A Week With Our New Insta-Friends: Florida Edition

In June, we met our insta-friends Kristy & Vic for the very first time…as they were walking through our door…to stay with us for a week! And boy are we ever so glad we met them!!!

It has been a relationship full of food, fun and laughter…lots and lots of laughter! In fact, if we had to sum up our relationship in one image, it might have to be this one!

Last time we met them, we toured Greenville and Charleston. But this time, we made the 2 hour Southwest flight down to the land of Alligators and sunshine, Miami Florida! And we have to say, we had some of the most hospitable hosts you could ever imagine! Not only did they drive 45 minutes to pick us up from the airport when we arrived and fill their fridge with goodies they knew we would love (Haagen-Dasz Mint Chip, Alyssa’s favorite yogurt and coffee creamer, the list goes on), they put us up in the most fantastically welcoming guest room you ever did see! And that says nothing of the rest of their house which was so beautiful, we actually considered moving to Miami just to live with them indefinitely! We love the teals and the light colors. It makes Casa De Arias seem so inviting! The personal touches are everywhere and we felt so at home. Ryan immediately bonded with their puppy, Peanut (#thatdogpeanut for you instagramers). Peanut played with Ryan for hours! It might have had something to do with the brand new toy we brought him.

And let’s talk about how much food we ate this week. Seriously we probably ate enough to live on for years! Kristy & Vic took us to every imaginable place! We had ice cream, we had had the best pizza (Ryan looooves pizza), we had Italian, did we mention ice cream? Yes there was ice cream! AND the best cinnamon buns in the universe! Ok we have to go exercise now…

You may wonder what happens when two husband and wife photography teams get together for a week besides lots of eating. Well, we take lots of photos. Of each other. All day. Every day. Ok so that’s a slight exaggeration, but you get the point! There were plenty of image options for this post! And Kristy & Vic were so gracious to take lots of photos of us in MI-A-MI!

We spent one day over in Naples, Florida. It was absolutely beautiful! Yes, we had to cross over Alligator alley where all of the gators live, but we survived! The first thing we did when we got to Naples was…drumroll please…EAT!!! But once we were refueled we headed over to Coral Cay Adventure Golf for some High-Intensity Mini Golf! We called it Putt-Putt and Kristy & Vic had never heard of that before…are we weird?

We also explored beautiful downtown Naples. It reminded us of Greenville in some ways so we felt right at home! And of course we took some photos! We can’t ever tell you guys how much fun we have with these two. We wish we had a video of all of our times together. It would make a great TV show! “Keeping up with RA & KV”…”RAKV: Miami”…” It’s a work in progress.

Finally we headed out to Naples Pier to watch the sunset! It was glorious! We can’t wait to get back to Naples. Ryan saw some amazing golf courses he wants to try too!

Back in Miami, Kristy & Vic took us to one of their favorite art museums. We decided not to go in because the outside was fantastic! It was slightly windy that day. Ryan almost got blown away! We look absolutely crazy in some of these images. And we are. Ryan & Kristy were posing as store mannequins for a test shot and there’s really no explanation for some of these so why even try??!

Then we got serious and took some real photos! We loooooove this spot and we wish we could transport it back to Greenville with us!

While we were in the art district we made one last stop by a sweet wall we loved! It was hand-painted! We also went around the corner to a place called The Paniq Room. Basically they put you in a scary room and you try to find clues to help you escape in less than an hour. We all screamed like a baby at least once but it was so fun!

What a great way to spend a week! We will definitely be back and we can only hope we weren’t too crazy for Kristy & Vic to take us back again! We already miss Peanut and their beautiful house (not to mention the AMAZING food!). It’s always nice to be back home in Greenville, but we can’t wait for our next adventure!

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