despite all of the work and the bout of the illin', I was able to get a quick girls trip in with my bestie Nicole of An American Introvert in London. Earlier in the year, we had determined we wanted to stay in as many unique Airbnbs as humanly (and financially) possible. So in June we stayed in a yurt and to kick off autumn, we booked a stay in a tiny house.
Here's a glimpse into our “Tiny Girls Trip”…
I'd like to thank HGTV for my obsession with tiny homes. If there is a tiny home show out on the airwaves, I have probably seen it. Tiny House Hunters. Tiny Luxury. Tiny House, Big Living. The little houses might not be the right fit for my everyday life, but I have always wanted to stay in one. They just come across as a larger scale dollhouse. Did anyone else want to live in a dollhouse as a child?
The tiny home we rented is located in a small RV park in the College Park area of Orlando. It featured a small kitchen, a full bathroom, and three different sleeping areas. One “bedroom” was accessible with stairs, another with a ladder, and one down low also served as the living area couch.
Guess who decided to sleep down low after a few glasses of wine? Safety first, people.
Despite its name, our lodging was quite spacious for the night. It was also parked right on the water, so we spent a couple of hours chatting outside while sipping wine. I mean…how gorgeous is the view?
The kitchen was tiny, so we decided to enjoy dinner at East End Market in nearby Audubon Park. East End Market has a collection of stores and restaurants and is a foodie paradise. I had read that La Femme du Fromage offered a Grilled Cheese Happy Hour every Friday, so that was our first course of the night.
If you live in the Orlando area and love cheese don't walk…run to La Femme du Fromage. I mean….running helps burn some calories found in the ooey gooey goodness La Femme has to offer. Our grilled cheese flight with beer pairing made for the happiest of hours for the two of us.
Note: We didn't run or walk to East End Market. We Uber'd.
Our second course of the night found us at Florida & Co – an eatery that combines naturally locally grown ingredients served up with a dose of the “health.” We had wine filled with antioxidants. And I think the shrimp lettuce wraps qualify as a salad. Am I the only one that thinks that?
We made one last stop before heading out to our Uber (safety!) A quick return to La Femme du Fromage to pick up little wine and cheese to enjoy at our tiny abode.
Here are some of my key learnings from our TGT (how many times can I write “tiny” out in this post? Isn't it a wee bit annoying to be so darn repetitive?)
- Staying one night in a tiny house was just right for this Goldilocks. It was cute. It was cozy. It's just not practical for my cooking and baking hobby or the need to “hide” from other humans while at home.
- Getting down from a loft via a ladder while sober in the daylight is a challenge. However, I bet Cirque du Soleil performers would rock the loft and ladder combo.
- A Grilled Cheese Happy Hour is a genius idea. I need more GCHH in my life.
- A lettuce wrap is a salad masquerading as a sandwich. Or is it a sandwich masquerading as a salad?
Have you ever stayed in a tiny house or know someone that lives in one? Are there any “different” types of homes that you have visited or would like to do so? My list of funky dwellings to vacation in is long – a pyramid, a boathouse, an Airstream – to name a few.
I can't wait to blog more! I hope y'all are in the mood to read more. I missed you!
Work Hard. Play Hard. Drink Chard.
Laurie