2012 Vacation Get Away

Hello Hello All!

What began as an amusement park summer road trip, our family vacation this year whittled down to a 4 day stay on the left coast at the Sheraton Sand Key Hotel in Clearwater, FL.

Since TD (or TS) Debby had come and gone the week prior, we were hoping for super sunshiney weather.  Well, that lasted the first day!  Luckily, we had plenty of back up fun just waiting for us!

After arriving on Sunday, we promptly hit the beach.  The water was crazy warm & a bit rough considering it's the Gulf.

Our first night's sunset view from our room.

The hotel has this long stretch of beach before reaching the water.  It was nice that there weren't as many people here as were closer to the pier.  Although we missed that soft, white sand.

Here are our ladies... all crammed in one bed!

So it rained & poured and stormed the first night.  We woke to this view.

All that pretty excess beach is now waterfront property!
They didn't get it totally drained by Thursday, either!

So, for our next rainy day, we decided to hit the Zoo!  The Lowery Zoo in Tampa is the top rated Zoo in the nation by Parent's Magazine.  Our family loves a good zoo & this one was not disappointing!  I won't bog you down with 47 pics of animals, but I will include some that stood out above the rest!

Bring on the animals!

We took in a few rides in between the animal sightings.  We came up on the flume ride.  The older folks weren't ready to get wet (however, in retrospect, a little cooling off would've been nice!)  I had a hard time letting them go by themselves... I know I know... but still.  It was all fine until V decided to go too!  Here they go!

And here they are for the big drop!

Here we are at the carousel... not sure why they love this so much, but it's hard for the little ladies to pass up a good merry-go-round!

The ride operator made Manda buckle up... it was funny!

Here's Dad & Linds!

V is ready to go!

We took a little African Safari train ride & continued on...

This guy was ready for his close up!

It was cool watching this big guy walk around.
When he decided to eat his poo, we decided to go, before the poo hit the fan (or us!)

So while it continued to rain on our beach parade we took another day trip to the Florida Aquarium!

The Aquarium was nice and cool!  Quite the departure from the steamy Zoo the day before!

Who doesn't love a cute otter?

Dad's favorite!  The Goliath Grouper. 
They can get as big as 800 lbs.
This one weighs in around 200 lbs.

The touch tank... a cool 52 degrees.

Aww!



We're gonna need a bigger boat!

Our favorite seahorse

V getting her groove on!

After the Aquarium, we walked over to the SS American Victory.  One of only four fully operational WWII ships in the country!  In retrospect, we should have toured this ship prior to the aquarium, since it was hot as h-e-double hockey sticks in there!  We toured the Boat Deck, Cabin Deck & Bridge Deck.  It was very interesting.  Amanda was miffed at the Captain's Quarters compared to the other crew cabins.  She didn't think that was fair.  Ha Ha

We're here!

The interior of the ship holds a museum.
Included were lifeboats, models, documents, uniforms,
water rations, knot tying, marine flags & such.
We really wished it wasn't so hot so we could stop and view it all.

This ship served in WWI, Korea & Vietnam.

Leave it to Manda to realize why they call it a "crow's nest" when she saw the crows up there!

Incoming!!!

The higher the deck, the higher my vertigo!

Ahoy Matey!

We saw this & realized it was time to get the heck out of Dodge!

On Thursday we headed home.  Isn't it funny how you never have quite enough room for the stuff you buy while on vacation?  Especially when someone forgets to pack certain things... ahem... (me!).  We loaded up Vanna & decided to take the scenic route home.  Yes, we are geeky enough to drive extra so we could show the girls the Sunshine Skyway! 

Almost there!

Our approach

Manda snapping pics of the back view!

Love the shadows cast here.

Ahh, Terra firma!

Cutie

Hambone

Pop Tart

Well, that's it for our vaca!  After getting home we prepped for Lindsey's Bday weekend.  All in all, it was a great week to get away, rain or shine, we had tons of fun!  If you made it this far, I appreciate it!

Catch y'all next time!
<3