WTF??!
Spring "freakin'' break 2022 will go down as one of the worst spring breaks EVER. This is one of those posts that you just do NOT want to write. You don't want to write it because it was such a bad experience, but if you don't write it down, you're bound to forget some of the details. You don't want to remember that you spent a week of your precious annual leave NOT having a good time at all. In the end, I'm sure this is just an LBP because everyone is safe and (ultimately) healthy but still, it was a ruined spring break.
We left for Tampa on Sunday evening, which was Easter Sunday. We were already mad about that because Frontier changed the flight times on us. Instead of arriving at 3:15 pm with plenty of time to still have a nice Easter dinner with my family, Frontier changed our flight so that we didn't land until about 9:15 pm. No time for dinner or anything, once you get bags and the rental car. Plus, Frontier has a 27" pitch, which I was certain Todd wouldn't fit in, so he sat in front of us in the extra leg room row.
So now we have missed Easter dinner with my family but ok, whatever. Let's just enjoy a nice week in Florida, shall we? Tampa greeted us all lit up from a full moon.
The kids love to jump to the front of the monorail that takes you from the concourse to baggage claim. Totally a family tradition.
Now this COVID test looks ok, but we had one that did NOT. As we were driving to my mom's in the rental car, Todd was like, "I feel like crap." WHAT. He felt fine when we were in Providence, got to Tampa and bam. Felt awful. We got to my mom's and she gave him a test which was almost immediately positive for COVID. What. Even if none of the rest of us were positive, we just don't have a good time if one of the other family members isn't feeling well. So we grabbed extra tests and went to the car to make the fastest booking of a hotel EVER, in which we had to get TWO rooms at the last minute for an entire week. Anyone want to start a Go Fund Me for THAT? Thankfully at the hotel, the kids and I tested negative. Phew. See picture above!
Are you sitting down?? Because this is where the story gets kind of long, but you MUST have all of the details to appreciate how much I wanted to cram my head into a wall. (Please watch this Tony Baker video of the CRAM! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4SASJCeNMo because this is the funniest thing I have ever seen! Sorry, I digress...) We had rented our car from Dollar the night before, but we only put one driver on it - Todd. And now that he is in quarantine, I needed to be added as a driver so I could actually get around with the kids if I needed to. So I called Dollar. "Ma'am, you and the driver will have to go in person to a Dollar facility." Real nice, Dollar - putting your employees in jeopardy like that. So we Google where there's a Dollar facility (don't call it a Dollar Store!) and it appears there's one 10 minutes away, in the lobby of a hotel. Todd drives separate in the rental, and my mom comes to get me in her car so we can go there - but nope. That place closed because of the pandemic, but don't worry- there is one right around the corner at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport. So we go there. Nope. Dollar is not there. But at least we got to see the above superlative, check! THEN we have to go all the way to Tampa airport and the world's most pedestrian (and private vehicle) unfriendly rental car center. Once we got there, the line was about 20 people deep. After about 30 minutes, Todd, who is waiting on the other side of the rental car place in a corner by himself with two masks on joins me so they can add me as a driver. This only required my driver license number, the rental car agreement number (which could have easily been given on the phone) and a signature from Todd and I. Seriously. This is the COVID era. I signed all of the paperwork to BUY A HOUSE in a digital platform but Dollar can't add me as a second driver? Gah.
Let's just make matters worse by taking a drive by the world's ugliest house with the world's ugliest blue door. Sorry Dad, it looks like a duplex, and the lazy people who moved in took out all of your beautifully manicured grass because they clearly couldn't be bothered with landscaping. The kids and I did this later in the day, after we got the car situation settled and got some lunch.
But the kids and I were determined to make the best of our time without Todd, and at the very least - we NEEDED to get to the beach. So we ran to Indian Rocks Beach. The town parking lot was full (of course, even on a Monday) so we parked at Kolb Park and walked a couple of blocks back to the beach.
Not too crowded. We could stay away from people, which we really did try to do for the most part, to the best of our ability.
Monday, the waves weren't too bad. Unfortunately for the kids, there weren't any coquinas in the sand this time of year. (Natalie and Grant are the two kids just above and slightly to the right of my left knee).
I was taking a picture of Grant and this seagull came flying at us!!! Sky rat!
Well, at least three of us made it to the beach.
After a couple of hours, we went back to the hotel to shower, but not before driving by Campalong Field where I used to play softball as a kid! As my brother said, "I bought a lot of churros and fireballs and lemonheads in that building!"
Once we got all cleaned up, we went back to my mom's house for dinner. Notice Grant is wearing his mask while he is at my mom's house. LITERALLY a saving grace.
Poor Todd. He got a nice cake for his birthday. And he didn't even really get to enjoy it. I don't know who made this cake, but it was outstanding, and I'm not even a huge chocolate fan.
After a YUMMY dinner of cubed steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli and rolls, we ran out to catch the sunset in my mom's neighborhood.
