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06-20-2007
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#1 (permalink) |
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life=playa
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Posts: 791
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Trip Report To Clearwater Beach, Florida 6/14-6/19
Day One: 6/14
No kids, No husband.... I traveled to Clearwater Beach, Florida to visit my dad for Father's Day, and to meet my new nephew, Ty, who was born on April 21st. My flight from Fort Wayne, with a short layover in Detroit was uneventful. My brother picked me up from the airport and we went directly to the beach to eat at my favorite restaurant in Clearwater, Frenchy's Rockaway Grill. This restaurant is located right on the beach, and is well-known for its grouper and she-crab soup. My first look at Ty  The new family: Erin, Ty, and my brother Ben  My younger brother, James, and his girlfriend Diane  Me and my sister, Stacy, who flew in earlier from Charlotte  We ate outside and got first row seats to view the beautiful Florida sunset, everyone clapped as the sun went down...  For an appettizer, I had the conch fritters, YUM  For my entree, I had the world-famous She-Crab Soup, if you are ever in Clearwater, you must try this, you will love it!!! [  Auntie Jamey (me) and Ty [  After dinner, my brother dropped us off at our hotel, the Marriott Suites. This hotel is located on Sand Key, which is just south of Clearwater Beach. The hotel overlooks Clearwater Bay, and is across the street from Sand Key Park, which is a public beach. It is just a 1 1/2 mile walk to Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach. All of the rooms in this hotel are suites. The outer room contains a foldout couch, refrigerator, sink, microwave, and TV. The bedroom had two double beds, a TV and a balcony. There are also rooms that contain a king sized bed instead of two doubles. I have stayed at this hotel many times as my sister is a Marriott employee-- love the family rates!! The hotel has a very nice pool and tiki bar! The only two drawbacks is that it is not located directly on the beach, and the bathrooms are TINY with one sink and a shower/bath combo. The door will hit you on the knees if you are sitting on the toilet. Our room #608   Pool view at night from our balcony  After we settled in , my sister and I decided to go to the hotel bar to watch the Spurs win the NBA championship!!!!  We stayed and chatted awhile, we had not seen each other since February. There were lots of people in there watching the TVs. We did encounter some weird guys, one guy sat next to me and would say "blowj*&" every time he sneezed, so we moved away from him. Why a guy would think that a girl would like that line is beyond me....Another guy sat next to me while my sister and I were talking about summer movies. I had just told her about "Oceans 13" and that I could look at Brad Pitt all day long, when he felt the need to interject himself into our conversation and ask me if I had seen the movie "Snatch." NO. Tired of hearing about blowj%8s and snatch, we went to our room. Lights out by 1am! Will post Day 2 tomorrow
__________________
2008 Palapa Pros Fantasy League: PeyBack Playaz Big Don and Jamey Do PDC July 2007 Clearwater Beach Trip Report June 2007 Be a hero for a child: www.jdrf.org |
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06-20-2007
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#3 (permalink) |
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life=playa
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Posts: 791
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Sorry the pics are grainy-- I accidently "washed" this camera, as my son left it in his shorts pockets. I let it dry out a few days and thought it worked okay, but I can see something must still be on the lens.....
