I figured there was never a better time to start a family blog than now. This year we took our VERY FIRST Family Vacation!! We went to Clearwater Beach, FL and had a BLAST!! We arrived on Thursday (07-17-08) to a slightly overcast and rainy Florida. I was kind of bummed because the weather reports I checked right before we left proved to be true. The flight wasn't too bad, actually it was fine minus the almost two year old on my lap that was restless and bored, and who continuously but unintentionally kept kicking the seat in front of us. I am sure that man, whoever he was, was never so happy to get off an airplane.
After we landed, picked up our rental car and checked into our hotel we went out and did a little exploring of our surroundings. We drove up and down Clearwater Beach, stopped to dip our feet in the ocean, and have dinner at a great little Greek Pizza place right on the main drag. Completely exhausted by the trip and our full bellies from the fabulous food we made our way back to the hotel for a good nights sleep, well as good as can be expected for Robby and I since we had to share the room with Wyatt and Garrett.
In the morning after a decent breakfast we headed out for the beach. We decided on a smaller more private beach a little closer to our hotel called Indian Rocks Beach, it was GORGEOUS!! A little more private than mainstream Clearwater Beach it was just what we were looking for. Garrett immediately took to the water like the little fish that he is, Wyatt on the other hand was just not so sure about this great big body of water. The entire time we had him out in the water (which was not long) all he kept saying was "down, down!" So I took him ashore and we played in the sand for awhile. He liked that much better. He was perfectly content staying on land and playing at the waters edge. Shortly there after I had to go in and rinse all the sand off of me and out of my butt crack. As I started to wade in towards Robby who had been in the water floating around as school of about 5 or 6 Devil Rays swam right between Robby and me. It was the coolest thing ever.
We hung around Indian Rocks Beach for a couple hours and then packed up and trekked across the street to Crabby Bills Restaurant for and early dinner. We were all starving having been out in the sun all day despite the lunch we ate on the beach. This little restaurant was so cool! The inside looks like an old boat house, the food is amazing, and relatively cheap! After a good meal we all piled back in the car and drove a little further south to check out St. Pete's Beach on a recommendation of a friend. We played around there for a little while, looking for shells and digging our feet in the sand, before we headed home to crash!
On day 3 we headed north this time to a city called Dunedin. Robby's grandparents lived there when he was a kid and he spent most of his summers there. We drove by his grandparents old house, took a picture of it and headed on to our main destination a place called Tarpon Springs. We ate lunch at this great Greek restaurant called Mr. Souvlaki's. I had something called a Souvlaki (sort of like a Gyro) and Robby had a Gyro. Let me just tell you how amazing the food was!! Normally I don't like Gyro's, but the food at this place was unbelievable! After lunch we walked around Tarpon Springs for the rest of the day. It is a cute little Greek town famous for Sponge Fishing. Florida has a very large Greek population for this reason. Greeks, who were already avid sponge fishers heard of the abundance of sponges in the Gulf of Mexico and immigrated to the area. Anyhow, while we were there we went on a "Dolphin Cruise." Basically we took a boat ride out to the Gulf and got to see some dolphins swimming around. The boat captain got them stirred up a little and we got to see them jump in and out of the water right behind the boat. It was way cool!
On Day 4 we were back at the beach. This time we went to a beach called Honeymoon Island. It was a beach on a barrier island inside a state park. The place was beautiful of course and Garrett caught some choice waves on his boogie board. I had some fabulous photos of that day, but my retarded self somehow deleted them all. Don't ask me how I did it I'm not quite sure myself, but I did. Anyhow we hung out there most of the day until Wyatt (who really just doesn't like the beach at all) had enough and we went on home.
For day 5 we decided to drive up north to a town called Homasasa Springs. They have a really cool wildlife reserve there and we wanted to give the kids something educational on this vacation too. It was really cool actually, we got to see all kinds of neat animals that are native to Florida like Manatee's and some that are not, like this Hippo that had been part of this reserve since before it was a reserve. He used to belong a traveling circus who would camp in the park in the winter. Well when the circus disbanded and the park was turned into a wildlife reserve the hippo stayed. The governor of Florida wanted to get rid of him at one point because he was not an animal native to Florida. But the people of Homasasa Springs loved him so much and threw such a fit the Governor made him an honorary citizen so he could stay, and so he is still there today! When we got back to the hotel that night I don't know what got into the kids but I think someone spiked their juice with caffeine because they got this GREAT (haha) idea that it would be fun to tackle mommy. They were having a great time but I soon tired of this abusive game and ended it much to their dismay.