Grant had wanted to see a sunrise like we used to see in Indian Rocks Beach (because our part of the street faced the east) but I had to tell him that most of the west coast of Florida actually enjoys the sunSET! Ahhh, I see we are back to making THIS sort of face again, huh Grant!
Next, we hopped on the golf cart and ran down to Aunt Sara's house to say hi. This was as close as we got to my spicy little nugget of an aunt!
Then came the highlight of the ENTIRE trip. The kids will be talking about this for years to come, I think. Or at least begging to go back so they can do it again. They finally got to drive the golf cart! Nana gave them each a lesson and we rode around the neighborhood at dusk. The picture is kind of blurry but I got a nice 4K video! Notice her hands are at 10 and 2!
Grant wanted to see how fast the cart ACTUALLY was, so he raced it. But he's pretty fast so he kept up with Natalie's driving.
A nice view of the lake in Fairway Villages at dusk. Too bad we never got to see that new clubhouse!
Next up was a drive around the block for Grant. We all agreed he will be the one who gives us heartburn when it comes to driving.
After a quick golf cart drive around, we went back to the hotel for a good night sleep. Me and my baby girl took a selfie in the mirror first.
Tuesday morning, up and at 'em - but let's take a COVID test, first! Negative for all three Bailey's that were still standing, so let's go the beach! First we had to go down to the lobby and grab some breakfast for Todd though since he couldn't leave his room, and then we had to go to CVS for water and snacks. It was kind of a joke on this trip that we had stopped at so many CVS stores that we were eventually going to hit up all of the CVS stores that exist in Pinellas County!
Back to Kolb Park in Indian Rocks Beach since there was still no parking at the beach, even on a Tuesday. I like this park though. It feels like home.
The Coast Guard was running low planes over Indian Rocks today though!
The waves were a LOT crazier today than the day before, so the kids didn't go in the water for nearly as long. There were rip current statements issued by the National Weather Service, so I told them not to go in past their knees.
That Coast Guard plane is LOW! Grant for scale!
Grant was still looking for coquinas and Natalie was levitating, apparently.
There was a pretty good breeze, and the water was a bit colder this day because it had been so churned up by the waves, so Grant was attempting to stay warm here. The sun itself was really nice, getting into the 80s on both Monday and Tuesday.
But ... they missed the other big kid in the family - the one who makes dribble castles and will actually go into a cold(ish) Gulf of Mexico with them.
But we all made dribble castles together, although I'm not nearly as good as Todd at making them. I used to do that when I was a kid, too and we have the best sand here to do it!
This was Natalie's castle, right before the Gulf roared and ate all of our kingdom.
The four of us managed to get to Frenchy's for dinner Tuesday night. Masks down for a quick selfie but we kept them on for the most part.
Natalie's favorite menu item - the fish pretzel. We joked this was like Jungkook's (of BTS) fish bread! Although there's no red bean filling in this one, it's just a pretzel.
Grant was showing Nana how to do a hand gesture at Frenchy's.
My babies at their happy place.
After dinner, Nana drove us back through Belleair and to her old condo neighborhood at the country club, where we were supposed to have dinner on Thursday night. We stopped to find some ducks at the pond. Sometimes it drives me insane that such a beautiful place is filled with such crazies. (By that, I mean the state of Florida, not this general location ha ha).
A lovely sunset and view of the Sand Key Bridge at low tide.
Driving back to my mom's place, she drove us down Belleair Road and we went past St. Paul's School, where I went to kindergarten, first and second grade.
And when we got back to my mom's house, Grant informed us (thanks to Natalie's asking) that he had some sniffles. Hmmm. Ok troops, pack it up. We went back to the hotel where we gave Grant his second test of the day. This time, it was positive. CRAP. Natalie and I booked a quick flight home for the morning because we were sure the other shoe would drop. (Anyone want to add to that Go Fund Me?) But of course, I didn't sleep because I was worried about my little buddy and worried that I wouldn't get up when my alarm went off and worried that we would test positive.
Nope, we're good. Symptom free and feeling fine in line at security at Tampa airport at 4 am.
Masks on of course, even though most of the plane didn't have them on because 'MERICA and because the requirement to wear them was lifted while we were in Florida. But because we have been close contacts, we naturally left ours on. And THIS IS WHY YOU WEAR A MASK. It has nothing to do with you. It has to do with the people around you. It is unfathomable to us that people would get on a plane and not wear a mask when this current (stealth?) Omicron variant is so contagious. SO contagious. You may have COVID and not even know that you have COVID.
Because about 12 hours later, THIS is what happened to Natalie and I. While this wasn't surprising given all that had happened, we certainly didn't have any symptoms when we boarded our flight. Eventually we did develop symptoms (all of us) but none of it was too crazy, thankfully. Vaccines and good immune systems for the win there. And by some miracle and the grace of God and masks, my mother has tested negative every day for over a week, past the number of days she actually needs to test. PHEW!
Someone just let me know when I can finally take a vacation...
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