Monday 18 April - Dipping my toes in the Gulf

Did I say yesterday that we were going to the Olive Garden for dinner on Sunday night? We arrived, only to be told there was a 45 minute wait, so we headed back to Chili's for dinner. This was also busy but we managed to secure a table straight away as we were prepared to sit on a "high table" rather than a booth. Our waitress was severely hassled, but I think she was the first genuine server we had so we tipped her accordingly at the end of the evening.

We had a bit of a disturbed night (Mikey was unwell) but we were all up early to start our journey to Clearwater Beach. We had to fill up with petrol first and I put $50 in the tank. Keith told me that the equivalent in £s would be over £90 so a bit of a bargain there, then! The journey was very smooth and we managed to negotiate the city of Tampa successfully. The last bit of the journey involved a very long bridge over to Clearwater and then we managed to find ourselves in a very affluent neighbourhood that reminded me of the Stepford Wives film -  huge, beautiful houses half-hidden behind gates and manicured golf courses.

Once at Clearwater Beach we found a parking space and before hitting the sand we had a drink at a pizza restaurant. It was very hot! Ahead of us lay the Gulf of Mexico and when we did eventually find somewhere to sit - $20 for an umbrella and two chairs - the children went off to swim and saw two dolphins in the water. I went back to the sea with them and saw one moving slowly, parallel to the coast. It was a lovely sight and I did try and take a few photos...

A dolphin - not a brilliant photo!

The children stayed in the water for an hour or two and then we went for lunch. Keith and I chose the salad platters - tuna for him and chicken for me - and they were huge! We staggered back to the beach afterwards and decided to call it a day, which was a good thing as it took us about two hours to get back to the villa. The traffic was noticeably heavier on our return and we witnessed at least one near-miss accident. I concentrated very hard after that!

As we'd had lunch so late, we stayed at the villa in the evening, enjoying a drink and sitting out by the pool and enjoying the warm night air. We had two little visitors - a gorgeous bright red bird and a squirrel that entertains us by crawling over the netting and hanging upside down. He then goes and nibbles on one of the fallen oranges! So cute!

A few photos from today:

Clearwater Beach

Going over one of the bridges