A few weeks ago we celebrated my husband’s fiftieth birthday in style. In November, his sisters and I rented a house through VRBO.com in Treasure Island — a beach town about 12 miles west of St. Petersburg, FL.

The view from the back porch of our rented house on Treasure Island Beach.

Say what you will about Florida and its residents, but when you need a quick get-a-way that is also special, the state is full of fabulous spots which are never very far away. This particular great spot was a beach house with three baths and five bedrooms which slept about one hundred people (OK. Ten.)

After a two-hour drive from home, we arrived and there were greeted by family who traveled from “up east” to make the long weekend a real surprise for my guy. My daughter was equally blown away to see her cousin, Jennie. Much quality sand-castle-building time was had by those parties under 20.

The rest of us strolled the sugar-sand beach and perfected shell collecting while dolphins leaped and played just off shore (other than my husband’s expression when he saw his dad and sisters, the dolphins were my favorite part of the weekend).

One night we drove to Ybor City, a historic part of Tampa famous for being a center of  cigar production around the turn of the century.

Dinner at Ybor’s Colombia Restaurant, a tourist magnet that actually serves good food, was a rare get-a-way from the beach. We also bought groceries and served meals on the huge wooden table on our porch overlooking the ocean. Of course there are many opportunities for outings in the area, including the Dali Museum, Busch Gardens theme park and many nature parks, but we really wanted to spend time together as a family and stick close to the lovely coast.

The birthday cake we sisters made was fabulous, too! I’m glad our family finally found a reasonably priced place to host annual gatherings where we can all stay under one roof. I am certain we will be back one day in the not too distant future.In the meantime, my immediate family is preparing to visit my sister and her family in LA, and jump off to Asia from there – Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia to be specific. We will be traveling (including the five year old) for about 10 weeks. A lot of planning has gone into this trip, while  leaving enough wiggle room for spontaneous exploration. I’ll post as often as possible about our experiences as we visit beaches, cities, temples, jungles, rivers, mountains and everything in-between.