Annual Trip to Tampa, FL - Part 2

 Florida is always so pretty, so I feel the need to break this trip into two posts because I always take so many pictures!

On Sunday, the day after our family BBQ at my mom's house, we met up with Cory, Brie and the kids at everyone's favorite place on the planet... Indian Rocks Beach!

Todd made a killer dribble castle, natürlich.

Cory and Brie brought the inflatable paddleboard which all of the kids attempted (my kids even tried surfing!).  Cory and Greta took it out first.  Greta was really awesome on the paddleboard!

The last time we paddle boarded with the kids, it was at my parents old house, it was before we moved to Germany, we had Mustang Joe with us (from Memorial Elementary) and the kids had life jackets on.  Todd struggled to stay up back then (it's hard when you're a giant) and we still tease him about it!

Grant tried not to fall off!  Cory also tried to show Nat and Grant how to surf - I think that's what's going on here!  Not a lot of waves on the Gulf Coast though.

Hattie was "swimming" between Brie and I and it was so cute!  The water at IRB was a tad bit cooler than up at Honeymoon, and that made a huge difference.  Don't get me wrong. It was still hot.  I mean... it's Florida in August! But it was a bit more refreshing!

Hello out there!  Good thing Todd is so tall!

Everyone got tired of swimming and needed some drinks and snacks so we went back to the chairs, where you can see Grant fell asleep.  

A very ominous dark cloud came overhead but nothing ever happened - although it did make the water look super green!

Some of those people out there belong to me.

The ominous dark cloud drifted west and everyone was super hot, so we decided to call it a day.  

But wait, there's more!  Since my mom was going to take the kids to Frenchy's without us, we didn't want to miss out on the best little dive bar on the beach, so we drove up to Clearwater Beach and stopped in at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill for some snackies and drinks.

Our waitress must have found this funny!  I know. I know. 

This is what happens to New England teenagers who get too hot, and are sleepy from staying up too late.

I love Frenchy's Rockaway Grill because it literally sits in the sand but weirdly isn't in the VE flood zone.  It's definitely AE zone though!

Monday morning was the BEST!  Natalie, Mom and I went for manicures and pedicures and I don't think I've ever had a better pedicure.  If you're in the Clearwater area, ask for Donna at Soho Nail Spa off of Fort Harrison!  Natalie and I even convinced my mom to do a paraffin wax treatment for the first time ever.  She wasn't a huge fan, ha ha.  Well, at least she tried it!

In the evening, Todd and I went down to Pass A Grille to meet up with our friends Rob and Nadia who actually live in Falmouth, not too far from us.  They used to live in Tampa Bay for a bit so they come back here all the time. It was total coincidence that we were in Florida at the same time! We met up and had a nice grouper dinner at the Hurricane before grabbing our coolers and chairs and to go down to the beach and watch the sunset.  Todd, Rob and I went for a quick swim, but Nadia forgot her bathing suit, so I got out and we looked for shells on the beach.

I spy the Don CeSar resort, one of the most historic hotels in all of Pinellas County, or Tampa Bay for that matter.  It was built in 1928, it was a hot spot for celebrities such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lou Gehrig and many U.S. Presidents (32, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43 and 44.) In 1942, the U.S. Army took over the hotel and used it as a sub-base hospital, followed by a period where it was used as a convalescent center for airmen returning from WWII.  After that, it was a regional office for the Department of Veteran's Affairs until 1969! Well that's weird! In 1973, it reopened as a hotel and has been ever since.

The sun is about to drop!

Todd, me, Nadia and Rob on the white crunchy shells of Pass A Grill beach. Prost!

Really.

He's a funny guy, folks.

The four of us right before the sunset.

I FINALLY WON!

Going...

Going...

Gone!

But the best light show came AFTER the sunset!

Todd and Rob played a little catch and the lighting was just so perfect. We sat around and talked until the stars came out before heading back to Largo, but it was so good to see our Massachusetts friends down in Florida!

On our last full day, we went to Splash Harbour Water Park in good old Indian Rocks Beach.  

We oddly found (short) chairs in the shade and the other three quickly found tubes and jumped into the lazy river.

