Our day started at 5am driving to Metro Detroit airport. Kids were very excited to be on our way to Florida (Chris and I too!). The airport was quiet and we zipped through check-in. Getting through security with 2 small children has it's challenges. Everybody take your shoes off. Unload the stroller. Fold up the stroller. Put bags and shoes in bins, take laptop out of it's bag and put it in the bin. Next Casey and I step together through the chemical detector. This was new to us. It's a machine that you stand in and you get sprayed with puffs of air 10 times very quickly. Now we one at a time walk through the metal detector. Casey listened great and went all by herself. Jake (as usual) is tentative and afraid of all these machines. He doesn't want to go through the "air puffer" as he called it. He asks a million questions about it. Daddy makes up a story and explais to him that it's a "foot sniffer". This gets a giggle out of Jake. After passing through all the machines now we quickly get our shoes back on, collect our bags, put laptop back in bag, open the stroller, get kid in stroller and we're on our way. Whew! We made it.
We had time before our flight and we took the kids on a few rides on the train shuttle that runs in the ceiling at Detroit Metro. When we arrived at our gate, Jake and Casey were amazed at the size of the plane and wanted to know everything about it. We watched the guys load up our luggage and prepare the plane for take off. Our seats were assigned having me sitting with Jake in Casey while Daddy got 2 1/2 hrs of quiet time three rows ahead of us (lucky daddy!). I packed a few activities for the kids to play with on the flight and to my amazement they were pleasant the entire trip. Jake got the window seat and again asked many many questions. Casey was the charmer and smiled and talked with the other passengers around us. Their favorite thing to look at was the Airline Safety Brochure in the seat pocket. The one showing the exit locations, what to do in case of an emergency etc....
We arrived in Tampa around 11am. It took about an hour to collect our luggage and get our rental car. We got a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Yes I know your wondering why not a Ford, well the Hertz rates were much higher than the rates I found at Enterprise. The Cruiser was small (we just barely fit all our luggage). The drive to Clearwater took a little over an hour. It was a beautiful cruise from Tampa heading west to the Gulf Shore going across water causeways and bridges. It was a busy Saturday afternoon and everybody was heading to the beach. The traffic was heavy and congested but we didn't care we were in no hurry. The best part about the drive was that the kids took their afternoon naps and rested for about an hour in the car. Yeah!
We stayed at the Holiday Inn. It was right on the beach. We were able to check in early and our room was amazing. Ford selected a Island View Suite. We had 2 rooms. One for sleeping with 2 queen beds, tv, full bath and a outdoor balcony. The second room was a living area with couches, tv, dining table, kitchen nook and another full bath. After a long morning of traveling we headed down to the hotel restaurant called Jimmy's Fish House for some lunch. At Holiday Inn kids get to eat free with a paid adult entree. Bonus, I love that. We enjoyed our lunch while sitting by the water listening to live music. The weather was in the low 80s with a slight breeze coming in off the water. Paradise. Chris and I looked at each other and smiled. We knew what it meant "We did it, this is SWEEEEEEET!".
After lunch we headed straight to the pool. The kids wanted to swim in the kiddie pool, or the "tittie" pool as they pronounce it. Jake has troubles with his "k's" and "c's" they all come out sounding like a "t". Casey copies him. While getting dressed my swimsuit had a malfunction. I haven't worn my suit since last fall (during the kids swim lessons). Somehow from November to April my suit started to disintegrate. Large patches on the butt and sides were becoming see through. Really see through, it was terrible, and definitely not wear able. I was shocked and upset because I bought this suit last July. It shouldn't be doing this already. It was the only suit I have so I was bummed that I couldn't swim with my kids. I told Chris I needed to go shopping. He watched the kids on the pool while I ran across the street to a Beach Shop to pick out a new one. I'm not a 2 piece kind of gal, but that is all they sell down there. I looked and looked and finally found a small rack with one piece suits on it. I could choose from 4 styles/colors. I picked out my size of each style and tried them on. Luckily one looked okay on me. It may not be a suit I love but it's a suit and it lets me get into the water. The kids met new friends while playing in the pool. They all shared their pool toys. We swam until 6pm.
Our first evening wasn't done yet. Before we left Detroit, I looked online and found out that during April and May there is a big get together on the big pier about a mile down the beach from the hotel. They call it Sunsets at Pier 60. We headed down there along a new renovated Beach Walk. On the way we had dinner at a delicious pizza place overlooking the beach. After dinner we walked the to the pier to see the sunset. We stumbled upon a huge volleyball tournament. They were finishing up the men's championship game. I'm a volleyball fan so we stopped to watch for a while. Jake and Casey hit the sand and started playing. At around 8pm the sun set and the sky with filled with yellow, red and orange. It was a perfect ending to our first day.
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