Day 6 it was back to Indian Rocks Beach. Hurricane Dolly was hitting the gulf by this time wreaking havoc on Texas. What amazes me is how much it affected the gulf all the way over by us in Florida. The current was sooo much stronger on this day and the waves were enough to knock a large adult off their feet if they weren't paying attention. So Garrett had yet another day of "choice waves" and poor Monkey was still just miserable with the whole beach thing. He chilled up on shore most of the time and only ventured out into the water when made too. As you can see from the pic he wouldn't even show his face, that is how UNHAPPY he was by the fact that I had YET AGAIN drug him out into the water. Well at least Garrett was enjoying himself, well that was until an enormous wave took him for a ride that he didn't quite enjoy. He got knocked down and pulled under and probably had his life flash before his eyes, but after a moment of crying he was back at it again. No STUPID WAVE was gonna ruin his fun! God I love him for that.
After a nice long day at the beach, and when I had had enough of trying to keep Monkey happy, (which is NEVER a small task) we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up for a REALLY NICE dinner. We went to Landry's Seafood Restaurant on the bay in Tampa. Yet again the food was FREAKIN' AMAZING!!!! I had the biggest damn shrimp I have ever seen wrapped in bacon and grilled in the best seasoning ever. I can't quite remember what Robby had, I was a little too preoccupied with my own amazing dish. We sat outside on the patio and had the most beautiful view of Tampa Bay and were really enjoying the totally fabulous key lime pie we had ordered, until the mosquito's started to attack. I don't know where they came from, but as soon as the sun went down they were like "stick on shit!" They were everywhere and they were HUGE!!!! So needless to say we quickly finished the pie payed the bill and got the hell out of there.
Since day 7 was our last day we decided to do something special for Garrett. He had been begging us to go hunting for seashells since the day we arrived. So, we decided for our last day we would take Garrett to the best place to shell hunt in all of Florida, Sanibel Island! Sanibel is another barrier island on the gulf side of Ft. Meyers Florida. I had the day all planned, we would get up early have a quick breakfast and get on the road. Sanibel is about 2 hours south of Tampa so we had a bit of a drive ahead of us, but we really wanted to do something special Garrett. Well right off the bat that morning things were not going as planned. Robby woke up feeling very ill. The fish that he had eaten the night before didn't agree with his stomach so he was in the bathroom off and on all night and most of the morning. So I had to run across the street to the pharmacy and get him some Imodium. After the kids and had breakfast I decided that I would take them by myself to Sanibel. As I was preparing everything Robby decided that he was finally feeling better and that he would go after all. So finally about lunch time we got on the road and headed for Sanibel.
A few hours later we finally arrived in Sanibel. Although it was not really the right time for shell hunting (generally low tide is preferred) we still were able to find some really cool stuff. After some shell hunting we took a little time to swim and then headed back to the hotel to pack for our return home the next day.
We had the most awesome time in Florida that we are for sure going to return next year. Instead of booking a hotel next year we are going to rent a condo on the beach. They are just as reasonable as a hotel and you have a full kitchen so eating out isn't always a must.
The flight home started out better than the flight there. Wyatt was exhausted and slept the entire time. Well at least until we started our descent into St. Louis. the change in cabin pressure made his ears hurt and he woke up from his nap screaming!!! I was that person with the screaming child that I had always despised on other flights. God I was never so happy to get off that plane!! Coming home was of course bittersweet. I could have stayed in Florida forever! Clearwater was beautiful, the food was fabulous and the people were extremely friendly, but living out of a suitcase for a week is enough to drive you mad.
As sleepy as Monkey was that is exactly how rip roaring and ready to go Grace was. She was already in rare form that morning and driving Dita nuts. It was a nice morning a little chilly but quickly warmed up. By the time we got there Monkey was ready to go!