We've been here five minutes and they already look like they might melt.

The official photographer of all things Bailey Planet fun spots Nat separated from Todd and Grant in the lazy river.

There are two slides at Splash Harbour (yes, they spell it the British way).  The yellow and green slide requires a tube - either a single where you can ride alone, or a double where you can go with someone else.  The blue and white is just a slide, no tube required.  You can see Todd waiting for the kids to emerge from the green and yellow slide.

Squealing with delight, they ran right back up to the top!  I have never actually been on these slides before, but I did this time, and they were hilariously fun!  This water park is kind of expensive for just two slides, but they were super fun and definitely worth the money for New Englanders who were melting in the Florida heat on vacation.

They also have food and drinks for sale (including alcohol!) so Todd and Natalie went to grab us some lunch and cold drinks.

You know it's been a good day when this kid had fun.  The only thing I think they could improve on here is the walkways. They literally burn everyone's feet.  Kids were screaming and crying because their feet were burning.  Isn't there a deck type that could be installed so it doesn't burn everyone's feet and you don't need shoes to run around?  I imagine people burn their feet every day here.

We went back to Nana's house around mid afternoon to get ready for dinner with Cory, Brie and the kiddos. Hattie didn't want to be in this picture, but LOOK at Grant and James!  TWINSIES!  And Greta is making the "Nana face!"

Hattie said she would only be in the picture if Mommy was in it too!  Did Grant, Natalie and James plan this out? We may never know.

Yay! All of us!  Well, minus one. 😢

My mom had plans to go to dinner with Aunt Sara (who was leaving for a month the next day) so only the nine of us went out for Mexican at Carmelita's.  Grant was having THE funniest conversations with Hattie, who must have gotten her gift of gab from Pop Pop!  She was sitting across from him and telling him all about her favorite Disney movies.

Eventually she moved over to have serious conversations with Natalie!

These two are definitely brothers from another mother.

Meanwhile, Greta and James were deep in conversation with Brie and I, while Grant was on his phone.  (Don't worry, I yelled at him about this!)

Ok guys, let's do one nice photo (Hattie is a narwhal here, I can't even remember how that came up!)

Now one ridiculous, silly cousin photo!

This photo was super funny.  Cory and I were trying to take a sibling selfie, and Greta jumped in front of us and Cory was like, "Greta, no just Aunt Colleen and I... oh okay whatever..." so he snaps the photo, and neither of us realized Natalie was behind us!  These girls definitely conspired to photobomb us!

Might have to finally replace the picture I have of us on the dock in 2002 with this one.

Alas, it was time to say our goodbyes.  Our time here was entirely too short, as it always is.  Going back to the car, Grant noticed the 4-Play Adult Superstore across the street.  His face!  (I think he said, "Of course. Because it's Florida.") HA!

Back at Nana's house, I spotted my only Rootie of the week. There used to be a ton at our house in Indian Rocks Beach, but here, I only saw this one all week!

Nana wasn't back from her dinner yet, so the kids wanted to take one more ride around the neighborhood in the golf cart. I love Grant's face in the side mirror ha ha!

We went over to the other pool that is under renovation, and I made them take a pic with their favorite set of wheels. 

Our flight back to Boston was delayed by a couple of hours, but we had gotten an alert on my phone so we didn't need to get up as early as we initially thought.  We still got the airport early, had some lunch, and then Todd snapped this family end-of-vacation selfie before we boarded the plane.

Goodbye 20th Avenue!  My friend Rob says that orbs are spirits of the dead, which is funny because my dad passed away in that house out there, and there's an orb at the top of this picture!

Goodbye Honeymoon Island!

As we flew north, I spotted this SUPER cool storm over Perry, FL.  Look at that anvil! 

Until next time, Tampa Bay!

Annual Trip to Tampa, Florida - Part 1

Fingers were crossed, prayers were said, Covid tests were taken (remember last year's attempt to go to Florida?) and we healthily hopped on a flight to Tampa in early August!

We weren't sitting in our usual 2 Baileys in front of the other 2 Baileys position, so we forgot to take a selfie before takeoff.  Instead, Todd snapped one when we landed!

