Sidewalk leading up to our side door of the townhouse we stayed in.
View of the bay on the back patio
Redington Shores, across the street from our place
Cameron, Susan, and Angela, 3 of my best friends!
Beautiful Florida sky!
I took this picture for Audrey
Beautiful white sands of Clearwater Beach at Pier 60
The weekend of January 27th, 2012, Cameron, Angela, Susan, and I went to St. Petersburg/Clearwater for our annual girlie trip. We had spectacular weather and enjoyed eachother's company so much! We left Friday morning and returned Monday morning. Susan took care of reserving a townhouse for us on a beautiful bay, just a short walk to the beach of Redington Shores. On Friday, we arrived around 1:30pm at the St. Pete airport. Once we got our rental car taken care of (a Kia Sorento which I enjoyed driving), we drove a short 30 minutes to our townhouse and then took a walk to check out the area. It took a little while to check in, because we couldn't find Laura, the landlord. She was there waiting for us all along apparently. Anyway, we were a little hungry, so we tried a little Beach Shack type of place where we bought hot dogs, nachos, and yummy ice cream. We hopped in the car later and bought a few snacks and drinks, then relaxed in our place for a little while. Laura lived right next door, so anything we needed we were able to walk over to her house or give her a call (like when we noticed we had no washcloths, or needed the wifi router reset). She was a nice Polish woman who seemed to enjoy taking care of her tenants. We were tempted to join her for a Polish dinner her 85 year old mother was cooking that night. We checked out Treasure Island Beach, which was the widest beach I've ever seen! Anyway, for dinner we decided to try a Thai restaurant next to our place. I was a little leery since I had never tried that type of cuisine. After trying my first dish of Pad Thai, I was hooked! We came back to the room after dinner and had a blast hanging out until early morning.
Saturday, we woke up around 8:00am ready to get our day started. It was a very tight squeeze getting into and out of the garage at the townhouse, and I think that first morning was when I accidentally ran over the bricks aligning the sidewalk/tree area. I believe Susan and Cameron took care of it so Laura would never notice. Had I been driving anything bigger, there is absolutely no way I would have been able to get into and out of there. Anyway, we had breakfast at a local place called Kenny's Korner, which serve excellent food! We purchased trolley tickets for the day and rode around from place to place. One spot we enjoyed was the Art Festival taking place on Corey Ave. It was like Court Day in Mt. Sterling, minus the guns, t-shirts, and socks. It was all craft and food items. The weather was perfect and I actually got sunburned on my arms! Angela and Susan got burned on their necks pretty bad, too. We all wore our UK shirts that day since they were playing LSU, and got quite a bit of attention, good and bad. That is our tradition to wear our UK gear if there is a game while we are on our trip. Anyway, my purchases that day included a hair thingie for Audrey, 3 types of dry mix for dips made by a local woman, and later found a "real" alligator head that I knew Jack would enjoy. We then made it to John's Pass, after waiting for the trolley (I am hoping trolley service is better in the summer months than winter because boy they were slowwww). John's Pass put me in mind to Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach. It had lots of little shops and restaurants. We decided to have dinner at a little pirate-themed place where the waitress was more than happy to give us the remote to find the UK game. There, I had a grouper sandwich and fries. We watched most of the game (since it was a blowout), then headed down the walk and found an interesting band playing some nice music. What was even nicer were the clientele, who were more than excited to dance the night away. This was one of the highlights of our trip! LOL.
Before catching the trolley that night, we had to make a potty break. Not too many people were around, and with both a men's and women's restroom, Susan said she would hop in the men's if it was available. We REALLY had to go! On the outside of the door, the lock said "vacant" instead of "occupied" (the women's was occupied), so I told Susan I would check the men's for her. Well, you guessed it, the men's restroom was indeed occupied with a man standing using the restroom! I screamed and shut the door as fast as I could. Of course the girls were rolling. We laughed so much we cried, and we couldn't really walk off and escape because we were already busted by the guy's friends who were waiting on him (and I still don't get why they didn't stop me from opening the door, maybe I was too fast). Anyway, the guy took it lightly and we all had a big laugh out of it. Luckily I didn't see anything. We then took a trolley ride back to the room (of which we had to wait about 45 minutes for it to arrive so that was our ongoing joke on whether we'd see a trolley coming/going). We stayed up late that night, but not as late as the night before.
So, the next day, Sunday, I decided to drive us in the rental Kia, since we actually paid for it and did not want to do the trolley again. We drove down to the Frog Pond for breakfast, and it was delicious. Tony's friend had recommended it to us, who visits his family there in St. Pete frequently. The place was packed, which is always a good sign. We stopped at a couple of stores where we got some souvenirs, then drove to Clearwater Beach. We had to pay $10 to park, since the regular public lot was full. The area was packed because the weather was once again so pretty. Clearwater has the most beautiful white powder sand I have ever seen. The area was really nice and we enjoyed walking on the pier while people fished, and looking at the birds. We walked around some more, trying to find a spa to get a massage, but we had no luck in finding a place available on Sunday. We drove over to the aquarium, where the dolphin who lost his tail was featured, in the movie Dolphin Tale, but decided it didn't seem worth paying $18 or more when the place didn't look as nice as some of the aquariums we've been to before like Gatlinburg and Newport. So, we made reservations at a place to get a pedicure. Once we realized the place was 30 minutes away, we decided to look for someone closer and found the perfect place called Diva Nails. We all enjoyed our pedicure spa. However, I forgot to call the other place and cancelled, and later they called me back, but I didn't answer! Oops. We made dinner reservations at Salt Rock Grille for 5:45 so we had about 45 minutes to kill. We drove down the island as far as we could without being late for dinner, but didn't make it to Pass-a-Grille which is supposed to be a neat place. We turned around, ate a wonderful dinner (we shared tuna shasimi for an appetizer, my first and it was delicious, as well as calamari, and I had king crab legs and roasted garlic mashed potatoes, then creme brulee for dessert), and then went back to the room. We talked, watched a little tv, then turned in for the night since we had to get up so early the next morning to head back to freezing Lexington.
So, at 6am, we were all up getting ready for our 8:40am flight and packing for home I made it back home to Mt. Sterling around 12:30 and could not wait to see Tony and my babies. We had so much fun on this trip and I really wish each of my friends had the opportunity like I did to go on a trip like this. It was a much needed break to get rejuvenated and come back home to be a better wife and mother. I so much appreciate Tony's willingness to take off work, only to take care of our kiddos so I can get this break that he really deserves more than I do. Some people may be critical of me going on a trip without my family. But I know with my break, it only helps me get through this awful winter and be a better mom that my kids need me to be. And, my family and I do get to go on vacations together, too. I am hoping that one day I can take my family down to the Clearwater area, and enjoy the sights that I got to see with three of my best friends!
