Weekend Getaway

After three long years, we finally went on a holiday getaway. I was so excited, even if it was just a couple of days. The weather was supposed to be nice, but since the forecast kept changing, I looked for rainy day alternatives, just in case. We made our hotel reservation, packed up the kids and went on our merry way. We wanted to go to Clearwater Beach, but we couldn’t find hotel availability so we settled for Tampa and stayed at Harbour Island. Since, we got there before check in time, we headed straight for the beach.

I love the beach! I have always loved the beach. I see it as such a relaxing getaway. It’s a place where I forget all my problems and re-charge my batteries. I quickly realized that from now on, the beach would be fun for the kids and that I would have to find my fun through them. Since it was a bit late in the day, I didn’t change into my suit. Besides, I would be looking after Maya. I changed Jayden and gave him his beach toys. He had fun digging into the sand and dumping the sand onto the beach blanket.
He quickly discovered that the water was cold and as much as Daddy tried to lure him to the shore, Jayden wasn’t going for it. Smart boy! Then he discovered the sea gulls. He went straight for them. I had to think of Rio chasing the squirrels. Did they really think they would catch them? They have fun trying though.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel. We got lost. Twice. How frustrating is that. First, Esteban got off on the wrong exit and before you knew it we were on a whole new highway, a toll road at that. Then when we finally got back on track, we figured out the directions were wrong. We really wanted to just give up and go back home, but hung in there. After we got there and got settled, we headed out for dinner. It felt extremely odd to be going out at the time that I normally put Jayden down for bed, but isn’t that what vacations are for? That’s what I thought.
We got a ride from the bellman to Channelside Bay Plaza and had a fun dinner at Hooters. Jayden was loud and carried on, but no worries. We fit in just fine. As for Maya, she slept through dinner. It was great. Afterwards, we decided to walk back to the hotel, since it was just a mile away. It was a beautiful night and the walk did us good. The view was incredible too. Too bad, I didn’t think to take a picture of the bay.

The next day, we began our day by going out to look for breakfast. We decided to take a trolley ride and with Rachel Ray in mind on $40 a Day, I did what she always says. Ask the locals. The trolley driver told us to visit Hyde Park and dropped us off by the convention center where we could catch a connecting trolley. Only thing was that we waited and waited and trolley #98 never came. We later found out that it didn’t start running until 11:30a.m. So we boarded trolley #96 again and asked the driver. He dropped us off in Downtown Tampa and we walked for a long while, unable to find a breakfast joint. Finally, I work up the nerve to ask the locals yet again and the lady assured me there were tons of places including one behind the CVS. When we got there, it was a deli and you could barely call what they served breakfast but with no other alternatives, we decided to go for it and then ride #96 back to the hotel.

Here's Jayden getting ready for breakfast:




Here's Maya all dressed up and no place to go:

Here's an odd picture of us:

Here's Jayden patiently waiting for the trolley:

Finally, we are aboard the trolley!

The weather was very cloudy and it was starting to drizzle. It was already close to 11am and too late to go to the aquarium, which was my original rainy day plan. I remembered when we checked in, they said the pool was on the third floor. Maybe we lucked out and it was an indoor pool. We took the elevator to the third floor and followed the signs which led us to another elevator which took us to the pool which was outdoors and was not heated. We headed back to our room with long faces to change for the pool, but decided no sense in staying just cause. Let’s just go home. So we got an early check out, packed up the kids and left.

We made last minute alternate plans and ended up in Saint Augustine, visiting my cousin Cathy. We got there fairly early and had a great drive despite the rainy weather. We had dinner, socialized, and even caught a movie. Unfortunately, Jayden woke up startled and cried for a good hour. I finally got him settled and went to bed myself. The following morning, we had breakfast and hit the road. It took a bit longer to get home, having to stop a couple of times for Maya, but on the way home I told Esteban, “It turned out to be a good weekend after all.”