Florida Shutterfly Photo Book

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Here's my recent photobook for our last trip - Florida in February. Wish I was there now!

WR: The Dells

Over the weekend, we met my fam in the Dells at Chula Vista for the annual WISCO Show. Thanks to Curt & Robin for watching Chester!

We had a nice weekend visiting with family, enjoying the outdoor hot tub Friday night, shopping on Saturday morning at the Tanger Outlet mall with my mom and sister, meeting up with Kasey & fam also in town for her birthday weekend, going to the waterpark Saturday afternoon, getting dressed up and cutting a rug at the Wisco Show dinner and dance Saturday night,

and then spending the day Sunday at the waterpark. It made for a long weekend, but it was great to get away!

Clearwater Beach Part 3: Last day on the beach + flight home

Our last day in Clearwater, we packed up and then hit the beach around 10:30. We walked down the pier, and enjoyed the view of the coastline. 

 

 

Halfway down the pier is a little hut and you have to pay $1 to walk to the end (or $8 if you want to fish off it). We could have skipped this part as the end was full of bird poop and fishermen. Not glamorous at all.

After our walk down the pier, we strolled down the beach and found a quiet spot to lay out our towels for the afternoon. We enjoyed people watching and relaxing in the sun. Of course it clouded up and got foggy, but it was still nice and relaxing.

Around lunch time, Adam ran across the street and grabbed us a quick lunch from McD's. For dessert, we split some mocha crunch ice cream. Yum!

Then I did some shelling and frolicking in the waves while Adam napped.

 

We headed back to the condo at 3 for our 6:10 flight home.

Curt and Robin nicely gave us a ride to the airport, where we checked a bag so we could bring some fish back. My dad was bummed he hadn't brought any of his fish back from their trip the week before, so I had promised that if I brought any back for us I would bring his too. Poor Adam had to carry this huge cooler through the airport and got lots of weird looks. Going through security, they had a lot of questions and made him poke a hole in the styrofoam top to let out the dry ice.

We thought it would fit in the overhead, but oh no. And of course there was a rude lady behind us making a scene about it not fitting. I thought Adam was going to freak out. It didn't fit under the seats either, but he finally was able to wedge it between the seats and stick his coat over it so the flight attendants wouldn't notice that it wasn't properly stowed. I felt so bad for him and let him have some of my legroom on the flight. To add insult to injury, the lady in front of him reclined her seat. Oh, and the plane had been upgraded to a larger one so instead of having two seats and then the aisle (so me window, Adam aisle), it was 3 seats across and Adam was in the middle seat and a stranger on the aisle.Trapped! Let's just say it wasn't the most pleasant flight, but we made it!

Back at MSP, we landed at like the farthest away gate so had to walk forever just to get to the taxi stand. Our flight got in around 8:30, but we didn't get out of there until 9:15. It was almost 10 by the time we got home. We were exhausted!

Pupper had been staying with my parents (thanks mom and dad!), so they brought him back up on Thursday night when they came to get Christine for the weekend. It worked out great! Christine had a midterm that night, so mom and dad came over for dinner first. Dad cooked up some of his fish we had brought back. It was delicious!

Favorites:
Stef - Being on the beach in February!
Adam -  Napping on the beach

Clearwater Beach Part 2: Beach Day + Bush Gardens

Sunday was our second full day in Florida. We slept in a bit, and then walked about a mile down the beach with Curt and Robin on our way to breakfast. The sun was out and the sky was clear with no fog. It was beautiful!

 

I did some shelling along the way and found a really cool one right along the shoreline. However, it was still occupied so I made Adam throw it deep so no one would find it and take it/kill it.

Breakfast was at the Clear Sky Beachside Cafe. It was a good thing we had a reservation, because the place was packed! After much indecision because everything on the menu looked so good, I decided on fruit crepes. They were so light and delicious! Adam had corned beef hash which he also really enjoyed.

 

After breakfast, we walked back along the beach. Unfortunately, it was starting to cloud up.

Back at the condo, we got into our beach gear and headed down to the beach. Adam's mom rented an umbrella and chairs, and Adam and I sprawled out on towels. It was so lovely and relaxing. 

 

You're not supposed to have alcohol at the beach, but I snuck a few of my Mang-O-Ritas. Refreshing!

Adam and I even split some delicious Espresso Chip ice cream from the nearby snack bar. I even found an adorable glass dolphin ornament to commemorate our trip. Ornaments are usually the only souvenirs I get, and we have such fun remembering our trips when we put them up every year. I may have an ornament addiction...

Adam's parents decided to head back to the condo around 4, and we stayed a bit longer until 5. We made a quick stop at Surf Style for some snacks and refreshments for Adam. Did you know Lay's Limon chips were a thing? I discovered them there and couldn't get enough! Lime potato chips, very similar to the lime Tostitos but in potato chip form. Seriously good.

While we were gone, Adam's parents had been making up some delicious snacks. Robin made homemade guac, and Curt had made ceviche with the fish we had caught on Saturday. I was a little skeptical of the "raw" fish, but it was cooked in acid, so I gave it a try. It was quite good. We enjoyed sitting out on the patio snacking as it got dark.

Around 8, we headed down to Frenchy's South Beach Cafe for dinner. There was a bit of a wait, so we enjoyed drinks in the bar. Dinner was good, but nothing special. Probably the best part was just being able to sit outside to eat and enjoy the fresh air.

 

After, we walked back and watched some of the Closing Ceremonies for the Olympics.

