It was a rough night. The room adjacent to ours at the Tideline was occupied by a noisy bunch. Two couples, two whiney toddlers, a yippy dog. I read about 100 pages of my book between 11:30 and 1:00, not able to rest for more than a second. At 1:30 Zak went to the front desk and asked if we could change rooms to sleep. They didn’t have another one available, but they spoke to the party. Didn’t help. At 3:30 they started vacuuming (we later put it together that it would be idiotic to bring a vacuum to a Kimpton, so it may have been an air mattress.) I think I finally fell asleep at 4. Worst night of the whole trip, and I freaking camped 5 of the nights. Our alarms were set for 7, and it turns out we really like watching HGTV at a ridiculously loud volume while we get ready.
We left the Tideline early, grabbed cups of coffee for the road, stopped immediately at a Panera for more coffee and made the hour and a half drive north to Vero Beach Hotel and Spa, our last Kimpton. We were way too early for our room, so we headed out to the pool and adjacent beach. My jaw dropped when I saw the space. It is simply beautiful. Attention has been poured into every detail to make this the most serene swimming setting. The pool butts right up the the beach making transitioning between the two so easy.
In the early afternoon I received a call that our room was ready. I thanked them and told them we would take our time finishing the checking in process since we were at the pool. He said that there was a little gift that was time sensitive. Zak went up first, and the rest of us followed a few minutes later. Our room is beyond anything I’ve been in. Two actual bedrooms, a gigantic spa-like bathroom, a beautiful living space, and a huge wrap around porch. The living space was sprinkled with the most thoughtful welcome amenities. A whole pitcher of lemonade for the girls, beach toys, a glass jar to collect sand and shells, two key lime pies, rum runners, bottled FRED water, and more. We are ridiculously grateful. And blown away.
We spent the rest of the afternoon switching between the pool and the beach. Between riding the waves and having ‘who can stand on their noodle the longest’ contests. Between sipping ice cold cucumber infused water and ice cold draft beer. Between digging our toes in sand and trying to keep them in the shade of the umbrella. Between admiring the never ending horizon and the most stunning pool tile, made of shells and sea glass.
At some point, long after wine hour, we cleaned up our sunscreen bottles, nearly empty by this point in the trip, and headed back to our “quarters.” We showered, cleaned ourselves up for dinner, and headed to the Kimpton restaurant, Cobalt. We received the most lovely table overlooking the beach. (That’s another perk of being Inner Circle members at Kimptons, they guarantee you the best table available at any of their restaurants.) We reminisced about the past six weeks, best meals, best hikes, best hotels, as we shared the most divine lobster mac and cheese. The chef’s tasting (another Inner Circle perk) was their famous truffle fries with garlic aioli. Zoe had grilled chicken with a salad of mixed greens, Ellie devoured more mac and cheese, Zak had gigantic scallops with chorizo risotto, and I had braised short rip with asparagus, roasted potatoes, and a poached egg. All of it was phenomenonal.
So that was day 39. Just about as close to perfect as you can get.
Here are some pictures from the last few days. We’ve resorted to only using phones for pics as it is much more convenient. And for some reason, but phone keeps flipping the images 90 degrees and I can’t edit them in the blog on my phone. Ugh.