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06-20-2007
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#4 (permalink) | |
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life=playa
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Posts: 791
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Quote:
The beds were the newer Marriott comfort hotel beds, really nice. A double bed seems big when you get to sleep alone!! Bet you know where this photo was taken!  |
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06-21-2007
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#7 (permalink) |
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life=playa
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Posts: 791
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Day Two: Friday 6/15/2007
Wide awake at 7:30am! Even though on vacation, habits are hard to break. No movement from my sister, she was never up before 11am the whole trip, except the day she had to fly home.... Went to the gym at the hotel, nice, but they had the one weight machine with the pulley system. I hate taking time to figure those out, so I did not spend too much time in there. I decided to go for a run on the beach. It was a another beautiful Florida day.... View looking down toward Clearwater Beach  View of bay from balcony, the black hump in the water was a dolphin, not quick enough with camera!  The condos directly across the street from the hotel. The doorman at the hotel told me that Mel Gibson owns the penthouse of the center building. I went to a lot of bars but did not see him  As far as the run went, it was HOT. My sunglasses kept slipping off my nose, so it became more of a walk than a run. I saw lots of interesting articles on the beach, including a pair of bikini bottoms, which makes you wonder about the party you missed... No sign of movement still from my sis, so I went to a local breakfast cafe, Maggie Mae's, which is in the strip center connected to the hotel via a boardwalk on the bay. I sat by the window and watch the sun coming up on the water and saw a mama dolphin with a babe--sorry no pics again! Showered quickly, woke my sister up and met my brothers at the pool  We hung out at the pool all day, had a few.... They had planned activities, such as pool bingo. My younger brother won a game. They tried to give him a free pizza, but he asked for and received beer instead  . When they asked him what his name was, he said "Ron Mexico" right into the microphone  .For dinner, we went to Outback. Why? Because my sister-in-law works at their corporate offices in Tampa. Doesn't everyone go to Outback on vacation? I had the coconut shrimp, but didn't take a picture because it looked and tasted like the coconut shrimp I eat at the Outback in Fort Fun, Indiana. Anyway, we decided we would take my sister-in-law out, her first night out since she had the baby. We went to a place called Club 13, it is not on the beach, so I have no idea where we were. The front part of the club looks like any other bar/restaurant, but the outside was really cool. The outside was set up like one giant deck, with tiki torches, benches, tables, palm trees, etc. There was a DJ booth out there, people watching was fun. Apparently, it is near a strip club (there is a strip club on every corner in Florida), because a lot of stripper-looking girls were coming in for drinks (sorry no photos).... Me, Diane, and Erin at Club 13 [  My sister and her college friend, Lisa at Club 13  Our table was under a big palm umbrella, which is a good thing, because it started pouring...  So we had to hang out a while and drink....We then went to a bar on the beach called Kelly's (right next to the Hilton, across from the Outback)....A yucky place, but the mango shots some guy bought us were yummy. He claims it was his birthday...whatever. My brother's girlfriend, Diane, was a lot drunk, so we had fun with her!  In bed at 2:20am! |
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06-21-2007
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#8 (permalink) | |
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life=playa
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Posts: 791
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Quote:
I love Clearwater! The beach is beautiful, and it is really easy to fly in and out of, (TPA or Clearwater/St Pete airports). There is a LOT of construction now, a lot of the older beach hotels have been torn down and are being replaced by condos. No real weirdos on Day Two, but stay tuned....I must be a weirdo magnet! |
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06-21-2007
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#9 (permalink) | |
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life=playa
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Posts: 791
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Quote:
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06-22-2007
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#10 (permalink) |
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life=playa
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Posts: 791
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Day 3: 6/16/2007 Saturday
No running for me on this morning. My shins were killing me from running on the beach the day before, I guess that I am not used to run/walking on hard surfaces. Today we decided to rent a cabana at the pool so that Erin and the baby could join us. The Marriott has eight cabanas for rent from $69-$99 per day, depending on day of the week and capacity. Since it was a Saturday, we paid $99, but it was SO worth it. Each cabana comes equipped with two lounge chairs, a TV, ceiling fan, refrigerator, and a small table with two chairs. We probably saved a lot of money because we brought our own snacks and filled that refrigerator up with beer we bought at the store. The staff also provided us with a crib for the baby and an additional fan to keep him cool. He slept out there all day, I think the sound of the waterfall provided background white noise for him to snooze. My brothers hanging out  All of us in the cabana  My nephew and I relaxing  Let's just say that we all had a LOT to drink on this day! My dad joined us later, after he had been fishing on his boat. No one could drive anywhere, so we ate dinner poolside, but I have no idea what I ate, although I am sure that it was good. My dad with all of his crazy children  My sister and I decided to go up to the room at 11PM to watch Saturday Night Live, but neither one of us stayed awake to watch any of it! |
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