My mom and I went to get our hair done at Monique's the morning of our first day there, while Todd and the kids hit up the neighborhood pool. In the evening, we went to the Belleair Country Club for dinner.  We had to do some shuffling of the cars, and Grant got to drive the golf cart, all dressed up!

We had a great dinner at the Club and had the waitress take our family picture after dinner. Yes, Grant is that tall now.  He towers over my mom and Aunt Sara, but only just passed his sister this week, believe it or not (they were the same height at their physical in mid July!  Literally two weeks prior to this!)  Those new kicks make him *a bit* taller though.  Don't think he'll ever pass his dad!

Afterwards, we swung by my mom's old condo, just in time to see a really pretty sunset over Clearwater Beach at low tide!

On Friday, we took the kids out to Honeymoon Island, which is a state park I had never actually been too, despite living here for 18 years.

It's a great beach - not a huge beach, but not overly crowded either.  And the water is really green here!

Gotta have beach snacks!

We also enjoyed watching the (thankfully) distant rainstorms that were down toward Clearwater and Hurricane Pass. Interesting story about Hurricane Pass - the island you see across the water is Caladesi Island.  Honeymoon and Caladesi used to be connected, but a hurricane in 1921 created a break in the barrier islands (errr um, probably why you should never build structures on barrier islands).  Rumor has it that there was a casino in Indian Rocks Beach at the time that got wiped out in that hurricane!

The man loves a good dribble castle!  The sand here is very different than the whiter, softer sand down by Clearwater Beach.  This sand was much darker and we joked that it was like volcanic sand!

Well, one kid was paying attention.  And can I tell you how happy we were that Honeymoon Island had chairs and umbrellas?  This was $30 well spent.  The cooler and snacks stayed in the shade, and so did the kiddos.

Eventually she emerged from under the umbrella to look for coquinas in the sand.

And they both emerged from the umbrellas to get a little vitamin D.  I remember one time Todd and I were out to eat dinner (alone, when the kids were small) in Clearwater, and he looked at me and said, "Man, I'm so glad you didn't grow up in Schenectady!"  That has always stayed with me because a) it's funny and b) it's true because I grew up in a beautiful part of the world! (No offense to Schenectady!)

Friday evening, we met up with my amazing friends from middle/high school - Kim and Bethany - for dinner and drinks at Big Storm Brewing (I see what you did there) tap room.  Kim was thrilled to finally meet the magical unicorn, which is what she always calls Todd because he's so awesome.

My brother joined us later for a beverage and I forgot how everyone called him by his whole name when we were younger! "Hey, it's Cory Swales!"

This photo is just so funny to me - he really is a magical unicorn! (Although he always gets mad when Kim, Jessica, Tanya and I call him that!)  He doesn't think he's that special, but for my dear friends who have spouses who are terrible at marriage, he definitely stands out among the masses!

Saturday was a GREAT day, where the cousins all finally got to hang out after years of not being able to see each other!  Greta practically tackled Grant!  We even had special appearances by Aunt Sara, Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Dave!

There was charcuterie and cousin discussions to start the afternoon.

There was *gestures hands frantically* THIS.

There were hugs - wait these are my kids, what is going on here?

I think Pop Pop would be proud of his pretty girls.

And his boys too! I know Nana is!  The boys with the bluest eyes!

Grant was playing some game on his phone, probably Subway Surfers!

There was also a conga line, led by Miss Hattie, followed by Natalie, who is taller than Aunt Rhonda.  The caboose was Greta, who will be taller than Aunt Rhonda very soon!

Todd and Cory cooked a bunch of burgers and dogs for everyone - please note: it was a thousand degrees outside and Todd was enjoying one of my mom's neck fans (those aren't headphones!)  Natalie also loves her cousins very much, and memorialized it in a message for everyone!

After everyone left, the kids wanted to drive around the neighborhood on the golf cart, perhaps their favorite past time in Largo.  Thankfully the one driving at least has a learner's permit!

OK fine, you guys can go out without an adult.  Please don't run anyone over.

And there was a beautiful sunset Saturday evening!

Why does his phone look like his old iPhone 7 took it??? Well, it was cute anyway! 

And that concludes part 1 of our trip to Florida!