Looking Back at April 2025

Ooh, good grief. We are almost at the end of May and I am just writing about April recap. Cheese and crackers!!!!!!!

April was a fun month with Keith’s birthday and then a trip to Mobile, Al for a little weekend getaway and to see Bellingrath Gardens.

Bookish stuff:

I only read 3 books in April.

2 Netgalley/ARC reads: The Five Year Lie and Beach House Rules and 1 library book: The Queens of Crime.

My Netgalley ratio remains 70%. For every few books I get ahead, I accept a few books which evens all it out.

My Netgalley approvals for April was HOT!!!!!!!

Filling my cup:

Keith’s Birthday: Supper at Tico’s in Ridgeland. Steak and shrimp! Yum!

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!!!

As many of you know I am in my plant lady era and I love long walks in the garden center…. Clearly….

Mobile, AL Trip

We took a quick trip to Mobile, AL for a belated birthday trip for Keith. Part of the reason we went was because we had both been wanting to see Bellingrath Gardens and the other reason was because I saw news about a limited time event called Gulf Coast Chinese Lantern Festival happening and it was just a great time to get away down there.

We stayed at The Battle House Renaissance in Mobile and we absolutely LOVED it there. The place was SO nice. Easy to get to, right in the downtown area, and even a Chick Fil A right next door for a quick breakfast and coffee (hubby absolutely hates coffee in hotels- at least the ones in the hotel room) so it was nice to have a CFA right next door because I could order from the app, run down there, and they would be calling out my name!

I had a FANTASTIC massage there that morning. I love a good massage and this spa did not disappoint. I enjoyed some time in the relaxing room, drinking water and reading.

On the Thursday night, when we arrived- we went to Felix’s Fish Camp and really enjoyed the food like always.

They brought out a piece of cheesecake for Keith!

After my massage on Friday, we headed to Bellingrath Gardens. We wanted to walk the gardens a bit during the day before we came back to see the Chinese Lantern Festival. I was upset to realize I had missed the azaleas by just a week or so, but the roses were beginning to bloom.

After walking around for awhile, the gardens close at 4 to get ready to reopen at 5 for the festival. We drove on down to Dauphin Island and rode around, then decided to eat before we headed back to Bellingrath Gardens. We decided to try Islander’s Restaurant and Bar. While the crab cakes were amazingly yummy- everything else we had (shrimp and fried crawfish) were just too overly fried.

The Chinese Lantern Festival was really fun. I love things like this so I was dancing around, taking pictures and getting all excited over the lights!

Saturday, we really didn’t have a plan exactly so we went to a bookstore I stumbled upon The Haunted Book Shop and it was fun to look around for a bit, and even though I did not get to pet the book store cat because the cat was sleeping, I did get a picture!

Outside of our hotel, the flowers were blooming!

On Saturday, we had a late lunch at Squid Ink. We missed the brunch by 30+ minutes and so we made plans to have brunch there on Sunday because I am all about chicken and beignets. Our shrimp poboy on Saturday was quite tasty and we enjoyed a nice long walk in the downtown area after eating.

Sunday morning, we were getting ready to leave, but before we left- a quick stop at Squid Ink for brunch. The chicken and beignets were YUMMY!

A couple of days I returned after my vacation, it was time for Administrative Professionals Day and I am STILL waiting for my boss to acknowledge the day. I had to post my own Happy Administrative Professionals Day post to Facebook and that really sucked. Luckily, hubby thought enough of me and bought me some breakfast.