Since Curt and Robin had to work on Monday, we had plans to go to Busch Gardens for the day. Robin kindly let us use her car, and we were off by 9. It was only a 30 mile drive, but took us over an hour because of all the traffic (there's no good way to get there - lots of stoplights). We got there a bit after 10, parked, and walked over. There I discovered that the tickets I thought were $82 per person were something like $94. Yikes! So I popped on Adam's phone (left mine in the car) and ordered them online for $82. Then we just scanned the barcode on our phone at the turnstiles to get in. It was slick! But even at that price, the place is kind of a rip off... It doesn't hold a candle to Disney! It's mainly rollercoasters, with a few midway style rides, shows, and animals thrown in.

 

Our first rollercoaster of the day was Montu. Crowds were light, so we walked right on. We loved it! It's an inverted roller coaster, so your legs dangle. It goes upside down, but it's so smooth that I felt fine after.

 

 

Next, we headed over to Cheetah Hunt. Here we had to wait for about 20 minutes. It's a triple launch coaster, so you go from something like 0-60 three times. I felt nauseous after. I guess I just can't do rollercoasters like I used to!

To allow time to recover, we took the Skyride (like a gondola) up to the other side of the park. 

(ignore my crazy hair, I blame the Florida humidity!)

 

There we walked around a bit and checked stuff out. We shared an Icee and relaxed a bit. I still wasn't feeling the greatest, so I watched while Adam went on the Scorpion coaster. It had a lot of upside down corkscrews, so I was okay with sitting that one out.

 

Then, we went on the Kumba which has a 135 foot drop and a 360° spiral.

We checked out the water rides, but people were getting soaked and it wasn't that warm out, so we skipped them.

It was getting to be lunch time, so we took the Skyride back. My first choice for lunch was closed, so we backtracked and shared a lunch.

Then we wandered around a bit and checked out the birds,

gators,

and flamingos.

By then I was feeling better, so we decided to take on the SheiKra. It's a floorless 70mph coaster where you drop 200 feet from a 90° angle. It was intense but fun!

I needed a bit of a cool off after that, so we took the Serengeti Railway around the whole park. This allowed us to see a lot of the animals which was neat.

 

Our last ride was the Gwazi which is a wood coaster. I'm glad we saved that one for last because it was so jarring we both had headaches after. Note to self, avoid wood coasters! Yuck.

We were ready to head out by 4, and took the tram back to our car. Our feet were sore!

Of course it took over an hour to get back, but we were back by 5:30 and had time to relax before dinner.

 

Our dinner res at the Island Way Grill was for 7:30. It was delicious! The best dish though was the softshell crab app. Wow.

It was a fun last night!

Clearwater Beach: Beach + Dolphin + Deep-sea Fishing Adventure

Adam's parents rented a condo in Clearwater Beach, Florida for the month of February. They were so kind as to invite us down for a visit.

My parents went and visited them the week before, and got me really excited about our trip with all the photos they texted. It worked out well, because we picked them up at the airport Tuesday night, and then they took Chester home with them for the week.

Our flight left at 5:30 on Friday. Despite the Snowpocalypse (10+ inches of snow) and our cancelled taxi due to the horrible roads, we made it to the airport and out on time! 

 We were greeted in Tampa by crazy fog and humidity. But it was warm, which was glorious. Curt and Robin nicely picked us up at the airport and brought us back to the condo. It was an hour later due to the time change, so we didn't stay up long.

On Saturday morning, we slept in a bit, had breakfast, and then Adam and I wandered down to the beach for about an hour and a half. It was foggy but beautiful. 

We enjoyed the sand and waves on our feet, 

and I had fun collecting interesting shells.

We walked back to the condo at 11 and were excited to see that the sun was coming out. 

After changing, we all set out for our "deep sea fishing" adventure. There was a mix-up on the time, and we were an hour early, so we grabbed a drink and some apps at Crabby Bill's.

At 1, our four hour fishing adventure began. We went on the Above Average 2 with Captain Mike, which was the same trip my dad and Curt did on Monday morning.

It was really foggy out, which made the 40 minute drive out into the Gulf pretty creepy.

The highlight was when a dolphin followed our boat, jumping in the wake, for a while. It was very cool to see so close up!

I hadn't really wanted to go fishing, but it was the same price whether I went or not, so I decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did! Once I got over the killing the fish part (okay, I never really got over that), I had a lot of fun. The fish were so beautiful that it made me sad to see them thrown in the cooler instead of back into the water. I was always happy when one was too small to save!

We caught grunts, red grouper, porgies, and hogfish. I even caught a pufferfish! It was so cute!

My best fish was a big gag grouper. It was really hard for me to reel it in. I didn't think I was going to do it! 

The guide said we couldn't keep it because it wasn't the right season - this made me ecstatic! It was too cool to not let live on.

Adam caught a really cool red grouper.

And Robin caught a keeper male hogfish.

The last hour we were out there, the sun decided to come back out and the fog disappeared. It was so peaceful.

Back at the docks, the guide laid out all the fish before cleaning it.

I was surprised at what a production it was, with random tourists stopping by to check out our catch.

I made sure not to watch, and took photos of birds instead.

We walked back to the condo, and then Adam and I left immediately to watch the sunset on the beach. We didn't quite make it in time, but I got off a few clicks before it disappeared completely.

On the way back, we stopped at Surf Style to get me something to drink for the condo. I couldn't believe it when we found Bud Light Mang-O-Rita! This is a flavor I've been hoping for ever since Lime-A-Rita was introduced. It better make its way north soon! We also saw Raz-Ber-Rita, but there wasn't enough time for me to consume a 12-pack of each. As it was, I needed a lot of help from Adam over the next few days!

Back at the condo, Robin was feeling tired so we stayed in for the night. She made up some of the fish we caught, and we enjoyed it with haricots verts. It was pretty neat to eat the fish we had just caught.

It was a great first day in the warmth of Florida!

Highlights:
Stef -Walking along the beach, the dolphin!
Adam - Deep-sea fishing, walking along the beach