Clearwater Part 2

Hopefully most of you have been able to view the photos on the Flickr account. I had some permission issues but I have fixed those and all should be okay. If you haven't seen them check out my previous post and click on the link provided.

I last left off with us watching a beautiful sunset on Saturday evening to end our first day in Florida. Sunday was planned as our beach day. We woke up and got ready at an easy pace. The kids watched a few Sunday cartoons and mommy and daddy enjoyed the views from the hotel room. We had a Sunday brunch at the hotel, it included french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, fresh fruit, yogurt and cereal. Mmmmm.....

After getting dressed into our beach gear, packing the beach bag and rubbing sunscreen all over each of us we were ready for the water and sand. We walked 1/4 mile down the beach to a perfect spot. The beach was lined with blue and white umbrellas. There were hundreds of them. You could rent them for the day but we didn't seem to find the right people who were renting them. We found a sunny spot to layout our stuff.We later found out that you can just pick your umbrella and sometime during the day a person will come by and collect your money. Oh well, no big deal we wanted to spend about 2-3 hrs at the beach (not a whole day). The kids grabbed their bags of sand toys and we ran for the water. The water was a bit chilly but it was clear and the sand was soft we all wanted to be in the water. We found a sandcastle someone had built from the previous day and the kids claimed it as theirs. For the next hour they filled up their buckets and water pails and poured water and sand onto the castle. They picked up seashells and added them to our castle. We splashed in the water. Jake was brave and showed us how deep he could go in the water, he was up to his chest. It was a clam day and slow waves came in and out, but anytime a speedboat passed by it created some larger waves and the kids enjoyed getting their feet wet and watching the waves creep up onto the sandcastle.

By noon we had enough water and took a break onto our towels to dry off. Daddy prompted a fun game and buried Casey in the sand. He started with her legs. Then dug the hole again and got her in up to her waist. Jake joined in the fun too. At one point I snapped a photo of Daddy, Jake and Casey all buried in the sand together. The loved it. At this point it was time to get out of the sun and and cleaned off at the hotel. I wasn't looking forward to the huge sand mess that awaited us, especially within Casey's swim diaper. It seems to always collect in that spot. As I expected we filled the hotel room with sand. In the bathroom, on our suits, in the shower, on the floor. Luckily housekeeping had not stopped by yet, so when we left the room later that day they cleaned it up for us.

We ate lunch and headed back to the hotel for a one hour nap. After our snooze we headed to the pool for more swimming. Later that evening we walked back down to Pier 60 for another sunset. This evening we stumbled upon a playground (in the sand). It was covered under a shelter. Jake and Casey loved climbing up the ladders and steps and sliding down into the sand. They also had a rock wall the kids could climb. In the area by the pier they had live music playing, vendor selling their arts n crafts, people getting their hair braided, breakdancers showing off their moves. On the side of all of this were 2 inflatable playscapes. One was a bouncer the other was a HUGE slide (shaped like a sharks mouth). Jake, Casey and I treked up the steep steps and I sent the kids down one at a time. It's was very high up. Both kids went down with smiles on their faces and kept asking to go again. It was even a thrill for me to go down.

By this time it's getting late but we are having so much fun. We saw the sunset and started walking back to the hotel. On the way we stopped for dinner at seafood restaurant called "Frenchy's Beach Cafe". Chris enjoyed some Grouper. I'm not a seafood lover so I ordered a salad and ate off the kids dinners. Again we got to sit outside on the patio. We love doing that.
We returned to our beds to get rest for our next adventure on Monday. SEA WORLD!!!