So, what do three gals do when they are on "vacation" and the weather is nice? Well, how about the BEACH?!?!?! The guys bowed out of this one--I think Dad was content with staying home and checking out his gang of old guys he knows on the block here. He is also keeping an eye on the neighbor's house that is being sold and remodeled. We think he is being a bit nosy, but, his curiosity is being rewarded with some good information on who is moving in! Rod had to make a quick trip to North Florida to be at his Dad's birthday party--more on that later!
To make this somewhat of a business write-off, we left on Tuesday--a day the weather wasn't really beach-worthy. My lye supplier is a couple miles off the highway at Lakeland, so we did a quick stop and picked up three 55# bags to get me through the spring and maybe summer...now onto VACATION!
We also had to make a stop in Clearwater to drop off a portrait of my Mom's cousin. That was a sad sidetrip though, as it turns out her cancer is back...but...it did give my Mom a chance to visit with her and her husband. We hope for the best, but, this time it may not be enough.
Jodie of course really wanted to spend time in the sun--the winter up in Illinois and Wisconsin has been brutal this year. And honestly, the winter in Florida has been a lot colder than usual. So we were all ready to relax in the sun.
We checked into the Extended Stay America in St. Pete using my CheckInn card for a great low rate, called the guys to let them know we arrived safe and sound and then proceeded to decide on a dinner place. We all wanted it to be somewhere beachy....so we decided on Sloppy Joes. That was a bit south of where we were on the north end of St. Petersburg, near the airport, but, how else do you start a vacation? We needed calypso music and big, pretty drinks with umbrellas in them!
So, we hit the highway...only to find a rush hour traffic jam. Dang. Mom was in the backseat telling us her blood sugar was getting low and we needed to hurry. Only trouble was, it's hard to hurry when you can't do more than 5 miles an hour! We made it onto I-275 and after a bit, it finally loosened up so we could do about 30 mph. We made our exit, headed west toward the beach and finally got to Gulf Blvd where we headed south to Treasure Island.
On the ride there, we must have seen a dozen ice cream stands, which Mom promptly cataloged for later reference. She was still trying to break our diet...and honestly after 6 weeks of hassling over menus and "treats" my will was broken too. Besides, it WAS Jodie's vacation, right?!
Sloppy Joes wasn't that busy mid-week, so we sat out on the back porch and enjoyed the cloudy, drizzling weather. By the time we finished our big "dessert" drinks--they were a bright cheery GREEN for St. Patrick's Day--the sun was just breaking out of the clouds at the horizon. So, we hit the boardwalk for some quick sunset pictures. Then we made the obligatory ice cream stop before hitting the grocery store for supplies. We made it back to the room, caught the distressing news that Natashia Richardson was in critical condition after a skiing mishap on the bunny slope and then hit the hay.
Wednesday dawned the perfect Florida beach day. Thank you God! We were headed down to the southern tip of the county to Fort DeSoto Park. I toured the girls around the campground and the eastern end of the park where we were greeted with about two dozen wind surfers catching big jumps on the steady winds. It was fantastic...how the heck do they hand onto to sails???
After a few minutes, we headed to the western side of the park where the beach access is...and we found not too many Spring Breakers when we got our umbrella set up. A group of six were within listening distance...and it was kind of fun hearing what those kids were doing. Jodie and I took a nice long walk up to the northern curve of the beach--picking up some shells along the way, before I settled into a good book and some serious tanning.
We stayed the day, getting some nice tans and a fair amount of redness too--Rod would have been giving us the "doneness" test! The wind was blowing steady all day long, so, it was really comfortable laying out. I ventured as far as mid-knee in the too cool water, but, Mom made it in to her waist before plunging up to her neck in the surf. We left when a few clouds moved in about 4-5pm...just a picture perfect day!
That night we stopped at a Carrabbas restaurant in Clearwater for dinner. A pitcher of Sangria and some wonderful food--ah, what a perfect day. I don't even think that Mom bugged me about ice cream...but I may have had too much sangria to remember!
So, since we all had plenty of sun on Wednesday, we decided a shopping trip was in order for Thursday before we headed back to Orlando. We had passed the John's Pass shopping area in Madiera Beach and we decided to go back there to check for souveniers and things. I am not the world's greatest shopper. I prefer to get in and out FAST and I am not overly concerned with fashion--of course those of you who know me, know I live in shorts and tees year round. LOL
So the shopping trip was tolerated by me, but, I think Jodie and Mom found enough goodies to get their shopping fix.
One thing that I found really hysterical....there was a little bar on the north end of the shopping blocks. They had sorta oldies music playing...and when you looked--every single person in the bar (except the servers) was gray haired!!! EVERY ONE...cross my heart hope to die. We found the Oldies equivalent of a Spring Break Hangout!!! I wish I had gotten the name of the place so I could turn you onto it, but, those of us nearing "that" age got a tickle out of it. And those of us at "that" age, were swaying to the music and drinking up the post-St Pats Day beers. Oh, here's a picture, maybe you can make out the name...
We made it back to Orlando via the Skyway Bridge where the guys had dinner basically ready for us. What a nice way to spend a couple days with Mom and Jodie. Hey, girls, lets do it again next year!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment